Two in two

So, I log onto the internet about 10 or 15 minutes after the end of the lunch break thinking, "Mmmm... a wicket would be good. Two would be amazing." Look what happened. Flinters knocked over the wall and Sachin, who was looking good, was beaten by one that turned, which is saying something, seeing as it was bowled by Udal, who, it seems, is finally performing. Five to go. Knowing the difficulty that England have had with the tail in this series (in the Ashes too), I still think there's a long way to go, but things are looking a whole lot better now.

Deja vu

Mmm... England in a good position to kill off a game with a big first innings lead and then look like blowing. Where have I seen this before? Ah well, fortunately, they won those tests during the Ashes. Then again, they didn't win in Pakistan. As Penelope Pitstop might say, "Hayulp".
Still, my mate Owais is still in and I guess Mr Bell (or Bell End as I now like to refer to him (was that ever a term of abuse in anyone else's world, or just the tiny one I lived in when at school)) must be the only Englishman hoping he doesn't go big (Super size us, Owais). KP is South African. Little bit of politics.
Sreesanth did average 5 in first class cricket before today. His previous highest score was 19, so he exceeded that by over 50 percent. I didn't expect that. I can't even think what Kumble looks like when he bats, so obviously he's improved a bit since I last saw him.
Big respect going out to wee Jimmy Anderson (all Jimmy's are wee). Perhaps the most heartening thing about his performance was his economy. He's often taken wickets but usually he's gone for 4 an over, or more. He was the most economical of the England bowlers in that innings. Coooool. Did you know he's married to a model? I used to feel sorry for him when he was getting bashed around by Graeme Smith. I shouldn't have done.
Right. Tomorrow. Come on, England. Let's win this one. I've got work to do. I don't want to be having to check the score every two minutes.

Weather getting fairer

The title is a reference to yesterday's title and also to the climate here in Berlin, where finally, after three months, it's getting a little warmer, just a little. Today is officially the first day of spring. I don't think I've ever experienced a colder winter. There's still snow on the ground. India seems a long way away.
Still, goddamit, England are doing the business. GO Jones has taken three blinding catches and wee Jimmy Anderson has, at the time of writing, taken 3-18. Is this going to be the performance which gives him his confidence back? I hope so. He looked such a good bowler when he started out and then he lost it, somehow.
Why do legspinners who've taken more than 500 wickets seem to like batting against England so much?
Still, Sreenath has a first class batting average of 5, so the end of the Indian innings should be nigh. Should be...
Then England could take almost a day to score 300 and send India in on a crumbling pitch just after tea tomorrow, or just before, or sometime.
I fully expect there now to be a record eighth wicket partnership.

Fair weather supporter

Yeah, that's me. I must admit I was pretty disappointed after the last test. Not such a great performance, not such a great result. But look what´s going on over in Mumbai at the moment. India are reeling. Jimmy Anderson is bowling well. Three wickets down. It looks like there's something in the pitch now. Can England level the series? That would be a great result. There's a long way to go. The Wall is still there and I guess he must be extra determined (if it's possible for Dravid to be any more determined than usual) after his horrendous misjudgement after winning the toss. What was he thinking?
I must admit that when I came out to the internet cafe I'm in, about an hour ago, I was going to write a bit more about England's batting, how they'd thrown it away again, how they should have made 500. Maybe the pitch is playing up a bit now, but even so it doesn't appear that the team have got out of their habit of not capitalising when given first use of a pitch. Congratulations to Strauss, of course (although I do wonder why he hadn't worked out not to be quite so aggressive some time ago - how to bat on the subcontinent is not a big secret) and to Owais Shah (is five consecutive batsmen scoring fifties in their first innings in tests a record?), but again, it seems, Pietersen won't learn, and Jones looks like a tailender. Pietersen must be pretty daft. If I were the management I'd be thinking about dropping him for the next home test, assuming that Trescothick and Vaughan play in it, just to let him know that his place is guaranteed. He does score quite a few runs, yes, but with his talent I'm sure he could score a lot more. I wonder how many of his dismissals in test cricket are self inflicted? A high proportion, I imagine. I like the look (or sound anyway) of Shah too. Then there's Cook. I still think that it might be worth trying Strauss at five, but then I still miss Graeme Thorpe.
22 overs left today at the time of writing. One or two more wickets would be good. I guess Hoggard will come back for a second spell soon. He and Flintoff will bowl the last few overs I imagine. Monty might bowl another wonder ball though before then.

Upside down

I'm sure there's a disco track with the chorus "Upside Down". Donna Summer? Diana Ross? I can't remember. Anyway, that's by the by. Far more exciting, and bewildering, is the news that Hoggard is now rated the fourth best bowler in the World. There was me thinking he was the fourth best bowler in the England team. Still, I suppose that Jonesy is always injured, Harmy has gone off the boil, and... errr... surely Flinters is rated higher than the Hogster? Apparently not.
More interesting news, following yesterday's post, about wicket keepers scoring runs. Chris Read has only gone and scored a ton in the West Indies. You may not have noticed 'cause cricinfo doesn't report these A matches on their front page. I also found that in the past two first class seasons, the Readster has average 44 and 50, respectively. That's pretty good. Maybe he can bat after all.

Not to be

I guess that it was a very flat pitch. It's lucky really that England got some helpful atmospheric conditions on the third morning, otherwise it could have been a very different game. Still, we've got out of this one with a draw, so no complaints. Also Cook and Monty both made very promising debuts, and Ian Blackwell didn't, which isn't a good thing itself, although it does make me feel as if I might not be quite such a big idiot as Collingwood's century did. The next test is on Thursday now. Can't we have a week and a bit between Tests, like in the old days? It's a shame for the players, as much as anything. In the past, they probably got to know a place. Now they only see practice facilities, I imagine.
One last thing. I've been a big supporter of GO Jones, but I'm starting to lose faith. He keeps dropping catches and his batting seems to have got worse too. Will Chris Read be back in the team in the summer? Is Robert Key practicing his wicket keeping? Why else isn't he on the A tour?

Oi, George. Nooo.

You're not a cricket match person. Check out these funny pictures (especially the face he pulls in 4 and 5).

Well bowled

OK, so when exactly did Matthew Hoggard learn to bowl reverse swing? I admit that I haven't watched much cricket live on TV over the past couple of years, but I'm pretty sure that he never bowled a ball which swung in (to a right hander) before. Is this something new? If he has learned the art (the magic), he may well have become a complete bowler. Anyway, the important thing is that he blew away the India middle order this morning. I was mighty surprised when I logged on this morning and saw that he'd done so. Mighty surprised and mighty pleased. And what about Monty? What a debut, after all the doubts about him. Not only did he hold up one end yesterday while Collingwood added about 60 runs at the other but then he comes out today and bowls a lot of very tight overs, picking up the dream debut wicket of the (once) mighty Sachin and then bowling Kaif with what sounds as if it was a perfect delivery right at the end.
It's going to be interesting to see how the batsmen get on tomorrow. Will Pietersen go big? He usually performs when people start muttering that he may not be worth his place in the side. Certainly today's performance must have done wonders for the team's confidence. I, for one, thought that they were out of the game yesterday morning. Now they look as if they could be very, very slight favourites. Ohmigod. I shouldn't tempt fate. Either way, they're competing, when they weren't expected to. That's already a victory of sorts.

Doesn't taste too bad

I'm talking about humble pie, my hat, whatever. Actually, I'll keep the hat so I can raise it to my mate Paul Collingwood. Yes sir, well done. That was a pretty good innings, wasn't it? Frankly, as after his efforts during that last Test in Pakistan, I'm a bit inclined to think that his success only shows up how badly the rest of the batsmen performed, but there you go. I'm still not convinced that Paul Collingwood is much of a batsman. Perhaps the conditions in the sub-continent suit him, as they did Craig White, who never scored many runs anywhere else, but seemed to like it when the ball didn't bounce too much. The way Collingwood constructed his innings should be recognised by the rest of the batsmen (apart from Cook who played similarly). He only scored 50 off his first 150 balls (or so). Then he accelerated. Ominously, Dravid only scored 5 of his first 50 balls. It looked as if he was digging himself in for the long haul. The effort by Collingwood and the tailenders (good name for a group) this morning was great. It did suggest, however, that the pitch was playing very well. I think the England total was at least 100 too few. I expect that we'll be batting to save the match. Pietersen will probably get out on the hook and whine afterwards about that being the way he plays.