133/3 and the debutant cook's currently 59 not out.

Impressive debut innings by Cook, getting out for 60 but a vital knock for England. Again very little contribution from the middle order so far with Bell and Pietersen both out cheaply.

Woke up at 04:30 this morning to watch the first session and a half before work. Not sure if I want to do the same tomorrow :(

Well, I did, and the first session was the only one really worth watching!

Great knock by Collingwood not to mention he was not out. Good contributions from Flintoff and surprsingly Harmison. Monty stayed at the crease for 40 odd balls. All round decent batting performance at 393. As Liam said, the only real concern is the inconsistent middle order. Strauss, too, remains out of sorts. I hope England make an early breakthrough tomorrow as Jaffer and Dravid are looking a littlt too useful for my liking. Looks better than our Pakistan fortunes.

good start on day three for england: india have gone from 136/1 to 149/4! hoggard just got two in an over and i'm now happy that i woke up so early.

Oi! Would it be to any avail to switch on BBC 1 or 2 and catch a news bulletin?? No Channel4 or Sky or whatever here, just BBC1&2 and in fatal deprivation of cricket footage me.

i reckon your best bet is the live bbc audio coverage here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/default.stm), bikkel.

Ah yes, thank you but I have the World Service on cable, and I check CricInfo, the lot. I want TV footage just like in the old days when I had two TVs with both NatWest semi-finals. Guess why I have two video recorders :D

tendulkar out! panesar claims his first (and oh what a first) wicket! india 176/5.

I'm with you and trying to envision what's happening!

it's turned into an anglo-dutch cricket appreciation thread. :D freddie strikes - india now 183/6 or 47/5 on the day, trail by 210.

The first session each day has been the one worth watching... even if I am totally knackered now :)

Very disappointing, India were 190/7 at one point and yet again England have let a team off the hook. A half century for Kumble of all people. I'm delighted for Monty Panesar though, Tendulkar as his first wicket in test cricket! He looks to have some promise. I can't believe how England have thrown this advantage away. India really should have been bowled out for less than 250, giving England a lead of around 140 but for whatever reason they can never finish off a tail.

A couple of late wickets have India at 322-9, a good position for England if you ask me considering the Indians are most likely going to be batting on the 5th day. I wouldnt say it was so much England letting them off the hook as it was Hoggard exploting some swing on an otherwise pretty slow/flat pitch in the damp morning which declined as the day went on.

A couple of late wickets have India at 322-9, a good position for England if you ask me considering the Indians are most likely going to be batting on the 5th day. I wouldnt say it was so much England letting them off the hook as it was Hoggard exploting some swing on an otherwise pretty slow/flat pitch in the damp morning which declined as the day went on.

Good point, there was overnight rain which allowed Hoggard to find some swing early on but the pitch and the air dried out as the day went on. Must be very difficult for the fast bowlers with temperatures in the mid 30s. Panesar's 2nd wicket was an absolute beauty. It's looking a lot better with those couple of wickets at the end of the day, hopefully England will get that last wicket quite quickly.

india all out for 323, trail by 70 runs. :)

Hopefully England can score at around 4+ an over to try and get India in again early tomorrow. I'd say a target of 350-400 would probably be beyond them on day 5.

Why dont we bat like a one day side for the final session and set a huge target for India.

Pretty slow going. 244-3 with a great contribution from Pietersen but again he is out after some slightly ambitious shot making. I imagine they will declare soon. India are such a slow batting side that I'd be surprised to see them reech the 314 lead we have at the moment. England certainly with the advantage.

england 118/3 day 1 test 2

and india has won the second test!

Very disappointing- England's team is more than good enough to beat India, but it is very difficult for England's fast bowlers on these slow pitches where it's hard to get the ball the bounce above knee-height. These kind of pitches make for very boring cricket in my opinion. Although the Mohali pitch wasn't nearly as bad as Nagpur, looking at pitches like that it's no surprise that India rarely lose at home. Exciting test matches need something for all types of bowler- just look at the Ashes tests in England last summer. Injuries have ultimately caught up with England and I can only hope that they can come back and win the 3rd test.

England have a great chance of levelling the series on the last day- it's going to take a good performance from the bowlers to take 9 wickets on the last day though. The key I feel is getting Dravid out early- I'm expecting him to be in quite soon after the start of play tomorrow because I would hope England would get rid of Anil Kumble quickly. I think it was a pretty strange decision by Dravid to move Pathan up to opener- he's a decent lower-middle order batsman but I don't think he has the technique to open the batting at test level. England should beware of Tendulkar though- he may be out of form but class is permanent and great players have habits of defying their critics. I fancy England to win this match and claim a deserved draw in the series.

Good win for England but did you see Panesar's face when he dropped that catch? :lol:

Superb achievement to win that test and tie the series, England have so many injuries at the moment and have shown tremendous character to come back and win in very difficult conditions on a pretty lifeless pitch in Mumbai. A thoroughly deserved series draw- it just makes you wonder if England had had another 15 overs in Nagpur- it could have been a series win.

Good win by England. And looking forward to the one days.

some humour from the Indian press.

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/7528/dravid5jk.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

R.I.P Neil Williams 1962-2006
http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/inline/content/image/242377.html?alt=1
Played one test for England v India in 1990
2 Wickets(SR Tendulkar/M Azharuddin)
Runs 38

Talking about cricket, has anyone played International Cricket Captain on the PC? Class game!

Talking about cricket, has anyone played International Cricket Captain on the PC? Class game!

Yeah that is an amazing game. I had them all from the first one to last year's one for the Ashes. I was delighted when they brought that one out- I didn't think they would bring any more out. It is a very addictive game- definitely cricket's equivalent of Football/Championship Manager- they don't mess about with graphics for a match engine, the game's just packed with accurate details and stats and the tactics you use during a game work as effectively as they do in real life. One thing I love during that game is if you captain a county and you play in the C&G trophy, you often get to play a minor county in the first round (which has now been scrapped in real life), so I always try to bat first, put my batsmen on full aggression and try and get a massive score. You can do it against Namibia and Holland in the World Cup too- great fun. What a superb game!

cricket, the gentleman's game:

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41540000/jpg/_41540480_police_pa.jpg

Is the guy in the white shirt lobbing a grenade?

he's probably returning the ball.

i say, look at that lazy policeman taking a kip!