Fucking hell.
Off to try and cool down with a swim
Great decisions on the batting line up. Vince did well to not be selected on his home ground, in the good form he is. Dickheads
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Hope nobody was dumb enough to pay for the full 5 days.
Changed for accuracy
Jennings dismissal looks even worse than me in our old Sunday League when you see it
In his defence
69-5
Mohammed Shami to Buttler, OUT , full and tempting, 86mph and Buttler steers a fat edge to third slip! Kohli grabs a sharp chance to his right and England are five down! That dismissal can go down to batsman error, a pitch-up ball but it swung enough, loose from Buttler as he reached for the drive, India gobble up another
JC Buttler c Kohli b Mohammed Shami 21 (24b 3x4 0x6) SR: 87.50
Mohammed Shami to Stokes, OUT , wicked in-ducker from Shami, Stokes is tucked up and thumped on the padā¦ and up goes Oxenfordās finger! Stokes will review , hoping that all the angles donāt line up against him, but the odds look slim. Yep, thatās hitting middle and leg! Stokes wasnāt far enough forward to get outside the line, the ball whistled back in past the inside edge and pinned him like a butterfly on a collectorās board
BA Stokes lbw b Mohammed Shami 23 (79b 3x4 0x6) SR: 29.11
167-7
Ashwin to Ali, OUT , tossed up straight, Moeen goes for the slog-sweepā¦ but the top edge is pouched by Bumrah running in at midwicket! Thereās the partnership-breaker, Moeen goes trying to take on the spinner. Not a great shot, but the ball nearly landed safely, Bumrah had to cover some distance before sliding to hold the catch
MM Ali c Bumrah b Ashwin 40 (85b 2x4 2x6) SR: 47.05
Rashid out LBW, ball was missing stumps according to ball tracker though. England couldnāt review as theyād used up all of them earlier in the day.
Sharma to Rashid, OUT , gottim, trapped by the inswinger! England have no reviews, so Rashid has to accept Bruce Oxenfordās decision and walk off, but that looked pretty adjacentā¦ Full and curling in like cigar smoke, thunking the front pad, almost certainly hitting/clipping leg
AU Rashid lbw b Sharma 6 (14b 0x4 0x6) SR: 42.85
Curran is Englandās top run scorer this series.
Says it all.
246 all out
Not bad! I feared the worst at 80 odd for 6.
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No heās not, justā¦
Boycott as opinionated as ever, obviously didnāt see the Indian bowling this morning, which was something elseā¦
Ditch Cook. Iām probably gonna get a bit repetitive on this theme, but if nobody can play with you then youāve got to step aside. His eyes are gone and heās shot.
All youāll get from Chef these days are two glorious drives off weak deliveries, a bit of fiddling, then a nick. Heās got nothing else and even medium class bowling will find him out. Other players are being asked to sacrifice their careers to prop up his stats.
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Cannot but agree with you there. England need two openers (Jennings clearly isnāt one of them either), and a number three. Sir Geoffrey Boycott, annoying though he can be, is quite correct in saying that a Test teamās best batsman should bat where heās happiest, and the rest have to fit in with that. Root is a number four, not a number three. Heās Englandās best batsman, so he should bat in his preferred position in the order. Can you imagine India shifting Kohli to bat at three because nobody else wants to? Neither can I.
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If it were my choice, and I wonāt be so vociferous about the solution as I was about the problem, Iād give the gloves to Buttler, push Bairstow up to open with Stoneman. Get Moeen in at 6ā¦ I know heās not as good a spinner at Adil but heās good enough (certainly in English conditions) and a much stronger batter.
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