**** India v England 3rd test, official thread ****

Batting under lights might be an advantage fir England

never understood the need for these quick panic singles in a 5 day test(ok extended ODI in this instance) which often result in a runout

Lazarus will have to take a back seat if England manage to pull this off

A nice cheerful advert
GP How long have you had this cough?
Me Approximately 43 years.

pathetic

Not sure about that on snicko.

Is it really that hard to know if you have hit it? Another pointless review lost.

it was a strange blip on snicko.

yep, that's not a conventional graph for a nick but maybe he's got a **** bat

Good bowling but terrible batting.

We have rabbits at both ends of the card.

And a pointless review because you are a bit miffed. Shambles.

Get off the strike!

Yeah looked at it again, I think it's hit the side of the bat as opposed to the edge, hence a "duller" blip.

Stupid

Single off the last ball and now he has to face Ashwin

Think!

Stupid!

Good luck bad luck

Stokes has come out with intent

Yeah he has, in theory Stokes against Ashwin isn't a good match up for England, but I quite like this putting him under pressure.

Runs out so much pressure on the bowlers

The only way to play once you have had a sighter. Nobody is going to last more than 5 overs or so just defending.

just nicked a few bob Stokes o 20.5

One day mode

10 off the over!

Tension on this

Bat first

not hitting the bat deceptive

if he'd hit it would have reviewed immediately

Is he getting away with this?

hes out in my opinion but its not clear from the pictures so shouldn't be given

wow!!!!

got a life there

You cannot call that biased!

slightly ironic as he was mouthing he hadn't hit it

bit of an optical illusion there..imho didn't hit the b at

Should not have been given ou5 and should not hav3 been reprieved!

Good luck bad luck

The luck is now with Engkand

England missing a trick here. Betters are facing the sting bowlers.

Need to rotate off the strike

just flicked the edge of the pad first imo but fair enough decision with that graph and visuals

for a few seconds

Ffs Stokes

Don’t  skip off the wicket, run down it!

whatever happened to hot spot

Again single off th3 last ball to face the left armer!

India don’t do hotspot

3rd Umpire has no grounds to overturn the lbw

Review

All the fun of the fair, that missing??

Should have review. broad will waste it anyway!

Stokes should not have been facing Ashwin!

The last 2 day test that featured England was Headingley 2000, I was driving back from Scarboro and listening to it on the radio.

Pope is like a fish out of water here

these 2 day tests are the way to go..i'm a convert

Could do with a GrantCKing 5 here

quite a handy 12 that in the context of this game

Archer runs under/over 6.5 for me.

England 2 runs off a monumental win here

Here is an unpopular opinion - I suspect India are a bit short here.

the speccy Lara showing how it's done 

Got to think we couldnt of done any worse just going into t20 mode from the off on a pitch thats got a ball with your name on it within 5 overs anyway.

would at least put the wind up those close catchers

Just think the ECB pay this shower around £750k per annum plus appearance fees. Money for old rope.

In fairness I think that Foakes aside we have basically been in T20 mode.

Root played very aggressively, Pope and Archer had a dip, Leach has danced down the pitch more than I have ever seen him and Stokes played a shot a ball. You could probably say that Bairstow played more than a shot a ball. Two balls faced, about four shots played.

If Stokes plays a shot a ball, he doesn't have 25 from 34 and he doesn't get out defending.

deja vu

over again

Broad fuming, no reviews left!

quite a handy 8 in the context of the game

why is Root not declaring?We've got more than enough runs

Game over once Stokes was out.

Didn't matter on this pitch but England shouldn't go into another match with someone as bad as Archer at number 8. That's an all rounders spot for an average of 25. Archer is lucky to last 25 balls on any pitch.

England price of 130 seems a bit big given the events of the match so far.

Exciting stuff but the next three days are not going to be that exciting.

However bad the batting test matches shouldn't be over in two days.

can't bat more than twice per the rules..it is what it is

do the icc still do anything about substandard pitches ?  - for all England's lack of ability to play spin you could build sandcastles outside off stump to the lefties and we haven't even finished day 2... do think the pink ball seems to have played a part though, whether the finish of it just means balls slide straight on more than you'd expect as has been suggested or maybe it's harder to see the seam and therefore anticipate the sliders

match officials carving up the session runs markets today

The boundary riders are very wise positions here. If we keep them quiet early doors we may cling on for the draw.

The main defence of the last pitch was "we" batted ok on it, fair enough but here you've got a part-time offie getting his career best figures and a long and skilled Indian batting line up getting spun out on day 1/2 in 53.2 overs.. Pink ball may well have been a factor.

17 wkts in the 1st 2 sessions of a test?

if that's not a record it's gotta be close.

A test match not even lasting a day and half

Fooking pathetic lets be honest

And I can't wait for the media to lambast us as a shambles, "what went wrong", "is this worst touring side ever?"

2 weeks ago it was "greatest test side we've ever had?"

As usual its ridiculous

Barely got to lunch on day 2

Whatever is said that's utterly disgraceful for top level sportsman

And the best part about it is after winning the 1st test they changed half the side

From Twitter: 

If India score the 49 they need in under 12.4 overs
(including the two already bowled),
this will be the shortest completed Test
since the Second World War.

Saw that poppy

Its nothing to shout home about, a combination of a poor standard pitch and utterly inept batsman

Aren't these the best two test sides in the world ?

India haven't been great batting wise either, 145 all out wasn't exactly a performance for the ages

good stuff poppy - was looking at shortest test matches, for anyone interested the shortest ever apparently was the following

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/south-africa-tour-of-australia-1931-32-61828/australia-vs-south-africa-5th-test-62602/full-scorecard

Poppydog. 25 Feb 21 14:48 
From Twitter:

If India score the 49 they need in under 12.4 overs
(including the two already bowled),
this will be the shortest completed Test
since the Second World War.

don't mention the war

New Zealand above Eng for me not just on the tables for rankings and test championship which can be a little artificial, Oz at least are equal as well

not to mention Scotland and Zimbabwe

don't be like that johnny

Yeah I too being an anorak was looking at that list.

brentford 25 Feb 21 15:05 
don't be like that johnny Sad

gotta face facts,innit

it's oxymoronic actually..these players today fulltime pros,yet,if anything all these test sides have a proclivity to catacysmic collapses that happen more frequently then when it was a gentleman's game

i just wonder..i know it's a hypothetical scenario and you can't turn the clock back 48 hrs

but were this test to begin again i reckon there would be more runs on the board

Rohit seems to agree though I think you'd have to say this session seems to be the best one to bat maybe not surprisingly on such a dusty one

Is that one of the very shortest Test matches in history in terms of overs bowled?

Anyone?

Shortest completed since 1935 says Persad on C4

England were pretty awful it has to be said

Moen Ali plays one test out of four!

How does one get a high paid job with England? How stupid do I have to be?

Good crack if you can get it eh

Genius!

I feel sorry for Johnny Bstard! Looked so good in SL then gets sent back to Yorkshire!

Dan Lawrence deserved a chance and Pope who I really like looked sheite. Who got selected? Lawrence shoulda batted at 3 and Bstard at 6. Bess instead of Broad as Moen had already been fooked orf!

Everything was going fine until Kohli spoke up after the 1st test demanding that he did not want any more pitches like the 1st test and a return to the spin friendly wickets however the groundsmen have totally gone way overboard with the wickets prepared in last 2 test matches ,far too dry with excessive spin on the 1st days and not conducive to test cricket, ICC grow a pair and and challenge the BCCI after the conclusion of this series regarding the unsuitability of these last 2 pitches for test cricket, however India IMO a far better cricket team than England wherever they play.

tomtimtum 24 Feb 21 09:34 Joined: 07 Sep 10 | Topic/replies: 65,988 | Blogger: tomtimtum's blog
big win coming for Engerland!

Nice to see you make an early call, fence sitting is so painful...

england have been less than ordinary in the last 2 tests ... plenty of ball almost unplayable but they haven't learned anything & the spinning ball is like a foreign object ... i doubt anything will change in the final test  ..  no doubt in our summer it will be forgotten about but we have the ashes later this year ... it will be completely different in terms of playing conditions but I think we will struggle again out there ... you need to make plenty of runs on those quick wickets but I still see a lot of ordinary batsmen & capitulation is always likely ... we have plenty of young players but i doubt many will make the grade at the top level ... that said who else is out there in county cricket to draft in

what would the great sir geoffrey have said about this on tms, i wonder

England really shot themselves in both feet. Two opportunities to build match winning scores and they fluffed their lines.

The composition of the side is a mess. I might be prepared to accept the covid argument but I do not want to. I am not calling for heads to roll just an admission that they got it horribly wrong.

This was a really important Test Series and they have been completely out manoeuvred. Form and time in the middle is crucial. This is not some leftie social club where everyone should get a game and it doesn't matter who wins!

Don't know where to start. Why play 4 seamers? If Bess is not good enough why was he picked to tour? The handling of Moen verges from negligent to criminal. Pope looked shot to me before the game. Lawrence looked like he had the aptitude to progress. Bstard should never have been made to bat 3 and should have been around to net.

I don't care what anyone says about the pitch it was an amazing crazy Test Match and at times it was breathless. I think India have done themselves a disservice with he pitch but it was the same pitch for both sides. What are A Tours for? England have the money to send young cricketers to a country for a month or to to learn.