Hoggy Hoggy Hoggy . . . so far so good!

Cook & Strauss doing purty well @ 41/0, but finding it a bit rough going against Kumbles and Bhajjers! More so Cook. As Nasser said “This is what Test Cricket [in the subcontinent] is all about”

Nail munching time. The joys of Test Cricket.

Considering that I dreamt that England were 21/6, waking up and finding them 77/0 is really very nice…

Morning all, had a slow start this morning, then PC wouldn’t start for some arcane reason. I think England will try to bat through the day and declare - if we don’t lose too many wickets, as late as possible. Maybe capt. Fred hopes Hoggy can repeat his SA 2004/2005 tour and bowl India out in 2 sessions. Any thoughts?

Aah - a wicket. They have been musing on R4 about KP going up the order. I’d be surprised.

I think Bell did pretty well in Pakistan so I’ve no problem with him at 3. It is just that he starts about as well as Ricky Ponting. I daresay he’ll be for the drop if Colly continues his current form though.

He does indeed - great temperament.

Oooh, you lucky, lucky b******d, KP! That sounded like it was a definite c&b.

Radio can’t believe that decision.

KP also fails to impress C&B Kumble. Where, oh where is the backbone in our top order - do we ALWAYS have to rely on the tail end?

so he got away with it. No probs, I have no fingernails anyway.

Interesting discussion between CMJ & Boycs on the radio. Talking about what it will take for a declaration tonight and wondering whenther Fred will come in at five in order to get England up to 340 in front in time to have half an hour at India tonight.

The debate is very much: “do England take the chance of victory in this test or wait play for the draw and wait until the next test”

They’re suggesting Cook wants to accelerate a little after tea - although if he just rotates the strike to KP the result will be much the same.

This is what I would like to see - acceleration, get the runs on the board without playing rashly and declare near end of play and we may - perhaps - bowl them out on day 5.

At the moment, I have no feel for an Indian win, an England win has very long odds, I vote for a draw in this first Test.

And now he’s been dropped. That could be expensive. And now two half centuries for Cook - that’s not a bad effort, is it.

Have a question: they say India is a hard Test, and tis early days yet, and there has been some luck in there, but can you imagine the selectors upcoming nightmare?

After this, we have Pakistan and Sri Lanka at home followed immediately by the Ashes (warghhhh!! again) and the World Cup.

God, can we hope to keep this up? Wonderful cricket.

Sounds like they’re on the move - I detect some urgency in the running between the wickets.

Will - does cricinfo have a pda optimised site like the Beeb does? Work have given me an xda which would be excellent if the cricinfo live pages would fit on the screen.

So, next question, is it coming?

I’m a little disturbed - Aggers and Boycs are getting all touchy-feely in the commentary box

Here we go - KP’s on the move.

so KP goes thanks to a fine catch by Dravid. A good lead but shame he missed out on 3 figures.

As we say in Germany, wat nu?

Sounds like Cook and Colly have had the hurry up from Fred.

Hurrah - I don’t think it is the last time we’ll have heard of him, Jess, do you?

Fourth youngest englishman to score a ton apparently.

What I’m curious about is whether England’s last-minute personnel changes were actually an advantage. How much preparation does India do to tailor the bowling to each individual batsman or to prepare for batting against each bowler?

I’m thinking they weren’t ready for Cook or Panesar because they had never seen them before.

Asif - I think that was the plan as long as Pietersen stayed in, they were looking for a lead of 340/350 and 20 minutes at the Indians before the close.

Once KP was out, I think Fred went for safety first, although he could have put himself or Jones up the order.

I think the pitch isn’t good enough to allow England to score at a run rate sufficient to give them as many as 10 overs against the Indians.

So I sort of agree with you, Asif, I just think that 6 overs was the best that they were going to get.

In the context of the injuries and preparation a draw would be a superb result given that many (myself included) thought that 3-0 to India was the most likely outcome.

I’ve read that England’s best chance of victory is in the next test where the pitch will be more conducive to seam bowling; in which case, taking 6 wickets and having India hanging on might give them the psychological advantage.

Mr Shivram gives us all something else to talk about rather than trying to answer the following question: in what sense can a Pakistani umpire standing in a test in India be described as “neutral” (q.v. lbw decisions, passim)?

Greg Chappell can at least console himself with the thought that before the match he did tell his team not to underestimate an England side with nothing to lose.

Talking of Australians who might be looking to their laurels, their number must surely include Gideon Haigh on the basis of Rahul Bhattacharya’s piece on “Cricinfo” to-day

George Bush is in India. He got hit by a whole pitch.

http://epimethus.blogspot.com/2006/03/perfect-pitch.html

England have an excellent chance of winning this tomorrow if they declare overnight or before the first hour is up. That’s a great position to be in after the lead-up to this Test match.

Is there any point in England batting on? What are the current regulations regarding number of overs in the day, last hour or whatever?