That will have done Roots average some good. Not sure I see the point in Sibley. Just seems to take up balls and minutes, getting a score seems to be an after thought.
Heroic innings from Root. Bairstow with a good contribution too and Moeen deserves a mention for his 27. The rest of the batsmen should be utterly ashamed of themselves. Not much else to say really, other than apart from those it was abject and Burns needs to spend more time in the nets/focusing on cricket than preening his hair and beard in the mirror. How/why they keep picking him is beyond me. The fact is the England team are utterly reliant on Root and Anderson pulling it out of the bag with bat and ball. Without those two they'd be truly stuffed.
Burns, Crawley and Sibley are not batsmen imo, they are robots. Mechanical actions going through motions. Looking back at batsmen of the past I've seen and thought were not great are looking absolute geniuses now. Hussain was an awful guy for lbw, but he could bat. Strauss was similar in his day. Atherton was as dull as dishwater. Butcher was very mixed but my god this lot are just following the motions and if the ball doesn't move or it goes where the last one is then great. The others who seem to think the ball must go in the slot like it's white ball are getting set up for the chop so easily. It seems to me that bairstow is completely out of practice as he was a bit better than this, I'd worry these guys are just the last real generation of test cricketers as the white ball game wasn't fast bash and slash stuff.
Rohit gone, 27-2........scores are level. India could be in trouble here............Kohli arrives at the crease
It's very much poised now to be either a draw or England win. Well I say that but only cos England have buttler, bairstow and alli who can score quick if they stay in. The lead is not impossible but 4 wickets left. India can take up the time and make this a draw if they can. 250 chase in 60 or 70 covers seems a big ask.
Don’t write off England batsmen getting out and being 20-3 abs trying to save the game before being bowled out for 150
Anything can happen for sure but root is the only real test batsman there. The opening 2 have I suppose proven to be capable of 20overs of blocking. If they can survive at all that is. You'd think England need 2 more quick wickets in the morning to starve the runs off. Its not get much time left tbh
I cant see anything but a draw now. 8 down. 182 lead. Bound to be 210 with a half day to go. Lunch is a long time off but england need to get the thing done in the next half hour to have a chance
look england can certainly "lose it" but they would have to throw it away here one and all. this is actively petering out in to a draw. theres no ability in the indian tail to chase scores but england are bowling ****e at them. nothing at the stumps. this low will be in at 2pm most likely. no catchers, no slips.
win is off the tbale now imo. Curran has come on and the field is better but they are able now to play shots. lead 206. no chance of england win IMO, time will run out. IMO root has been in run save mode since lead got to 180.
lead 259. england played everyone to let these two get in the turned late to Anderson. This is done for england. No chance of getting near that.
