So. Here we are, the second of our tours over in the Spin Cities.

- No Vaughan; no S Jones; no Trescothick; no Giles and Pietersen carrying an injury.
- Flintoff will captain the side. Christ, bad decision there for a multitude of reasons.
- No spinners on these turning pitches, except for crappy Udal, fatty Blackwell or untried Monty Panesar.

At least my boy Cook might get a go (keep an eye out if he does).

I'm frightened to death of Dhoni and Pathan, not to mention the likes of Sehwag, Dravid et al and the spin masters Singh and Kumble *shudder*.

We're up for a battering here big time.

Predictions? Winning team and top run scorers for each...

India to win
Dhoni
Pietersen

[ February 28, 2006, 19:47: Message edited by: Barmy Army ]

And Cook hit's a 60 first innings and a 104no second innings total. Damn, I hate being right.

England in a commanding position here. But now we've got a day to bowl out India... wil be tough, especially if The Wall gets his head down.

I'm loving it so far Barmy good batting performance by Cook, Collingwood, Flintoff and Pietersen, Great bowling by Hoggard and Monty. should be interesting last day most likely result draw...

Monty has bowled superbly. What was it, 41 overs, 19 maidens for 72 runs and 2 wickets? Something like that. Great debut performance. He also does something that we've not had anything else do in God knows how many years; he can move the ball!
That Kaif wicket was a ripper.

Giles shouldn't be able to get back in now. It's good to see we've got these talents knocking around in the county scene.

Yeah it is, we have serioudly missed an attacking spinner for years, bye bye Ashley

Oh well, you lost that test match. Anil Kumble is still a handful on home grounds, taking 9 wickets. Seems like that guy has been playing forever. How did Paul Collingwood suddenly become your best player?

Munaf has shown that he can get this England side into trouble again (remember his 10 wicket haul in the practice match).

Wankede has a spinning track which Anil 500 Kumble will enjoy.

And Sehwag has finally found his form.

You lot are doomed Barmy :rolling: :evil: :spin:

It was a catalogue of errors, taking nothing away from the way India bowled on the fourth day but let's face it the win was gift wrapped for them. And just quickly before I summarise I would like to say to David Graveney - stop keep picking (ex)Durham players. Ok if they're good enough but there are still question marks over kerplunk and collywobbles.

The fatal come fateful errors

1) England picking Plunkett. He was never likely to be anything other than fourth seamer, not a known quantity with the bat (at this level) and not surprisingly contributed next to nothing with bat, bowled about a dozen overs and returned a single wicket. We should have played an extra batsman or stuck with Blackwell, at least Blackwell has ODI experience

2) Pathan's edge - or was it? If given out on 9 who knows how many India would have got. The extra 43 runs alone would have given England a lead, maybe a bigger lead if knock on consequences had followed. On a lowish scoring pitch to that point having a batsman given a life and 40+ extra runs is a killer blow

3) Catch off Pietersen's forearm. I am furious with the umpire for this, benefit of doubt to the batsman is order of the day. Since it didn't hit his glove or bat the umpire can't have seen it hit either and therefore must have been making a wild guess as to what it did come off. This kind of umpiring is the worst, make a bad LBW call by all means but making it up just takes the p1ss. That was a pivotal call, England were never going to recover from 3 down for not a lot. To then lose Bell so late in the day was the killer blow, just a question of when more than if given our non-combatants down the order

4) Harmison's moment of madness. Not sure why Flintoff called for a single first ball of the over but Harmison chose to sweep the second ball and got stumped. He cost Flintoff his wicket too, although Freddie really should have got a sighter first and waited for a bad delivery at least a couple of balls into the over.

As for the final Test, it should be a struggle. The Indians won the battle of the tail wagging and their spinners showed just how ordinary our's are. I can see yet further tactical changes leading to a more imbalanced side, at least Prior has dropped the one feint chance he had of getting into the side.

At least NZ won the first test against the West Indies the other day. I can't remember the last time we won a test match. Shane Bond bowled 2 deliveries to Brian Lara in the match and got him out twice. Go the Black Caps. Knowing our luck, Lara will score 700 in the next test.

Not a bad start to the third test. Shame about Cook having to pull out (the count now being 6 players injured) but Owais has come in and batted well before being forced to retire hurt. It's good to see we can draft these guys in and they can hit a few runs. The English county scene is really good at the minute.

We need to keep it going and hit 450+ on this wicket I reckon. It's already starting to deteriorate after one day, the second inning swill be a nightmare with Kumble and the Turbanator on a massively spinning wicket. Need runs now! it's vital that Collywoddles and Freddy get a good partnership here.

We've got them by the balls now thanks to some great bowling by Jimmy Anderson (he's still **** though :lol: ). We need to get 9 wickets tomorrow, and India need 295 runs, which has never before been done in India. If we can get rid of The Wall without him having a 6 hour stand, then we've got a pretty good chance.

Come on boys!

[ March 21, 2006, 20:57: Message edited by: Barmy Army ]

Excellent, looks like it could be an exciting finish. Either team could still win, although I would back the bowling side in this situation.

Meanwhile, NZ just won their fifth test match in a row, which is a record for us.

NZ have been doing well. You always seem to be getting a batsman getting a big score from not many balls lately. Mind you, the Windoes are pretty **** these days. Too many youngsters.

You have Shane Bond back for the 3rd test in this series as well. This will only be his 10th test won't it? I can't believe how few matches that guy has played. Even in ODI's he's only played 40 something. He's 30 as well, isn't he? Talk about a late bloomer...

Here are Shane Bond's test career bowling stats:

mat balls runs wkts bbi bbm ave econ sr 4 5 10
13 2370 1291 63 6/51 10/99 20.49 3.26 37.61 5 4 1

So yes, we've spent the last 16 years looking for a bowler to fill the gap left by Sir Richard Hadlee and when we finally find one, it turns out he's so old he's probably been around that whole time anyway. Plus, he's injured half the time. Our other bowlers are rubbish compared to him.

Well I wouldn't say rubbish, Vettori's pretty good - and has gotten out some big names numerous times - Ponting, Martyn, Symonds...

Not sure why we keep perservering with guys like Martin and Franklin though. Although Franklin's test record is surprisingly good.

55 wickets at 27.63 is pretty decent. Need to do something about that economy rate though.

Tendulkar and Dravid gone. We should be able to wrap this match up now and tie the series.
Flintoff, again, our main man. He's made himself out best bowler, not to mention one of our best batsmen. Just watching him bowl to Yuvraj Singh here is brilliant. Every single ball from that last over could quite easily of taken his wicket.

Man, India have been hopeless this evening. England should win easily now.

And Tassadar, Franklin is awesome when the ball is swinging but he has yet to prove himself in other conditions.