India v England Test Matches 2021 | Vital Football

India v England Test Matches 2021

mikemiller

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Fixture dates/ starting times (GMT)/ venue :

Test 1 05/02/21 (0400) Chennai (Eng won by 227 runs)
Test 2 13/02/21 (0400) Chennai (Ind won by 317 runs)
Test 3 24/02/21 (0900) Ahmedabad (Ind won by 10 wkts)
Test 4 04/03/21 (0400) Ahmedabad (Ind won by inns & 25 runs)

India won the Test match series 3-1

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There is also a T20 series planned, and an ODI series too (details later)
 
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Channel 4 is broadcasting India test series live, starting on Friday (05/01/21). Talksport 2 Radio has live commentary rights.
Team news - Zak Crawley is out injured (due to slipping in the dressing room after training !), Olly Pope has recovered from injury, Moeen Ali has recovered from Covid. Bairstow is not even a "squad reserve" though, despite some good performances n Sri Lanka, and no Rashid either. They could be back for the one-day series.
 
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05/02/21

First Test,
Day One
England won the toss and are batting first. Root and Bess are in the England eleven.
36-0.

Update 1 - England clocked up a 50 opening stand, on a slow pitch, then lost a couple of wickets. 91-2 now and concentration needed . Opener Sibley still at the crease.

Update 2 - Tea score : England 140 - 2 . Good session for England with Sibley 53 n.o. and Root 45 n.o. (third wicket partnership 77).
 
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Day One continued...
100 up for Joe Root in his 100th Test Match.
Sibley still batting too. England 227-2

Close of play : England 263-3 . Sibley out lbw for 87 to last ball of the day's play. Root not out 128. Very good innings from Sibley in the "anchor role". Root continues his great form. Good Day One for England, but high innings totals are common in India, especially in the first innings of games. The saying "Don't judge the outcome until you have seen both sides bat" is probably appropriate here. A long way to go yet.
 
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Day Two

Good morning session for England.
England now 365-3. Root has passed 150, Stokes has passed 50, over 100 partnership for the fourth wicket

Update 1 : England 474-5. Pope just out - lbw for 34. Root 217 n.o.
 
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Not sure why Joe Root was shaking his head when he walked off after being given out - must have thought he'd got an edge I suppose.
 
Day Two continued...

Yes , it did initially look like Root had edged the ball, but the slow motion replay showed that he definitely hadn't.... lbw for 218. Probably just disappointed to get out, but another great innings from him!

Close of play : The England innings crumbled a bit once Root was dismissed (not unusual), but then a useful knock from Bess ( 28 n.o.) with support from Leach (6 n.o.), left England on 555-8. Batting for two full days in an "away" test match is a very good, and fairly rare, England achievement. The pitch is starting to look more "bowler friendly" , so it will be interesting to see how the England bowlers perform tomorrow.
 
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Day Three

Lunch score : England 578 all out (Bess 34). India 59-2. A couple of early wickets for Archer, who is bowling well.

Update 1- Bess has just dismissed Kohli for 11, caught by Pope at short-leg. India 71-3, then Bess got another wicket (great catch by Root). India 73-4

Update 2- Tea score: India 154-4. Counter attack by India with Pujara (53 n.o.) looking fairly untroubled, and some big hitting from Pant (54 n.o.)

Update 3 - India 225-6 now. Two more wickets for Bess, with Pant eventually slogging himself out, caught in the deep by Leach for 91.
 
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Day Three continued...

Close of play - India 257-6. Good day for England, but India put up resistance in the last session. England had a couple of lbw reviews turned down (ball trajectory over the top of the stumps), and then Archer dropped a catch. England in a strong position, but Indian batsmen will still take some shifting.
 
I think England have used all their reviews up?

If you'd back anyone to make that catch it would have been Archer wouldn't it.
 
Day Four

Lunch score: India 337 all out (Sundar 85 n.o., Bess 4-76),
England 1-1.
Burns out for a first-ball duck, but a fairly good session for England overall. In order to give the bowlers a rest in the hot conditions, and to avoid batting last on a worn pitch, England did not enforce the follow-on.

Update 1 - Tea score : England 2nd inns 119-5
England took a few risks to try to get to a declaration score fairly quickly. Root played well for his 40, but the other batsmen were not quite in the same class on a wearing pitch, with variable bounce. Amount of time left in the game is now an important consideration re declaration, as the Indian batsmen are used to batting for over a day in these conditions. Commentator just said that India have only lost four of their last 50 matches at home.

Update 2 - England have surprisingly slowed up. Probably got some target in mind re how many overs the England bowlers are capable of bowling at full effort. 147-6 now. The TV commentators are puzzled by the tactics!
 
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Day Four continued...

England 178 all out. Maybe Root was just trying to make it impossible for India to win? I have noticed though that some ex-England captains (eg Atherton, Hussain) suddenly switch from generally negative tactics to more carefree attack, when they retire from the field and move to the commentary box! :p

Update 1 - Leach getting a lot of turn... and a wicket - Rohit bowled for 12. India 34-1 now

Update 2 - Close of play : India 39-1. Minimum of 90 overs scheduled for tomorrow. England need 9 more wickets, but India will not be frightened by the prospects of batting out a full day, as they have often done that before in these playing conditions. Unlikely that India will go for a run chase, but with Pant playing, not impossible.
 
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Day Five

Lunch score : India 144-6 (Gill 50, Kohli 45 n.o.) . A good morning session for England. Good bowling from Anderson (3-8), with Leach (2-56) providing useful suppport. Bess has bowled erratically, but has taken a wicket too. Kohli is proving to be difficult to remove, as expected.

Update 1 : India 179-9. Stokes eventually prised out Kohli, bowled for 72. Leach, soon afterwards, removed Nadeem for a duck. England then thought that they had taken the final Indian wicket, but a gust of wind had just blown the bails off, and it doesn't even look slightly windy out there - very strange, but verified by the tv replay.

Final score: India all out for 192, as Archer took the final wicket. - Bumrah caught by Buttler for 4. Best England bowlers were Anderson 3-17 and Leach 4-76.
England won by 227 runs. Very good performance by England, as India rarely lose test matches at home.

Joe Root deservedly won the Man of the Match award - outstanding batting (258 runs in the match!) and also took an amazing catch too. During this match , he overtook Alex Stewart on the all-time England test match run scorers list - only Gooch and Cook ahead of him now.

England go 1-0 up in the test series , with three more games to play. Next match starts on 13th February, same venue and time slot.

Team news - Bairstow, Wood and Sam Curran will be back in the England squad for the third test match, as part of England's player rotation plan. Archer will be rested after England's forthcoming match.
 
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12/02/21

Team news ahead of the Second Test Match on Saturday -Jofra Archer has been ruled out due to an elbow injury. England were planning to use squad rotation anyway, to try to offset the energy-draining conditions, although probably not that specific change.

Anderson is being rested,with Broad taking his place. Bess is replaced by Moeen Ali, and Foakes comes in for Buttler.
 
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13/02/21
Second Test
Day One

India won the toss and batted first,. Broad and Stone led the England bowling attack. India made 106-3 by Lunch. Opener Rohit has looked in good form (80 n.o.). Moeen Ali did well on his return, bowling Indian captain Kohli for a duck, with a delivery that turned sharply.

Update 1 : Tea score - India 189-3. Good session for India . Rohit 132 n.o. and Rahane 32 n.o., with a partnership of 103 so far. The England bowlers have rarely caused them any problems since Lunch.

Update 2 : Close of play - India 300-6. Rohit (161) and Rahane (67) were eventually removed , then Ashwin ( 13 ). Not much in the wicket for the fast bowlers to exploit. The dangerous Pant is still in (33 n.o. ), with A. Patel ( 5 n.o.). England's most effective bowlers were Leach and Root. Moeen Ali picket up a couple of wickets, but was quite expensive. Good day for India, but England fought back a bit in the final session.
 
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