England v India 1st Test

[swee'pea99]

Special mention for Stokes: for a player with such an explosive style, he's really done the hard work well with impressive amounts of application.

Banal and obvious no doubt, but Stokes reminds me of Flintoff - that rare Englishman who must strike genuine fear into the heart of colonials everywhere.

 

[User482]

Slightly OT, but does Australia's delight at winning a dead rubber remind anyone of 1990s England?

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

Banal and obvious no doubt, but Stokes reminds me of Flintoff - that rare Englishman who must strike genuine fear into the heart of colonials everywhere.

Stokes coming out to bat

 

[psmiffy]

England well under the cosh - however ive rather enjoyed watching the Indians spinners operating - class

 

[AndyRM]

England well under the cosh - however ive rather enjoyed watching the Indians spinners operating - class

This is both true and frustrating. Why nobody in England has thought "Shall we have a crack at playing/bowling spin chaps?" at any point is beyond me. It's been a huge weakness for England for decades.

 

[psmiffy]

Trouble is - I think you can spend hours,weeks, months and maybe years in the nets learning technique and become quite competent - to be actually a master of it requires pitting yourselves against the best in their conditions - watching Ashwin and Jadeja tightening the screws this morning was a masterclass

 

[User482]

This is both true and frustrating. Why nobody in England has thought "Shall we have a crack at playing/bowling spin chaps?" at any point is beyond me. It's been a huge weakness for England for decades.

You could say the same about Indian batsmen and their weaknesses against swing bowling.

Anyway, nice to see Stokes get a Michelle.

 

[nickyboy]

You could say the same about Indian batsmen and their weaknesses against swing bowling.

Anyway, nice to see Stokes get a Michelle.

You're going to have to help me here

 

[User482]

You're going to have to help me here

Pfeiffer.

 

[Dayvo]

How wrong could I be? Not only have they had to bat again but have even lost wickets

I doubt they'll be too devastated, or hold an inquiry into the 'poor' performance.

 

[Dayvo]

A new Indian spice for the England market: Mohali Stuffing - guaranteed to NOT give you the runs.

 

[User482]

Well, if you keep conceding 100+ runs on first innings, the result is fairly predictable...

 

[Dayvo]

England will bemoan the fact that they are playing on Indian wickets against devilishly difficult spinners (although they won the series in India four years ago), yet can't manage a decent score when they win the toss and bat first on a good track.

In a year's time, they'll be saying the same thing that they are playing on fast and bouncy wickets in Australia blah blah blah.

Maybe they should just stick to playing New Zealand every summer and winter.

 

[psmiffy]

(although they won the series in India four years ago)

I seem to recall that England played two fairly decent spinners - one who was world class and the other at the time test class

 

[jarlrmai]

Panesar and Swann, both a cut above what we have now in terms of spinners they more than matched the Indian spinners and Anderson also bowled well.