An interesting day, left intriguingly poised. England only need two meaningful late-order partnerships to achieve a lead. Prior is due runs, and there is still Stokes to come. But India, who won’t bat last, require just two quick wickets to invert the equation. Is Alastair Cook too easy a target for opprobrium after failing again this morning? For all the talk of “fringe idiots” with an “agenda”, let’s consider today’s thoughts from that...
Everything’s Gone Green – Day One at Lord’s
It’s the second test of a five match series, and it’s already a game too far for England’s bowlers. It doesn’t bode well. Despite being presented with a perfect pitch for seam bowling – ‘swamp green’ would be my description – our jaded pacemen laboured like lumbering lamas and totally fluffed their lines. Broad and Plunkett were particularly woeful. The fact that Moeen Ali was the most reliable bowler (a spinner, on a green-top) says it all. When we arrived at Lord’s it was tricky...
Another Dustup in the Offing – Lord’s Preview
Oh dear. What a shame that the build up to this test match has been soured by the charges against Jimmy Anderson. Why can’t teams get along? We had the ultra-aggressive Aussies in the Ashes, bad feeling throughout the Sri Lanka series, and now this. The players are behaving like school kids: we’ve had Jimmy pumping his chest out (I have no idea whether he’s guilty but his on-field demeanour often seems aggressive), and then we have India acting like classic passive-aggressives...
Collier Out, Boring Stalemates In – Day five at Trent Bridge
So it all ended in a dry, tedious squib. We couldn’t quite press home our slim overnight advantage and the first test ended in a stalemate. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it one last time: it was a desperately poor, depressing pitch. It should never happen again, but it probably will. The pitch was pretty much a disaster for England. Having lost the toss, our bowlers spent over three days toiling in the field. India spent half that amount. If Dhoni wins the toss at Lord’s later this week, the...
A twist in the tail: day four at Trent Bridge
Cricket has a knack of delivering an anti-climax at the most inopportune moments. Everything about the build-up to this match legislated for a resolution of tension and hype. Alastair Cook was under immense pressure. England were desperate for an commandingly orthodox test victory. MS Dhoni and his tourists has their own questions to answer. And Andrew Strauss’s vocabulary malfunction had ratcheted the tension levels to near breaking-point. This was supposed to have been the match in...
Collapso cricket: day three at Trent Bridge
This has turned into the battle of the last-wicket partnerships. And while England’s disastrous middle-order collapse is likely to dominate the headlines, the counter-attack begun by Broad, and then continued by Root and Anderson, have repaired a substantial amount of the damage. England can still win this match. If the deficit can be reduced to around seventy, it will be India who’ll feel under pressure in the third innings. Were England to bowl them out for 250 – not...
