I told you this would be easy. Ahem. After all the pre-series hype, when some doom and gloom merchants predicted we’d lose 0-5, today has come as a pleasant surprise. The sky hasn’t fallen in, not yet anyway, and England find themselves in a pretty useful position at 311-4.
So where did it all go so right? There are two main reasons. Firstly this pitch looks good for batting. There was a bit of movement early on but things soon settled down. We certainly didn’t see any extravagant turn and that definitely played into England’s hands – as did winning the toss.
The second reason, of course, is that England batted very well. Joe Root played a superb innings – he’s not bad, is he! – and Moeen Ali also looked very good indeed. Mo seems to be justifying his place as a top five batsman and I hope he can ‘go big’ (don’t you just love / hate modern cricketing cliches) tomorrow.
I should also mention young Haseeb Hameed. Where has he been? Apart from at school that is.
Hameed showed a lot of maturity and actually looked far more composed than Cook, who was uncharacteristically all at sea. I really hope the skipper isn’t going to suffer one of his prolonged periods of poor form on this tour. Now isn’t the time to start struggling with one’s technique.
The day might have been even better for England had Joe Root not been given ‘caught’ and bowled by Yadav. It was a controversial decision that certainly got people talking. It looked not out in full speed but probably out in slow motion. Yadav didn’t help himself by desperately trying to catch the ball once it juggled beyond his reach.
Because the soft decision was ‘out’ there wasn’t enough evidence for the third umpire to overrule the on-field umpires. I guess it was one of those 50:50 calls that the officials desperately hope to avoid. What did you think?
I’ve watched enough cricket over the years (well, I’ve watched England enough anyway) to know that this game is far from in the bag yet. However, we’re in a really good position overnight. If we can stretch the innings to 500+, which isn’t inconceivable given the conditions and our long batting line-up, we should be able to put India under pressure.
Having said that, would anyone really be surprised if England get shot out for 400 before lunch tomorrow and India end the day on 230-1? I wouldn’t. And if the worst really comes to the worst, we can always blame the Mexicans, right.
James Morgan
The “soft signal” on the Root decision was “out” – just a typo, I suspect, James.
I would normally have been happy that it was out, were it not for the fact that slow motion showed that the bowler had caught it between his wrists rather than in his hands, so was less convincingly in control of the ball. Still, I don’t think that the decision was a very poor one.
Yes duh! Thanks for pointing that out. I’ve amended above.
I also thought he’d caught the ball with his wrists but I think he did get two hands to it eventually.
Root didn’t seem too concerned about the catch (‘shouldn’t have played that shot’) so I can’t get worked up about it either.
A fine effort given that I had the sinking feeling when the 3rd wicket went down just before lunch and thinking a collapse to little more than 200 was on the cards.
In the blogging/forum sphere there has been much discussion over the lack of converted 50s from Root in the last 18 months so it was good to see him convert a score into a 100 and he will be disappointed, debatable catch or not, not to have made it a big hundred.
I’ve also been keen on seeing Moeen bat in the middle order after his obvious comfort in facing spin during the Pakistan home series against Yasir. I’m glad to see that carry on and I really hope that he too can not only get his ton, but go well past it so that England do put a commanding score on the board. They will need to, to put India under pressure and give the bowlers the platform that they will need.
Oh and anothe quick word, I wanted to mention Hameed. Sure he has a fair bit of potential but I can’t get the feeling that he’s received a fair bit of hype for a score of 31 only. Some of the reaction in the press is a bit crazy. I hope that there isn’t.
Isn’t … what ?
You are right, though. While he has remarkable composure for his age, someone else did rather better on debut in India…
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/239025.html
Too much hyperbole.
I was in India for the 3rd test of the 2006 series and was at the Mumbai match where he was ill and I heard Sir Geoffrey mention to the travelling fans that they had better strap their pads on. I suggested back that he would have still been a better bet……………
Great to see Moeen getting good runs. I’ve questioned whether 5 is too high, but on nice batting wickets against a predominantly spin attack its probably perfect for him as he is one of the better players of spin.
Only seen brief highlights of Hameed but he gave a chance on 13 so it seems a bit OTT to me, reminds me of the Aussies reaction to Kawaja’s 30 odd at the SCG a few years back.
As for tomorrow. I’d take 450 now.
I think India will probably go big on this pitch if they get through the new ball. 450+ would be great but I think we may need a few more if we want to force a win.
New ball first up which caused a heap of problems this morning. I expect it to take 1 if not 2 wickets.
This may ( and probably will) come back to bite me but I don’t think India’s batting line up is all that. We have 450 on the board and even with Kohli & Pujara in the line up that’s a long way away.
Well, we’ve got the 500+ runs. Now let’s see what India are made of. Scoreboard pressure and all that.
I also believe their batting isn’t as good as the media say but it is a road
All depends if the pitch starts to crack in the heat.
A bit like the local roads in fact!
Don’t think the seamers bowled quite well enough. Perhaps with Stokes back tomorrow morning there might be a bit more incision, but otherwise there might be a little bit too much reliance on the twirly-men which may not be that good a thing.
Root and mo batted really well, was nice to watch.
India have shot themselves in the foot by not producing a spinning wicket.. this one gives England a chance as its so flat