Fourth Final India

[bwildered]

 Essex man Dan gets a recall  now at the NO7 berth in the batting order . Bess also recalled .

[Oldhasbeen]

Didn't see that team selection coming! Better hope  Anderson  or Stokes don't  break down.

166-5 Dan batting well since tea. Looks very  positive

[bwildered]

 Dan gets second highest score of innings, one boundary short of fifty took the bright lights route with a giant swipe.

Notice ECB advertising Blast tickets during breaks . Got to be exclusive to streaming surely . 

[vim]

I saw the ads for the T20. using super slo-mo and the Hubble Space Telescope I saw in the small print that tickets are Covid restrictions dependent.

So if you buy a ticket and a short extension of the road map could have an effect. Will you get your money back?

[Perov]

Depends on the county. Middlesex have pledged refunds, but not heard the Essex policy.
I would guess we would not be treated as generously.

[Andy]

Bess is justifying my faith in him, ahem. To what extent is this nerves arising from unexplained yips, or the product of being unceremoniously dumped after the first test.

[bwildered]

 Yorkshire will not be impressed, might want a refund on damaged goods.

[nat]

Bess is justifying my faith in him, ahem. To what extent is this nerves arising from unexplained yips, or the product of being unceremoniously dumped after the first test.

Nerves. He's a fragile character.

[nat]

Bess is justifying my faith in him, ahem. To what extent is this nerves arising from unexplained yips, or the product of being unceremoniously dumped after the first test.

Nerves. He's a fragile character.

The selectors have picked a boy when they needed a man.

[honkytonk]

Bess is justifying my faith in him, ahem. To what extent is this nerves arising from unexplained yips, or the product of being unceremoniously dumped after the first test.

Nerves. He's a fragile character.

The selectors have picked a boy when they needed a man.

Shame there are not any around!!

[SirChef26]

Still think Ben Stokes isn’t an all-rounder Andy? 

We’re in a tough spot regarding Bess. He’s probably not ready to be playing at this high level yet, but they play him because we’ve no other second spinner who can hold a bat and field as well as him. If Virdi and Parkinson could hold a bat then they’d be better options than Bess. Swann could hold a bat, which was why he and Monty worked well in the same side alongside them both being top class bowlers obviously.

[honkytonk]

Still think Ben Stokes isn’t an all-rounder Andy? 

We’re in a tough spot regarding Bess. He’s probably not ready to be playing at this high level yet, but they play him because we’ve no other second spinner who can hold a bat and field as well as him. If Virdi and Parkinson could hold a bat then they’d be better options than Bess. Swann could hold a bat, which was why he and Monty worked well in the same side alongside them both being top class bowlers obviously.

If the batting unit could score runs, it would not really matter!!!  We have Lawrence at 7 and Foakes at 8 in this Test.  Parkinson might as well have played and batted 9

[vim]

I see that the England team have excelled themselves with their British Railways style go slow. Are they worried that the game will not last into day 4?

[bwildered]

 Wheels off in lasts session on second day, followed by following morning also. If Bess is bowling to many four balls, might has well given Lawrence some, to help out, could still batting before Stokes in the second innings.
 Long batting line up now under the microscope.

[vim]

In the studio for the 2nd test they discussed batsmen bowling. Mark Butcher who had bowled and taken wickets said that whenever he was Captain, he would only put himself onto bowl if he thought the condtions were just right for him.

Of course there is the situation of desperation. There was a test match where England made a worse job of defending a big target than against the West Indies in 1984. It ended up with Len Hutton putting himself on to bowl his leg breaks as all other options had failed.