A bit surprised at the English batting..

[Ram]

The english batting didnt live upto its billing. For a line-up which boasts of KP , Vaughan , Bell , Collingwood , Strauss , Cook and Prior , i thought they would make mince-meat of our bowlers . Yet , there were bowled out for under 300 in both the innings. I dunno if it is bad batting by the english or good bowling by the Indians.If it were just bad batting , there is no reason why they cant turn it on in the rest of the series. If it good bowling by India, there is also no reason why we cant do it again in the series. And that is great thing , considering our batting is yet to fire collectively.

[yoda]

don't worry. we will bring the rest of the bats also into full form by the time the series is over.

[Chandan]

The english batting didnt live upto its billing. For a line-up which boasts of KP , Vaughan , Bell , Collingwood , Strauss , Cook and Prior , i thought they would make mince-meat of our bowlers . Yet , there were bowled out for under 300 in both the innings. I dunno if it is bad batting by the English or good bowling by the Indians.If it were just bad batting , there is no reason why they cant turn it on in the rest of the series. If it good bowling by India, there is also no reason why we cant do it again in the series. And that is great thing , considering our batting is yet to fire collectively.

MM, I hope you saw the match. Apart from the 1st session, where our bowlers were suffering from 'nerves', the bowling was extremely good. There was swing and it was really tough for the batsmen to score. But you did see what KP did to our bowlers on the 4th day? The ball swung the least that day. So if we'll have these conditions through out the series where swing will be favoured, I don't expect big scores from either team. It'll take a spectacular effort with huge slice of luck to score big in such conditions, if the bowlers utilise them!

[gs]

We will miss the cavalier batting of old Sehwag here. Pitch conditions, overcast skies, swing/seam all these factors become irrelevant when he goes on the offensive. I hope he can regain his confidence back soon.

[veer]

The english batting didnt live upto its billing. .

no one can beat India in this dept.. unable to deliever by famous four, time and again, makes me sick...

[gs]

no one can beat India in this dept.. unable to deliever by famous four, time and again, makes me sick...

Yeah, its more of a sarcastic comment now. All good things come to an end. They were great 4-5 years ago. Remember, the once great and mighty (yeah the one with the - "sun never sets on the british empire" claim) british empire too crumbled??:confused_smile:

[Ram]

MM, I hope you saw the match. Apart from the 1st session, where our bowlers were suffering from 'nerves', the bowling was extremely good. There was swing and it was really tough for the batsmen to score. But you did see what KP did to our bowlers on the 4th day? The ball swung the least that day. So if we'll have these conditions through out the series where swing will be favoured, I don't expect big scores from either team. It'll take a spectacular effort with huge slice of luck to score big in such conditions, if the bowlers utilise them!

That is the point Chandan. I am a bit confused. I heard a LOT of talk of how this is late summer in england and how the pitches are going to be flat and dry and in lords , the ball swings all over the place. I wonder what the batting conditions at the other venues would look like..

[kabira]

you guys are blaming pitch..Pitch at Lords was belter..9/10 for such a pitch.. In England its cloud cover that decides in favor of bowler. For example, in WC 99, England in crucial encounter put India in, when toss happened there was cloud cover and perfect time for bowling, But when indian came into bat, the weather had cleared, india managed decent score, and when England came for batting, clouds were back and Mohanty was swinging big time, got 2 in 2 balls and England were on backfoot.. I am sure pitches in Oval and Nottigham will be absolute belters.

[Gambit]

no one can beat India in this dept.. unable to deliever by famous four, time and again, makes me sick...

Apart from one or two tests, the 'famous four' have never delivered under pressure. Only Dravid has stood up a few times. The other three have crumbled, with Tendulkar leading the way by a country mile.

[Chandan]

That is the point Chandan. I am a bit confused. I heard a LOT of talk of how this is late summer in england and how the pitches are going to be flat and dry and in lords , the ball swings all over the place. I wonder what the batting conditions at the other venues would look like..

I have discussed this few of the English fans on C4 and according to all of them this was the soggiest summer they remember in past few years! Hence the change in conditions! So pitches aren't contributing to bowlers' friendly conditions. We had an excellent batting track at Lords. It was swing in the air which made life tough for batsmen.

[Chandan]

you guys are blaming pitch..Pitch at Lords was belter..9/10 for such a pitch.. In England its cloud cover that decides in favor of bowler. For example, in WC 99, England in crucial encounter put India in, when toss happened there was cloud cover and perfect time for bowling, But when indian came into bat, the weather had cleared, india managed decent score, and when England came for batting, clouds were back and Mohanty was swinging big time, got 2 in 2 balls and England were on backfoot.. I am sure pitches in Oval and Nottigham will be absolute belters.

Kabira. Pitch didn't have to do anything here. It was the humidity in air which assisted swing bowling.