4th test

[Taffy on the wing]

4th test……..looking like a bad toss to win!
Indian tails up …. Expect a drubbing.

[Taffy on the wing]

The suicide squad strikes again!
No patience at all…….poor.

[Bordeauxclaret]

I’ll be seeing how India get on before judging this one.

That pitch looked very questionable.

[bfc8]

Root 66 not out 66 when I looked.

[claretonthecoast1882]

A rare session where we haven't lost a wicket

198/5 at tea

[CleggHall]

Root century, nice to see him playing real cricket not Bazball.

[Bordeauxclaret]

Good fight back from England.

302 - 7 after day one.

[LeadBelly]

Yes, great fightback from 112-5 to 302-7. I didnt see the first session & a half (like my bed too much) but there seemed to be a fair bit of variable bounce later for a first day.
As above, difficult to evaluate 300+ on this wicket until India bat but its certainly not a bad effort. Hopefully Root + tail can get us closer to 350 and then see how our bowlers fare.
Great to see Root batting "properly" and getting back in the runs.

[Jamesy]

Really enjoyable day of cricket. Worth getting out of bed early for. Fantastic innings for Joe Root and Robinson looks like he has been batting all his life.
Hopefully we can nudge the score to something near 350-370. Big ask but it’s on these two now and how the wicket is first thing.

[Clive 1960]

Good recovery after 5 wickets went down but Root played sensibly in afternoon and got 302.7 decent days cricket..

[dsr]

Root 66 not out 66 when I looked.

Is that a tribute to the late Fred Elliot?

[Taffy on the wing]

We were just getting in their heads.........Robinson looking very comfortable...Root too.
Reverse sweep strikes again....they just don't turn the screw. Irritating!

[LeadBelly]

Very good bowling performance today by the two main spinners, managed to minimize the number of poor deliveries and kept the pressure on. Possibly a bit unlucky not to have a wicket or two more with various shooters and edges.

A 1st innings lead of 80-100 would be very handy with India batting last, just need to continue with the pressure first thing tomorrow and have a bit of luck.
32 overs for young Bashir, quite a day's work. Hope he gets a good rest overnight; 4-84 at the moment- every chance of a fivefer.

[Taffy on the wing]

India staunchly hanging around this morning.....lead down to 88.
Just 1 wicket so far.

[Taffy on the wing]

Robinson drops a catch straight at him......now India hitting sixes for fun!...********.

[Guller Bull]

2 in 2 19/2

Pope golden duck

[DAVETHEVICAR]

Root gone on review
Was it pitching in line ??

[AlargeClaret]

133/7

Kuldeep getting some remarkable spin going , though if we can another 30/40 it’s very much game on

[Burnley1989]

220 lead looks a long way away with this attack.

Who knows how the new ball will play on this wicket, the cynic in me thinks we needed a few more.

[jdrobbo]

England all out

India need 192 to win.

Cracks all over the place. This could go close.

[Ric_C]

terrible day for England

[DAVETHEVICAR]

Root clearly given out when more than half ball was pitched outside the line
Either dodgy technical equipment or deliberately changed for the red light to come on and give the batsman out .
Either way he should have been given not out

[AlargeClaret]

India collapsing at 131/5 after cruising or 84-1, no boundaries hit for an incredible 25 overs

[Burnley1989]

India collapsing at 131/5 after cruising or 84-1, no boundaries hit for an incredible 25 overs

Looks like we’ve found a future star in Bashir, remarkable for a young lad that barely bowled in first class cricket.

[AlargeClaret]

Looks like we’ve found a future star in Bashir, remarkable for a young lad that barely bowled in first class cricket.

Indeed the lad looks a real find and what a debut , to be dominating India ,in India with spin is great to see

[Bordeauxclaret]

Quite an easy win in the end.

England again might look back at the way they approached the end of each innings with the bat.

[JarrowClaret]

I think this series has been a lot more competitive than normal but the last 2 games have very much been back to what we would usually see. They beat us in this game for example with 4/5 of there best players missing, I know we are missing Brook and Leach who would both have played and you could stretch it and mention Archer as well I suppose. I find this England team more frustrating than pre stokes and mccullam they promise so much and then collapse inexplicably either with the bat or ball for no apparent reason at least before we knew we were crap.

[Burnley1989]

I think this series has been a lot more competitive than normal but the last 2 games have very much been back to what we would usually see. They beat us in this game for example with 4/5 of there best players missing, I know we are missing Brook and Leach who would both have played and you could stretch it and mention Archer as well I suppose. I find this England team more frustrating than pre stokes and mccullam they promise so much and then collapse inexplicably either with the bat or ball for no apparent reason at least before we knew we were crap.

Comparisons with the VK era at Burnley perhaps? look great against the lesser sides but reckless against the better teams

Dyche was the previous defensive era, now we can’t play defensively

[Super Teds]

Real missed opportunities in each defeat due to sloppiness for me. Objectively I don’t think we’ve actually been ahead of the game bar 4 or 5 sessions in the whole series so 3-1 is not too bad in than respect. Very encouraging from Bashir and credit to India, the backstories of some of their players are incredible.

[CoolClaret]

I still think this is encouraging with a lot of young spinners in the side -

Still not sure on Duckett/Pope, even though they've had decent scores recently, we find out selves two down for under 50 far too much.

[Taffy on the wing]

This was a test we blew....should have won it.
All out for 145 on the 3rd day is inexcusable really.

[AlargeClaret]

India have given us a lesson in how play test cricket and that can mean digging in deep . I think it went to 31 overs today without a boundary where the 2 Indian batsmen just ground it out . Great series though and we’ve competed well .

[Bordeauxclaret]

One journalist pointed out that had England batted out the last session on day 3 they’d have been able to have the heavy roller on a deteriorating pitch.

We’ll never know how much of a difference they would have made but the tail were busy going for reverse sweeps and slog sweeps.

[TheFamilyCat]

This was a test we blew....should have won it.
All out for 145 on the 3rd day is inexcusable really.

Results don't matter though. Apparently.

[jrgbfc]

With Lancashire signing Nathan Lyon how much red ball cricket is Tom Hartley going to play this summer?

[Casper2]

Is Baz Ball a project ?

[JarrowClaret]

Is Baz Ball a project ?

No as there is no such thing as Baz Ball it is a made up media term that means nothing. England are just playing aggressive Cricket and always looking for the attacking option.

[Casper2]

No as there is no such thing as Baz Ball it is a made up media term that means nothing. England are just playing aggressive Cricket and always looking for the attacking option.

Losing Cricket then

[matttheclaret]

Losing Cricket then

We'd won 1 out of the last 16 Test matches under the previous regime.

On the contrary, under McCullum and Stokes, this is the first series we have lost. Given how much we've improved in the last two years, it seems extremely harsh to label it "losing cricket"

[Casper2]

We'd won 1 out of the last 16 Test matches under the previous regime.

On the contrary, under McCullum and Stokes, this is the first series we have lost. Given how much we've improved in the last two years, it seems extremely harsh to label it "losing cricket"

Lost the ashes didn’t we ?

[Milltown1882]

Lost the ashes didn’t we ?

Drew

[Casper2]

Drew

Who holds the ashes ?

[Milltown1882]

Who holds the ashes ?

We drew the series 2-2 and would’ve won the series if it wasn’t for the weather in Manchester. Hence the India series being our first series defeat.

[Casper2]

We drew the series 2-2 and would’ve won the series if it wasn’t for the weather in Manchester. Hence the India series being our first series defeat.

Again who holds the ashes ?

[Milltown1882]

Again who holds the ashes ?

Australia but they already had them so we didn’t have them to lose, I don’t understand how that is so difficult to compute for you that we didn’t lose that series.

[Quickenthetempo]

Again who holds the ashes ?

England do.

For some reason we never let them take them out of the country.

[Quickenthetempo]

The 5th test doesn't look great weather wise. Locals think it will be a seamers paradise.

Trouble is, they have better seam bowlers as well.

[CoolClaret]

Bedding in young seamers showing that we can take 20 wickets in India is a big positive.

They're the best side in the world and we've played well. Don't understand the negativity at all.

[Poulton-le-Claret]

Bedding in young seamers showing that we can take 20 wickets in India is a big positive.

They're the best side in the world and we've played well. Don't understand the negativity at all.

Yeah we are on the right track with a promising squad. Better teams than this current crop have gone to India and lost.... A lot better teams.

[CoolClaret]

Yeah we are on the right track with a promising squad. Better teams than this current crop have gone to India and lost.... A lot better teams.

Yeah exactly

Young spinners I meant as well* - freudian slip.