England in India, February-March 2021

[Sin Hombre]

Rashid gets Kohli again.

Kohli continues to be clueless against leggies early on in his innings.

[prasen9]

Akash was not out. The catch was spilled by Malan. The English lobbying and putting pressure on the 3rd umpire during the test series got them this wicket. Pant played another slow innings. I am fine with giving him chances instead of the more experienced guys Rahul, Kohli, and Rohit. But, we need to play both Kishan and Surya in the next match.

[Atithee]

We got what we wanted. Let’s see what the remaining batting can do.

[prasen9]

Not I. I wanted both Kishan and Surya in the team. I wanted Rahul to hit from ball one. Rahul should have been in the MO and wasted 17 balls. I wanted Pant to start and keep hitting. He was terribly slow. Looking like another defeat.

[Atithee]

Hardik keeps doing this waste of balls. He seems to have just that one shot against pace bowlers. Ugly heave that he can’t connect.

[Atithee]

Not I. I wanted both Kishan and Surya in the team. I wanted Rahul to hit from ball one. Rahul should have been in the MO and wasted 17 balls. I wanted Pant to start and keep hitting. He was terribly slow. Looking like another defeat.

I meant to see what the lower order can do.

[Atithee]

The hoarding seems to have been pushed back for some reason. You can see the rough of the green like a golf course. But, not Adil’s fault. The heel is pushing the hoarding back. I can see it move.

[Atithee]

Come on, Shardul. Why did you reach out to tickle that?

[Rajiv]

The Man of the Match today .. Virendra Sharma the 3rd umpire.. blatantly robbed SKY of a big score , and Sunder for a sure 6.

[prasen9]

Rahul's innings prevented us from getting 190-200. He cost us about 8 runs. Kohli cost us about 7 runs. Rohit cost us about 7 runs. Pant cost us about 6 runs. If a few of these folks had started hitting without concern or gotten out earlier, we would have been much better off.

India is perhaps going to lose this because this is a flat batting pitch and we have stacked our bowling side with batters instead of bowlers. Let us see if Chahar can get wickets.

[Atithee]

Prasen, come on now. This is pretty much the team we wanted bar Kishen. You can’t say we stacked the team with batters.

[Sin Hombre]

Prasen, come on now. This is pretty much the team we wanted bar Kishen. You can’t say we stacked the team with batters.

Almost.

We do not want a KL-Rohit opening partnership.

That cost us 15 runs or so.

[prasen9]

I have said I do not like the containing bowlers we have. If you are talking only bowling, I would have liked to see Bumrah, Natarajan, Kuldeep, DLC, Saini and a leggie. Perhaps R. Chahar. I would have actually liked Shreyas Gopal. Instead we have Bhuvi and Shardul and Washi because they can bat. Which may be fine but then you have to keep hitting all the time to cover for the weak bowling, and we did not do so. I have consistently said I prefer strike bowlers to containing bowlers. That is a philosophical issue that I know I will not win because the captain and the selectors and maybe the whole world values containing bowlers.

Update: Chahar did well. Sundar and Thakur horribly. I find that people who are wicket-takers usually take wickets but people who are containing bowlers are not as consistent wrt keeping the runs down.

[prasen9]

2-2. At the end, except Sundar everyone did their job. Pandya bowled very well. Thakur kept his cool and got the wickets at the end. Bhuvi kept it tight and got one wicket. Chahar was a bit expensive (for the middle overs) but got two vital breakthroughs.

Special thanks to David Malan with the bat. I was happy to see Iyer throw caution to the wind from ball one. It was a fantastic, match-winning innings. Surya and Shardul pushed the total to 185 overcoming the efforts of Rahul, Rohit, Kohli, and a bit from Pant.

[PKBasu]

What a comical last over from Shardul Thakur. If you can't defend 23 in the last over with 7 wickets down for the opposition (i.e., when you are bowling to tailenders) then you shouldn't be playing T20I cricket. TWO ridiculous wides in that over almost gave it away. OK, he did get two vital wickets, but before that he had been the most expensive of the Indian bowlers. Shardul Thakur did well in a test match, but he should not be playing T20Is for India.