This test poses a lot of questions in my mind. What happened to the England bowling attack, almost all the known stars are gone now.


is England going to lose a test series to India at home??? it looks very much on the cards with India needing to make just 20 more runs and then declare... England cant suffer out more than 350 in their second innings anyways.

Ominous signs

__________________

The England attack is going from strength to strength: sure, India are on top in this Test.... but the reason has been excellent batting and some good fortune in the face of a truly impressive bowling performance. Sidebottom has been superb demonstrating the advantages of experience, Tremlett has been a revelation and despite occasionally trying too hard and making life more complicated than it should be (trying to set batsmen up for a variation rather than just applying pressure by consistently making batsmen play) Anderson has re-emerged as a the threat the management always wanted him to be.

One commentator suggested that Tremlett would one day bowl far worse than he did today and walk of with a 5-fer... ensuring Harmison was not missed... and Sidebottom and Anderson bowled at a level that would not have been significantly bettered by (say) Hoggard and Flintoff. All commentators seem agreed that the attack has been the best since the Ashes of 2005

What's going to be interesting is seeing if England can now save this match: the bowlers have, compared with the scatter-gun attacks of previous series, given the captain a lot of control... and should they continue to at least contain INdia then the latter will need a few sessions to build a potentially match-winning 1st innings lead... but the England batsmen will still need to manage 6 sessions on a 4th/5th day wicket.

ps. Check out Cricinfo - What's luck got to do with it?

I have been critical of Tremlett and Anderson but so far in this series they have proved me wrong,i hope it continues for a long time too.

We bowled well today but India batted and battled extremely well.We need to bowl just as well tomorrow or the game will be way out of reach if it isn't already.

I thought we bowled well but Vaughan's field placings didn't help the bowlers.

Until now the Indian batsmen have supported the Indian bowlers. A lot will depend on the Indian batting continuing the good work, Tendulkar in particular on the third morning. The fate of the test match will be decided by the first or possibly the first two sessions.

If India can add another 350 today, the rest should not be too difficult.

__________________
My computer can beat me at chess.....but its no match for me at kick boxing.

A lead of 140 now.....7 wickets in hand.

__________________
My computer can beat me at chess.....but its no match for me at kick boxing.

Tendulkar triggered out by a really poor decision; I'm not surprised he hung about. To add insult to injury he'll probably get fined aswell.

How many more poor decisions will Tendulkar get in his career?

__________________
My computer can beat me at chess.....but its no match for me at kick boxing.

Declare when? Leave England 1 hour tonight? I think thats the best bet. It means bowlers will be fresh for the morning.

__________________
"Checkout the big brain on Brett" Pulp Fiction