By Paul Newman
|
PICTURE DISPUTE
We are unable to carry live pictures from the First Test in Ahmedabad due to a dispute between the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and international news organisations.
The BCCI has refused access to Test venues to established picture agencies Getty Images and Action Images and other Indian photographic agencies.
MailOnline consider this action to be a strike against? press freedom and supports the action to boycott BCCI imagery.???
Here we go again. The most mind-numbingly frustrating aspect of a totally awful second day of this first Test for England was that it was so, so predictable.
There was surely not a single person in the ground who did not expect England to lose quick wickets, prodding nervously at spinners on a turning pitch with men round the bat, having first conceded a huge first innings score to India.
It seems to happen this way every time England come to Asia. The lessons just have not been learned from what happened in the UAE and Sri Lanka last winter. And two of the greatest modern players of spin in Andy Flower and Graham Gooch just do not seem to be getting the message across to their charges.
All the resources and preparation known to man, all the expensive gadgets at Loughborough and all the success the batsmen have had in other parts of the world just has not seemed to equip them with the tools necessary to thrive here.
The Wall mk II: Cheteshwar Pujara hit a brilliant 206 not out for India
India v England: First Test
England may yet offer some resistance in the form of new captain Alastair Cook and the reintegrated Kevin Pietersen, who will resume at 41 for three, but they have been left with the mother and father of all rescue acts.
For once in this worrying 18 months since England looked to be on top of the cricketing world it was not just the batting that let them down.
The bowlers held up well in similarly alien conditions last winter but here they looked short of ideas and imagination, their three seamers bowling at little more than medium-fast and taking just one wicket between them in 70 overs.
The magic touch that characterised their rise to the top has also, hopefully just temporarily, deserted them, with the absence of a second specialist spinner in Monty Panesar now looking the most contentious selection decision since an Aussie called Darren Pattinson was asked to postpone his family trip to Alton Towers to play for England against South Africa instead.
In Panesar?s absence Samit Patel toiled manfully and took the wicket of Yuvraj Singh with a full toss but at this level he can only ever be a supporting act.
The fact that he and even Pietersen, who removed Ravi Ashwin, proved a more potent threat than Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Tim Bresnan told England everything they needed to know about the full extent of their misjudgment.
Leading from the front: England captain Alastair Cook dug in until the close
That is to take nothing away from the efforts of the man from nearby Rajkot who has stepped so effortlessly into the shoes of the great Rahul Dravid at No3 in the Indian line-up.
So well did Cheteshwar Pujara play for his unbeaten double hundred, an immaculate display of stylish application, that his one error of judgment, the lob towards mid-on when on eight that somehow eluded Anderson, could well go down as the moment this Test, and perhaps the series, was won by India.
England were able to contain India better than on the first day but they did very little to alarm them as Pujara constructed a new wall around whom his team-mates could flourish. It was a mercy when MS Dhoni called a halt with his side on 521 for eight and England left with 18 overs to survive intact.
It was never going to happen. The sight of Ashwin opening the bowling was enough to set alarm bells ringing and it was not long before the off-spinner managed to turn one through the defences of Nick Compton, who was handed the toughest Test baptism imaginable.
Five-fer: Graeme Swann added another Indian scalp to his overnight haul
Then England made the negative, self-defeating decision to send in Anderson as nightwatchman with a full 20 minutes left against a turning ball with India sensing the kill. The only surprise was that he lasted as long as six balls.
There will be plenty of food for thought for England after this Test but surely the first thing they must do is abandon the use of a nightwatchman, as Steve Waugh once did with Australia. It sends out all the wrong signals, plays havoc with the order and simply just does not work.
When Jonathan Trott went too, a second victim for Ashwin, the look on Cook?s face at the non-striker?s end told a thousand stories. Welcome to the full-time England captaincy Mr Cook. It can only get better for you.
But perhaps not until after this series. Two days is a bit early for total despair but the writing is on the wall already for England, as it was before they even arrived here and as it has so often been in this part of the world.
Someone said there had even been a sighting of Duncan Fletcher smiling on the Indian balcony, perhaps for the first time since he famously wound up Ricky Ponting at Trent Bridge in 2005.
This has been dubbed the ?revenge series? for India after what happened last year and already the last laugh seems destined to be Fletcher?s.
?
?
Nate Silver stock market stock market Google News Obama Acceptance Speech 2012 alabama football danielle fishel
No comments:
Post a Comment