West Ham Online

1st Test June 20-24 @ Headingley
England team : Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir.

No Bethell & various fast bowlers .. Atkinson, Wood, Archer unavailable

India lose Kohli and Rohit Sharma to retirement after the debacle in Australia

As well as Brook played thought he gave his wicket away.
Needs more experience in these situations.

Woakes will come out if required
In the spirit of Colin Cowdrey, Malcolm Marshall & Rick McCosker

Really on a knife edge now.

Enthralling game.

336/7 - Root out. Woakes injured. Squeaky bum time.

Excellent Test match
India fighting hard with their home crowd behind them
 

Strong favourites now , see what happens if you decide to "target " Joe root India???

Brook gone,another quick wicket could still turn this on its head.  Great stuff to watch.

England storming home
India won’t get close to having a second new ball at this rate so need something miraculous with the old ball
Siraj stepping on the boundary rope catching Brook was disastrous. First thing you do is establish where the boundary is while the ball is in the air. Complete brain fade

Less than 100 needed for England to win.
Looks like a totally different game now to what it did after the first hour. 

Pope reviews
Missing leg Missing off
Absolutely plumb 2/3 up middle
All a bit Shane Watson

Target below 300 now.

75-1

India strike right at the end, Crawley bowled by Siraj. 50-1 at stumps, fascinating day ahead tomorrow.

Crawley CASTLED in the last over of the day
England need 324 with 9 wickets on Day 4. Presuming Woakes comes out

Doable but unlikely. Similar target was chased down in Leeds but this wicket is giving the bowlers a bit of help unlike Headingly. Should be an entertaining watch none the less.

Fauxstralian wrote: ↑01 Aug 2025, 19:16 I’m not a bird or born in Barnstaple 

Though we may both be celebrating next week when it’s 10 years since England won an Ashes series
10 years! 

300 would make a good chase
Not easy but not too many
Presume Woakes would come out & bat one handed Malcolm Marshall style if needed

Can't see India losing this if the lead gets anywhere near 300 which is looking likely. 
Been a really good series but some poor fielding has cost both sides dearly at vital times.

Don’t think there has ever been underarm bowling in Test cricket
In the modern era I think it was reintroduced by Mike Brearley who used it in one day games for Middlesex in the late 1970’s
Luckily it wasn’t against NZ so no one burst into tears

Eerie Decent" wrote: ↑02 Aug 2025, 13:57 Didn't they used to bowl underarm when Bradman was playing?

Didn't they used to bowl underarm when Bradman was playing?

Gill finishes on 754 from 10 innings
After the first two Tests there was talk of him challenging Bradmans record of most runs in a 5 Test series
In the 1930 Ashes Bradman scored 974 despite only batting 7 times so Gill eventually not even in the same postcode

It really is 50/50 at the moment and there will be a result as think the weather is looking ok
Both captains need to have a word to their teams though
You don’t put your hands on a batsman when you’ve got him out & some mouthy types need to pull their heads in or at least be funny.

Westside, I hope that is a comfort to you in these difficult times

Very finely balanced game, great test match cricket I think the three dropped catches today admittedly none of them easy  ( well maybe dawsons) could come back to haunt us !

This has been a fantastic series and compressed nature of it combines with four consecutive five day matches has pummeled both sides physically especially the bowlers.
Mohammed Siraj has now bowled more overs than anyone else and was still charging in to demolish our middle order.

 
Though we may both be celebrating next week when it’s 10 years since England won an Ashes series
10 years!