Definitely. France, Ireland and NZ were the best teams at the WC. The results between those three were decisive in the outcome (although England could have had a say surprisingly). Ireland could have won it. Farrell is certainly getting the best out the them. Must now be overwhelming favourites to win the Six Nations. Have they ever been better?
I thought they might slip after the disappointment of the WC and losing 2 key players, but the new blood looked good tonight. McCarthy and Crowley really stepped up, and when you have Lowe, Bundee Aki, Gibson-Park and Henshaw all firing then life is good.
Tough day ahead , Cricket, Spurs game and the England v Italy Rugby , as I write this Root gives a dolly and is out for 5 , bollox
So my mother had eye surgery on Monday - and is under strict medical instructions to not be her usual self when watching the Six Nations
I was going to pose the same question, then Duckett was out This England team believe that can do anything, but Ashwin and Bumrah will be massive threats tomorrow. But they’ve done really well today and are in a far better position than expected. It will need a special innings from someone and a few meaningful contributions from others. And it will be fun either way.
Certainly one big hundred has to happen, but you have to expect an average of 40 for the other top 5 for them to get close. It's not impossible.... One thing's for certain - time is not a factor either way!
If England win, it will their highest ever chase, highest winning score in India, highest winning score against India and highest 4th innings score in India irrespective of the result!! So they need to break some records. Bumrah will be unplayable again at times with the old ball reversing and keeping low and Ashwin with his height and therefore bounce will be tricky. Kuldeep was spinning it a lot too. So I’m not optimistic - but this team defy the stats and the odds time and again. And if they get on a roll, they can knock off these runs in 70 overs.
That was a missed opportunity. The middle order failed comprehensively, but they still managed to near 300 chasing.
R.I.P Kelvin Kiptum, world record holder in the marathon The 24 year old was killed in a car crash. He ran 2:00:35, which is as close as anyone has come to breaking 2 hours for the marathon. That’s around 4:30 for each of the 26 miles
Ben Stokes plays his 100th Test on Thursday. Should he ever bowl again, he needs 3 wickets to become only the 3rd player after Sobers and Kallis to do the double of 6,000 runs and 200 wickets
