UKH

Steady start.

Great to be able to wake up and watch it on TV.  When did players in test cricket start having squad numbers on their shirts ?

2019 Ashes I think.

Unusually sensible start from England. Lets hope it continues and they can get some runs after tea.

I hope work don’t expect me to do much before close of play...

Good to see Sibley continue to show some form. Root closing in on another 50.....

As an experienced concurrent sports viewer/worker, I can recommend saving menial, repetitive tasks which don't require much brain power for times such sports are on. For example, I had about 3 months worth of phenomenally tedious and repetitive lab work to do one summer during my PhD - so synced it with all three cycling tours and watched almost every minute. Today, I'm making a map (which basically consists of drawing around stuff). 

Currently have TMS on, however they dont seem to be commentating on the cricket any more. Just talking about cricket with occasional score updates.

Root closing in on another 100 ...

close to overtaking Alec Stewart's total of Test runs for England. 

Yes it’s great to have cricket on TV again. I woke up early to listen on TMS but it wasn’t on air. England are playing very well and fingers crossed for Joe Root to get a century in his hundredth test.

There we go, well played Joe Root, brilliant.

Looked almost routine....

Well done Joe 

TalkSport2 seems to have the commentary. Better to listen to that in the middle of the night..

Saying that, watching C4 now and Root just got his ton!

Edit: and I'm a compulsive updater of CricInfo for the stats etc!

Talk Sport 2 have got the radio broadcasting rights for this series. 

Root playing so well nothing is phasing him and Sibley is playing really well too.

This is so much better than I feared after the way India played in Australia.

Cheers for that 👍🏻

Quick reminder he's on a hat-trick too

That would explain the lack of commentary then

Good days play. Disappointing for Sibley but he'd stopped scoring taking forever to go from 85 to 87 but he blocked one end all day and let Root get on with accumulating the runs. England should be capable of 400 plus from here.

Oh that would be good. 
Hopefully he can bat for another 2-3 hours first though

They do have a habit of losing a wicket in the last over before close. Otherwise though, Rooty looking like an early contender for sports person of the year!

Alan

Agreed. Whilst that blocking role is important I feel you need to be able to kick on at a certain point - batting in the last session looked very easy.

Maybe I'm being greedy, but its India and they're 250-odd/3. I'd like to see 500 + at least. 

I think Dot Sibley is doing pretty much the job that England need him to do. The one thing I’d like him to add is a few more options for easy singles. Root, Bairstow and Buttler are brilliant at picking up 3 or 4 singles an over against the spinners, but it doesn’t work so well if your batting partner can’t. 

First session tomorrow is critical. Now need to st the Indians out of the game. Root is some player. He makes it look so easy.

We're in agreement here. When I say "kick on" I don't mean smash boundaries, I more mean up the strike rate from 30 odd to 50 odd after say, the first 100 balls you've faced. Taking those singles is "all" he'd need to add to do so. 

Remember England posting 400+ here and losing by an innings ! I wonder what first innings score we need ? I'd be surprised if anything under 500 were competitive.

400 ror 4.  That's a good way to wake up !

You should have woken up half an hour ago..

Look at these stats for 2021! Smithesque almost but without the cheating.

Tests 3, Innings 5, Runs 610, Average 152, 50s 0, 100s 3 

9 runs for another double ton.

Just a few runs off overtaking Alec Stewart for third on the England all time test runs list, with a better average than any Englishman for 50 years or more.

ROoooooooooooot!

This is the best run of form I've ever seen from an English batsman. I remember Vaughan in Australia, Strauss in a purple patch, and Cook in Asia, but Root simply doesn't look like he's going to get out... Absolutely outstanding.

Makes up for the series where Kohli, Smith and, a bit longer ago, Graham Smith or Gilchrist would plunder mercilessly. 

There's a good documentary on Channel 4 about the 2005 Ashes by the way, well worth a watch for some reminiscing and actually a pretty emotional watch. 

What a treat to get up on a Saturday morning and watch live test match cricket in Chennai. Its stopping me getting out for a bike ride!

Took me over an hour to change the bed this morning,  with TV on in the corner. 

So nice to be watching test cricket in the morning instead of an evening highlights package!

no1 son wants to head up to the nets after close of play - having it free to air must help the sport

That's great to hear! And part of the thrust of a Guardian review of C4's low-tech but pure coverage I read last night.

I often wonder how many more Stewart would have got had he not kept, and was just allowed to bat. IIRC he averaged over 50 without the gloves and 35 ish with?

It gets worse for India. Rohit drops a dolly!

Buttler should have walked though. A clear edge to the keeper and India had no reviews left. 

Does anybody walk these days? TV replays and the DR had done for sportsmanship. Interesting to listen to some of the old players about who always walked and others that never did. 550 up with a no-ball!

He could do worse than follow Adam Gilchrists examples. I'm being nostalgic for fair play and sportsmanship although I think India, on the whole, have been very sporting so far. Especially Virat Kohli who definitely leads by example in the field.

Yes it’s really good to have free to air cricket again. 558-8 at the end of play, excellent!

Not a bad morning session for England. 20 odd runs added and Jofra Archer making the batsmen uncomfortable with the new ball. Still a long way to go but England have 500 runs in hand and are looking good. 

4 down, I’m going to have to get out of bed and turn the tv on

I'm watching +1!! Still 2 down!!

Looks like a proper old school test match at the moment.

Unlike WI in Bangladesh.  What a turn around that was. 

Wow, 210* on debut! 
 

Wish I had put a couple of quid on the Windies to win that at the start of the day. Incredible performance by Karl Mayers and the sixth highest run chase on record!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/55969692

Why is it that every time England try and bat themselves into a position to declare, they always do this thing where they pootle along slowly with no real aim and wait way longer than all the pundits suggest? Even Alastair Cook said bat on to 400 then declare and he was forever not-declaring.

Alan

To be fair England were averaging about 4 an over in the second innings which is pretty respectable. India need 420 to win. If they lose 2 before stumps it will have been a good day for England.

Ex-players always declare earlier than current captains. 
I think going for a higher target was fair enough (it means you can attack longer in the field). But I think they messed up the innings a bit. The fluent batsmen took too many risks, meaning we were left with struggling tailenders. 

I think they could have aimed to declare about 15 overs earlier. Maybe they don't trust the spinners and are mindful of India's chase in Australia.... albeit on a better surface.

It was a totally different mindset after tea. Gave the initiative to India. I bet they loved that!

I think England were right to go for the higher target, they just lost momentum really badly when Stokes, Root and Pope got out. Could’ve done with 10 more overs at 5 an over, instead of trying to blast 10 an over.
I know we’re still favourites, but they wanted to close off any route to glory for India. 

Let's just hope India are not 8 down at stumps tomorrow and we are left wondering, " What if,.....?"

While Gill, Kohli or Pant are in, I don’t think they will be playing for a draw

What we don't know was what sort of physical shape were the England bowlers in ? its pretty hot and humid out there.

I'm sure a mixture of that and India's performance in Australia all came into the decision making.  Its just unfortunate that the hitherto excellent run rate took a bit of a knock after tea.

Interestingly Jack Leach has very poor first innings career average bowling figures and exceptionally good second innings career average bowling figures. If his wicket today is anything to go by, he could have quite a day tomorrow.

He certainly got some turn this morning. I must confess that I hadn’t realised he was a leggy until today! Oops

alan

Slow left arm finger spinner I believe.

Just got up and it’s all over. Guess no one needed to worry about the slow progress at the end of yesterday’s innings 😊

Brilliant win. 
Great innings from Joe Root, and great coin calling too.
Sets the series up nicely. A series win will still be tough, but there is a day-night game to come which could be good for England. 

A great win. England were good in all departments, batting, bowling, fielding and captaincy. One of the best all round performances I can remember for some time. Looking forward to the next one. 

And all the pre-match hype. And what about the concern over the umpires? No problem when you are winning though.

What was the concern with the umpires?

An amazing win for England. Root, Anderson and Stokes are genuine world class cricketers and would grace any international team. Roll on Chennai game 2 on Saturday morning!

People shouldn't get too carried away. England were fantastic but if they lost the toss the Indians could have won with a large margin as well. Without Root's sublime first innings things might have looked very different. Flat pitches that will deteriorate are a massive advantage to the winner of the toss.

On umpiring India have been known to intimate umpires and at the moment travel for fair high quality international umpire selection is pandemic disrupted. I didn't see most of the match but am not aware of any terrible decisions but the second innings dismissal of Bess to me illustrated a potential fault in the laws (if the ball hits the pad and bat pretty much at the same time it should be not out in my view as a shot was effectively intended and it couldn't have hit the stumps).

There's no doubt that winning or losing the toss can provide a decisive advantage. Having said that,  England still had to bowl India out twice and given India were on the back of an amazing series win in Australia and hadn't lost a home test match for years it is a pretty impressive achievement for England to win so emphatically.

If England win the toss again on Saturday morning I expect them to bat first but there's no guarantee they'll rack up another 500 run first innings. If they lose the toss there's no doubt they'll be up against it. 

Stunned to wake up and discover the scale of the victory. My fears about a tardy declaration were well and truly misplaced. Such a shame the stadium was empty.

How we will miss Jimmy when he hangs his boots up!

It appears that every time this discussion about Anderson or Broad retiring, up they both step and prove the doubters wrong. Well done England. Now fingers crossed for Joe to win another toss!

I feel sorry for Chris Woakes.  In any other era he'd have been a shoe in.  That might be my Warwickshire bias but I'm pretty sure he's been close to par with Jimmy and Malfoy.

Chris Woakes, may be a more skillful bowler now, but his overseas test figures really are shocking up to now. http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Players/PlayerCountries.asp?Playe...

His best chance is probably the day-night game, if they expect movement. 

Watched the last wickets fall over breakfast, but wasn't up early enough to see 'that over' from Jimmy - waiting for the highlights. Great win for England!

What channel are the highlights on?

They're on ALL4 after 7pm.

Roll on Saturday...Test no 2!

Highlights tend to be up on C4.com around 2pm

Nice to have something to celebrate after the woeful performance of their rugby union counterparts against Scotland on Saturday. 

Credit to the Scots though. They played superbly and thoroughly deserved their win. Best I can remember seeing them play. 

Back to the cricket- bloody good toss to win! 

Root can’t put a foot wrong at the moment. Long may his purple patch continue. 

It’s lovely to see the sportsmanship and mutual respect between him and Kohli. Imagine the pair of them at the crease! 

Virat Kohli always strikes me as a classy sportsman, on and off the pitch.

On this tour, Root has scored as many first innings runs as the rest of the team put together, so yes, let’s hope he stays in form. 

Joe, Virat and Kane all seem like good blokes. (Tim Paine was also doing well until the last couple of tests.) The pressure on Kohli in India must be horrendous but he carries that weight well. 

No Anderson,  Archer or Bess but in comes Broad, Ali and Woakes. Foakes in for Buttler as well so its all change for England. Apparently the pitch is going to be a raging turner from Day 1. I hope Root wears his lucky socks and wins the toss.

15000 fans inside the stadium allowed to watch this one as well. 

So India win the toss and decide to bat, surprise surprise. Even first session and India bossing the second session so far.

Winning the toss could be crucial on this pitch. Ollie Stone is fast though, but still learning his trade.

A fourth wicket at last with Rohit out for 161, a great innings. Moeen currently bowling well. Fingers crossed.........

Great bowling from Jack Leach. 
Third umpire not having a good game. Stumping looked like benefit of the doubt. Bat pad catch was a shocker. 
A lot of turn on the first day though. 

That's  at least 2 if not 3 questionable umpiring decisions going against England, all going down to the review. Something strange going on. No wonder there are being some words said between the players. Should be 300 for 9!!

Regarding Kohli refusing to walk until the replay was shown on the big screen. I just read this on the BBC sports website.  I thought it was hilarious!

The last person that stood like that after being clean bowled was WG Grace."

Legend has it that Grace refused to walk and once said "they came to see me bat, not you umpire" when given out lbw.

Moeen was very expensive despite some excellent deliveries in the mix. Would be nice to see him tighten up.

We just need a run a ball century from Sibley to get us back into the game. Looks like we will really struggle if we don’t get a first innings lead. 
The commentator was saying that Moeen’s action has more moving parts than a normal off spinner. He snaps his wrist in his action rather than pure finger spin, so gets more revs, but harder to control. 

Everyone seems to be saying it was India's day.  I think it was fairly balanced.  300/6 after the first day looked about par to me, the pitch didn't look too badly behaved.  If England can wrap it up during the 1st session tomorrow for 360ish and Root has another good innings we will be right in the game.  

300 for 6 on a turning wicket is a very good day for India. The big problem for England is their second innings will be incredibly difficult so they need to play astonishingly well tomorrow with ball and bat.

Indeed his action is a little more complex, but if you’re not bowling in the right places as a 33 year old spinner then should you really be in an international side? From what I’ve seen he offers similar to Bess, except that as a younger bowler Bess is still learning his trade.

Well, we bowled OK. Would have been happier if 4 wickets had fallen in the morning session rather than 8 though.

Pitch is an absolute nightmare...

b

Just woken up to find England have collapsed and currently 76-5!!! I’ll have to watch on catch up to see what has been going on........

England now have precisely no chance of winning this game still needing 44 runs to avoid the follow on. 

OK, can anyone tell me how come there is a crowd in?  It's great to have a real crowd but I hope it's safe.

TL;DR: the pitch is a sandpit worthy of about Day 7 of a test

No idea.  To be honest I only just noticed, assuming crowd noise was just overdue!

And yet again more dodgy umpiring decisions. How can a batsman be playing a shot with his bat behind his pad, and even uses his knee to nudge the ball away. Pointless review then by Root oif the umpire has already made up his mind. Then another 50/50 decision on a stumping goes to India. Why were neutral umpires not considered? How can England ever have a chance facing this sort of bias? It's not rocket science to get these decisions correct!

Neutral umpires are not in place because of Covid. I didn’t have a problem with the stumping, on balance I thought that was not out (are the tv company handing over all their angles?) but the lbw was poor. 
doesn’t change the game much though. 
I did think our best chance for another win was the day-night, but not sure what sort of pitch we’ll get for that 

It would not have made a scrap of difference. India won the toss, batted very well, and have a bowling attack better suited to the pitch.

The BBC news mentioned that the Indian covid restrictions had been relaxed for this match which is a surprise to say the least! Sounds like they are willing to risk a new spike of infections just to provide a boost to the team.

That boost seems to have done the job ! We're well and truly trounced here.

Good things for England from this test; Foakes has backed up his reputation as a test player. And Olly Stone has played the Archer role better than Archer. Must be tempting to pick him and Anderson for the next game. 

It’s going from bad to worse. England now 50-3 sending Leach in as night watchman didn’t work. Root now at the crease let’s hope he can survive this evening. On a positive note England only need 431 to win...........

Root was lucky to survive that last appeal.

Guess the umpiring has to even out eventually. 

This match is only going one way!

I think allowing batsmen to pad the ball way outside off can have a huge impact throughout a test/series England did need to bat better first knock though.

Totally agree. We have been completely outplayed in this test match.

If this was a boxing match the towel would have been thrown in by now. 

Be interesting to see how we bounce back in the third test. 

We will need to win the toss or else it is again all downhill!

Moeen batting beautifully for a while. England thrashed in the end. Roll on the 3rd test! 

Let’s hope that the day, night match in Ahmedabad will be more seamer friendly than the turn of Chennai? 

Bizarrely Moeen is going home now. I know they’ve got to ration the workload for the 3 format players, but I wonder if Moeen and Jonny Bairstow could have been rested for the start of the English summer. They’re far more useful on this tour than at home. 

It is bizarre isn't it. After taking 8 wickets and obviously enjoying his cameo with the bat he decides he wants to go home.  Maybe he's fighting some inner demons but its definitely going to leave England weaker going into the next test match.