Cricket

Bumrah has got the ball doing all sorts. Look forward to seeing him in England this summer. He’s a far better bowler than last time they toured and he got plenty of wickets then.

England don’t need to do anything daft here. Get as many as we can and get bowling.

We have to declare here. This isn't only about winning a test, it's about winning 3 matches to make it to the World Test Series Final.

We need 4 sessions to bowl them out, and 3-1 is as good to us as 4-0, or 3-0

In other news, SA now need snookers

I'm sure we both remember watching Mike Hendricks

Ha, as he'd retired from international cricket before I was born probably not.

But yes, there's plenty of examples like that and Bess will be in the team as long as he keeps getting wickets. He's a big boy and I'm sure he can take it, Jimmy Anderson is the greatest bowler we've ever produced but he still has to put up with everyone saying he can't bowl outside of English conditions despite taking more wickets outside of England than most of the others took in their whole careers.

Are England basing their declaration decision upon the run total they set India,
or the amount of overs they have with the 2nd new ball to bowl, at hopefully, the Indian tail?

The fuck are we doing

Losing the last 7-33 isn't the way to chase down 370 from 241-3.

Very odd. Get swinging!

We've been pretty conservative with declarations ever since strauss was captain. I don't think Pant and the Australia series has helped their thinking.

The fuck are we doing

Ambling along at less than 3 an over

If we don't declare we have to push hard, this is bizzarre

I understand maybe wanting to take some time out of the game to discourage the chase, but how is not scoring runs at the same time helping at all? Seems mad.

can someone ELI5 to me why what england are doing is wrong and bad

I don't know anything about cricket I'm scottish. I'm just here to pad the terrestrial viewing figures ; )

planning for 25 overs at India today? Then bowl out in 3 full sessions tomorrow?
400 has to be enough which ever way? Except Pant!!!

Cook with some insight. Declaring later means the ball is still hard tomorrow morning. Trying to find the best tactic to take 10 wickets. Interesting.

There is probably loads more analysis used now to model how best to beat a team.

Probably a better bet than "Celebrity dating mansion" which channel 4 are currently pushing quite hard on the 7am, 4th day, test match enthusiasts.

I haven't been listening to the commentary but I suppose it's am old question of should England push for victory and increase chances of losing, or play cautiously and reduce the chance of losing but also their own chance of winning.

The England cricket team has long been accused of being too conservative at this stage in a match.

so basically england have quite a healthy lead but... the difficulty is going to be getting india out on this surface (which they're used to because it's their home track). england should probably bank the lead they have, declare, and set about trying to bowl india out? and should have declared a while ago... maybe... but then they'd still only have a lead of 388, which india would probably fancy having a go at...

can someone ELI5 to me why what england are doing is wrong and bad

Its a trade off, we have to take 10 Indian wickets to win the game.

On the other hand India have to score more than (currently) 387. There are 3.x sessions left (x is around 8).

4 sessions is more often than not sufficient to bowl a team out in their last innings, 100 runs per session is not an unobtainable amount of runs

Its a balancing act. But also the longer a test match goes, in general the harder it is to score, given the deterioration of the pitch. If we declare now we should win, but Bangladesh thought exactly the same 2 days ago and came unstuck!

Btw I have Scottish ancestors,and after time even I managed to understand cricket to some extent.

Im consumed by an inexplicable desire to buy some ACC cement.

Yeah, famously this bold approach went wrong when Flintoff was captain a decade or so ago.

Current run rate is only 2.2 which is cautious,

Declaring later means the ball is still hard tomorrow

But we should still be trying to move the score along with 4 wickets in hand.

Yeah, but if we were to collapse that plan is scuppered if the aim is to only give them an hour tonight.

Not saying this is the right approach, just trying to work out why it is the approach.

Im consumed by an inexplicable desire to buy some ACC cement.

Totally get you, having followed England in India before now, I was amazed about the desire to sell you either concrete, or a motorbike!

It is this type of thing that makes Test Cricket different/better than any other sport I know of. Most games it's pretty easy to understand the best way to win at any given moment. The "third innings - when to declare?" question is a pretty unique conundrum in sport I think.