Good start regardless anyhow.
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The beauty of cricket. There was a good chance you weren’t going today now tomorrow is THE day to have a ticket.
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Still advantage India. If England can get to lunch with only one or two down it could get interesting.
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Just got home. It felt so good to be back at live test cricket again. We had originally got the tickets for the West Indies series last year that got cancelled. We were offered our money back or to transfer to this series against India the following (now this) year. No brainer.
First time seeing the newly expanded stands as well. Proper day of test cricket today. Hilarious seeing how disbelieving Kholi was to have got out to Moeen, sulked slowly off the ground but Pant’s reaction was even more amusing…literally dragging his bat on the floor behind him like Linus and his blanket.
Intriguing day tomorrow. India have to bowl us out, without Ashwin, and the pitch hasn’t yet started to go up and down. Think if we get to lunch no more than 2 down we’ve got a real chance.
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Even though the weight of history is against them, this pitch is still one of the flattest Oval pitches I can remember. I reckon England might be able to pull it off. Joe Root to get his first ever fourth innings century and big contributions from Pope and Burns.
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Sensed something was going to happen there, Hameed not particularly going anywhere and Malan was clearly struggling with Jadeja. Wonder if England could have maybe moved him down the order given the biggest threat in this game is now Jadeja out of the rough to left handers.
2 wickets down is ok, but the run rate is too slow. Will take some heroics from Root, Bairstow, Pope and Ali to pull it off.
Interesting to see what the tactics will be. Step it up straight after lunch, or another session of safety first before going into T20 mode after tea.
Stupid run. Fancy losing a wicket to a run-out on a day like this? Rubbish call from Hameed.
@Bekloppt - I reckon England (Root) will want to take it steady until tea. Maybe try and add 80 runs in that afternoon session (about 3 an over) but not lose wickets.
If we’re at tea with 150 runs needed in the evening session with at least 6 wickets in hand, they’d need to go at around 4 runs an over to win at that point. That’s when I can see England having a dart and seeing how they go. Lose a couple of quick wickets and they’ll then try and shut up shop, if not they’ll try and chase it down.
There’s going to be a crucial period about 30 minutes before tea when India get the second new ball. That could be the game, right there.
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Well damn, one more wicket and I’d say England’s chances of winning are done. Could be in for some thrilling rearguard action.
Ah, fuck. India still need wickets though. Root is such a fluent scorer, even when not going for it, that if he stays in and can be supported by his partners simply not throwing their wickets away, he’ll tick England along at the required rate.
I fear Moeen won’t last long either 
Bollocks. That’s that then.
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Sneaky be england…try to get India to let their guard down so they bowl some looser balls to help with the run rate.
The most predictable wicket of them all
This team has a backbone of straw. Nothing between the ears but sawdust.
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Good come back by India. Kohli gets lucky once again
I’ve been that opening bat who’s played off their bowlers for hours then to fucking despair at the shots that come afterwards.
To be fair that spell by Bumrah was pretty devastating, from nowhere he somehow got it reversing around corners at 90mph. Anybody would struggle against that, as shown when arguably the form batsmen in the world right now barely managed to keep out an over of it.
Just the 200 needed to win…
Bumrah is a fantastic bowler.
In fact there’s a lot to like about the Indian team. Rohit and Pujara are brilliant in very different ways, and who could not like Pant?
The only thing that makes it hard to lose to them is their captain, who is a narcissistic knob.
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