Fourth Test: India v England, 8-12 Dec.

[Dr Cricket]

TBH if I didn't have money on India would put money on England right now 6.00 to win lol.

[sussexpob]

enforcer

England really are in trouble if they are investing in that tired, ridiculous, outdated, ineffectual, discredited piece of old nonsense of a strategy

If Broad is a marker for this type of thing, it generally means that within 2 years Stokes will be bowling off a half run up and dazzling batsman with a barrage of 78mph bowling.

Its clearly a tactic this winter though. When a partnership forms, Stokes is thrown on to bowl short. I think by memory one Indian batsman edged a wide long hop to the slips in the first test with the tactic, but its proved otherwise fruitless. And then Ben pitches the ball up and gets wickets. But we are just plebs, we dont know anything about this.

By memory, when Broad tried it in about 2011 he went through a period of averaging 60 per wicket, and was basically unusable. Then he rebelled despite the press and coaches still saying he was the "enforcer" despite results being poor, pitched up and bowled out a side, and Flower ended up looking confused while saying "all that stuff we said about this being a tactic from the coaches.... nah not true. Broad was never the enforcer".

Yeah right Andy.

[The Professor]

Stokes underwhelming again.

[rich1uk]

as always it seems a big first session coming up

pujara especially a big wicket to get early as he has a very good conversion rate of turning 50s into 100s. they also showed his recent form in all FC cricket, both tests and domestic, and he has made something like 1250 runs in his last 17 innings.

[rich1uk]

perfect start for england

ball gets pujara second ball

[Arthur Crabtree]

Wow. What a start.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Ball was an obvious pick.

[rich1uk]

Ball was an obvious pick.

yeah i was thinking of the irony that the first wicket to fall to seam in the game was from the guy that almost no-one would have picked

[Arthur Crabtree]

A similar sort of irony didn't work for Batty in the last game.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Unexpected that Ball started the day. The discussion on spinners has tended to overlook how blunt the England pacers have been.

Anderson SR 101
Woakes SR 198
Stokes SR 69
Broad SR 62

Economical, but usually in bowling wide of the stumps in a way that hasn't threatened wickets.

[rich1uk]

yeah tough for the seamers when there has been so little lateral movement

not even been that much uneven bounce

think wood might have done ok if he had been fit with the lower, skiddier delivery and the extra little bit of pace, but even then probably wouldn't have made alot of difference

[Arthur Crabtree]

Maybe. Would have been better to have than Finn, who they aren't going to pick. In Tests at least though, Wood's reverse swing I think is far more talked about than seen. He looks like he should reverse it. Pretty quick though.

England have to take a wicket ASAP.

[rich1uk]

Maybe. Would have been better to have than Finn, who they aren't going to pick. In Tests at least though, Wood's reverse swing I think is far more talked about than seen. He looks like he should reverse it. Pretty quick though.

England have to take a wicket ASAP.

i was just thinking wood is maybe a bit closer to shami in terms of getting the ball to skid through and shami has been the most effective of the seamers

[Arthur Crabtree]

More likely to bowl wicket to wicket. As long as he's told to bowl that way. I don't see why Anderson can't do that (though the pace is less). But Kohli moves across so well that you run the risk of just coming onto his pad unless you get some movement.

[rich1uk]

thats the 50 partnership up for these two and they have done it pretty quickly

worst case scenario for england is not just india getting a first innings lead but doing it with alot of time left in the game