UKC

captain Cook has his half tonne in the bag & the pitch is fair tame - we *should* have the advantage over India at the moment - Compton is doing ok and we have a score of 74 - 0 ...


...what can go wrong captain grey cloud .... ;0)

In reply to Simon:

113-0 constitutes a cracking start in my book. The lead just shy of 200 and we still have all wickets in hand to build a good total.

Don't want to get ahead of myself, but a win here would be massive.

Cook to break the record y 9am?

In reply to Simon:

Cook becomes the youngest player to reach 7000 runs. As he did so his test average became 50.00 exactly - nice bit of mathematical balance!

In reply to Simon:
Ton-up for Cook, and 50 for Compton but then he's out

175-1 is a pretty good start, let's hope Trott can find his form, and England can get a three figure lead

In reply to Chris the Tall:

I would imagine that 400 is the minimum we can be targetting here. Hopefully KP will put in another imperious performance and get us even further.

Chuffed for Cookie - he sets such a great standard and an example as Captain.

In reply to Chris the Tall:

England should easily get a 3 figure lead but that alone might not be enough. I think they would really want to be 200 ahead to force home the advantage.

I agree it would be good if Mr Trott clicked into his best again, and Ian Bell for that matter.

In reply to Simon:

I'm a big fan of Bell actually. He got a lot of stick a few years back but stuck to the task and has done a good job more recently.

End of day 2 coming up, and we absolutely would have taken this position at the start of the test/day. To get up over 500 would be a dream and leave us a couple of days to win it!

In reply to Simon:
We do look good and if we can get a lead of 150 we should win. The pitch will probably start to break up on day 4 too......Really pleased for Compton, fingers crossed for Trott and Cook and KP are gods......Anderson did great too.
Note to England selectors: It's well worth playing 2 spinners on pitches that take spin !

In reply to Simon:

I really like the way that Cook rarely scores a hundred then gets out soon afterwards. He's happy to bat and bat and bat...

Will some one please deal with Geoffrey Boycott?

He is insufferable when England are playing crap but when they are playing well he reaches a whole new level of smug, arrogant, tosser, chip-on-shoulder, better-in-my-day Yorkshireman.

Alan

In reply to Alan James - Rockfax: Well not bad, but what happened to the run rate in the last 10 overs? They are going to need to speed up again tomorrow or this game could be heading for a draw!

In reply to Alan James - Rockfax: Generally I like Geoffrey, but in the evening session he was very smug and derisive of India.

Great position for England though.

In reply to Alan James - Rockfax:

Alan, as a Yorkshireman I cannot agree with you.

You great jessie!

In reply to I like climbing:


That is provided your front line seamers put in a shift - which they did today and yesterday. Good to see Steven Finn get a wicket - I really rate him as someone with the ability to bowl a 'shock ball' in the way Harmison did but with better control.

In reply to Rampikino:

I'm a big fan of Bell too, but he really should be getting more big hundreds with his ability.

In reply to GrahamD:

Agreed - his conversion rate isn't good.

In reply to walking_disaster: I used to be a fan of old Geoffery, but recently I find him increasingly annoying. Especially when he felt the need to point out he had actually got 23 hundreds for England, just one against ROW (a non ICC game). Just let cook have his glory! He's just better than you !

In reply to ianstevens:

Aye boot these deays it's all abawt roonin oop the roons. On them wickits, it's dead easy. My granny could score on that track wi a stick o' roobarb.

You cann't win a crickit match weeout scorin' more roons than the oother side.

In reply to Tim Chappell: Oh come now.

If sporting comentators, mainly retired sportsmen who are under the illusion that now they can no longer play they can comment with profound insight, aren't allowed to make stupid amounts of money by portentously stating the blindingly obvious, where would we be?

In reply to GrahamD:
Good to see Steven Finn get a wicket - I really rate him as someone with the ability to bowl a 'shock ball' in the way Harmison did but with better control.

I agree. Good that Finn got picked.

In reply to Alan James - Rockfax:

In reply to Simon:

381-3 at tea on the 3rd day. Hopefully we can push well past 500 and have enough time to knock them over

In reply to Rampikino: 509 for 6 at stumps, lead of 193. When do we declare?

In reply to Graeme Alderson: As soon as Prior or Swann is out, you won't get much out of the rest of them and may as well give ourselves more time to bowl them out.

In reply to Al Evans:
No need to declare before lunch and another hundred on the tally wouldn't go amiss. Use the pressure of the scoreboard and the knowledge that even if India bat for 4 sessions they still would be unlikely to get a draw.

Plus, I know Anderson, Finn and Monty are unlikely to get more than a few runs each, but surely it's useful for a bowler to get a few overs in the middle to see what the ball is doing

In reply to Chris the Tall:

I'm with you, there's no point declaring when there is so much time left to go. We should be aiming for 600 - 650 before declaring. Jimmy is a better batsman than he gets credit for too.

Although Monty is poor, showed in Cardiff he can put the blockers down but he wont score so not much point leaving him in for long!

Great to see us doing well on the continent, although from what I've seen it is as much India playing badly as it is us playing well!

Oh and Cook is an absolute hero, his batting is another class and so far I'm impressed by his captaincy. All bodes well for the next few years if you ask me.

My only question is why Patel keeps making the squad, I quite like him but he just doesn't have to numbers to back selection for me?

Chris

In reply to PebblePusher:

My biggest dissapointment is that Bell didn't do better but then I suppose its a big ask just returning after having a baby (his wife, obviously).

Number 6 is a bit of a weakness in this side really. Prior gets some good runs but hes a far more effective 7.

In reply to PebblePusher:


I assumed Patel was in for his spin bowling as much as his batting, but with Monty and Swann going so well he's not been called upon much

In reply to Chris the Tall:


I think people forget that Samit is high quality middle-order batsman for Notts and could be for England. Forget his bowling, he's there because he's a good player of spin and he earned his place with plenty of runs in the tour games (albeit against fairly ordinary bowling).

In reply to walking_disaster: 239-p, lead of 32 with a whole day left, surely even Al senses the victory

In reply to Graeme Alderson: They really would have to be the worlds best to snatch defeat from victory now.

In reply to Al Evans:

Wrapped up in good style. I'd dread to think what might of happened without the 200 run plus lead though !