England v India: fourth Test, day one – live!

Over-by-over report from the action at the Rose BowlVic Marks: England’s batsman must nail down Sri Lanka spotsCounty cricket: Lancs v Worcs, Surrey v Notts and more – live!Email john.ashdown@theguardian.com 2.51pm BST 38th over: England 95-6 (Ali 8, Curran 6) Hardik Pandya returns. A short wide one offers Curran the chance to slap through the covers but an excellent stop from Rahane denies him runs. There’s nothing the man at cover can do a couple of balls later as the youngster thunks through for three. Moeen lets the ball slide off the face and through backward point for three more.“Re: 32nd over captains,” begins John Starbuck. “Yes, Steve Hudson has a point about fast bowlers, but that isn’t quite what I meant. The very best batsmen seldom make very good captains, though there are always exceptions. A fine example is Mike Brearley, who wasn’t picked for his run-making, but his leadership. Otherwise, a good captain might well be at least a useful bowler, spin or medium-pace. Another instance is Brian Close, who led the team by being absolutely terrifying to his players, but always knew when to bring himself on to get rid of a particularly persistent batting opponent. I’m thinking both New Zealand and India in the early 1970s.” 2.48pm BST 37th over: England 89-6 (Ali 5, Curran 3) Hello all. It feels like a while since I was last in this chair. But there’s a familiar sight on the scoreboard at least – England six down and scrambling to stay in the game. Much of the day one post-mortem will focus on England’s batting failures, understandably, but India have been nothing short of exceptional out in the field. Shami continues and beats Moeen with a beauty that seams away a touch across the left-hander. From the last the bowler brings one back into him and Moeen isn’t a million miles away from Jenningsing himself but the ball whistles past off stump, taking a layer of lacquer off on the way past. A maiden. Continue reading…
Via: England v India: fourth Test, day one – live!