England v India – live! | Rob Smyth and Alan Gardner

• Email Rob with all your thoughts rob.smyth@guardian.co.uk • Press F5 to refresh this page or use our auto-refresher • Follow Rob on Twitter if that’s your thing 37th over: India 98-2 (Laxman 44, Gambhir 1) England have to make Gambhir play here. He will cautious about the impact of ball on bat and therefore elbow, not to mention the fact it’s early in his innings. Anderson fails to do so for most of that over. “Rob, which Test match team currently has the most dudes, would you say?” asks Mark Lloyd. “As well as being No 1 in the world, India would also seem to have a very respectable dude count. Is there any way of incorating dude-ness into the ranking system, so this can be clarified once and for all?” Goodness knows. Who are the dudes of cricket? Chris Gayle is obviously The Big Lebowski of cricket – look at his magnificent Twitter page , a compelling tale of 12-hour kips, afternoon naps, dancing and cheese – but who else? I don’t know if Afridi qualifies as a dude or simply the second coming. Do England have any dudes? Eoin Morgan maybe. 36th over: India 97-2 (Laxman 43, Gambhir 1) The cake, says Alan Gardner, is ” pretty good “. He has now walked off doing this . Tremlett has Gambhir in his sights. You might some early elbow music, but in fact it’s all fairly orthodox stuff, angled across Gambhir, who has to play only one of the five balls he faces in that over. “Half an hour before the start of play going on a walk to find the end of the queue seemed like a good idea,” says Andy Bull. “Forty minutes later I finally got back to my seat in time to see Jimmy Anderson start the second over of the day. I should be grateful it only took me ten minutes to walk each way from the start to the finish, which was a way away down the Wellington Road and around the corner up into Cavendish Avenue. The man at the very front told me it had taken them two hours to get that far. ‘Where did you join the queue?’ I asked. ‘Somewhere in Hampstead,’ he replied. Lord’s certainly seemed to be caught short by the demand. At 9.30 they were turning people away from the tube station. But by 10.30 the stewards were saying that everyone who joins the line before 11.30 should be able to get in eventually. Inside the ground, irritatingly, there are still a lot of empty seats. There has been, as Selve mentioned, a lot of trouble with touts buying up multiple tickets, which means that there is now a limit of one ticket per person in place, that has slowed things down a lot. Test cricket is, of course, dying. It took me huge amounts of will power, by the way, not to begin this email with the cliche ‘they came in their thousands…’” 35th over: India 96-2 (Laxman 42, Gambhir 1) Blimey, we didn’t expect this: the new batsman is… Dame Judi Dench Gautam Gambhir. The stones on this one! His left elbow is heavily strapped after that horrible blow he took yesterday, but he looks in no pain when the ball hits the bat. He gets off the mark with a single to leg off Anderson, and then leaves a ball that misses off stump by a whisker. It was either a brilliant leave or a seriously lucky one. Actually it was an excellent leave because he did so on length rather than line. “One of my favorite Laxman stories is after he shared a (yet another) 300+ run partnership with Dravid, at Adelaide – just over 2 years after THAT day in Kolkata,” begins R Ramesh. “He was asked what was going through his mind when he walked in to bat, with India chasing 550+ and 4 down for not much, by an Aussie commentator, waxing lyrical for a change. Laxman squinted slightly, thought about it and dead-batted ‘nothing much really’! More of that today, please.” Laxman is brilliant, a rare example of a sportsman for whom you can legitimately use the word ‘dude’. WICKET! India 94-2 (Dravid c Prior b Anderson 36) Gone! Jimmy Anderson has struck, and it’s the key wicket of Rahul Dravid. That is a huge breakthrough so early in the day. Dravid fished needlessly outside off stump at a shortish delivery, with the ball taking a thin edge on its way through to Prior. Dravid is livid and swishes his bat in disgust. That was a poor stroke, especially from a champion like Dravid. 34th over: India 94-1 (Dravid 36, Laxman 41) Laxman leaves Tremlett on length, with the ball just bouncing over the stumps. That was a cracking leave in fact. “The cake,” says Lord Selvey. “Not a recipe from the Alice B Toklas cookbook is it? Could be fun if it is.” Now that’s an OBO I’d pay to read, not to mention write. 33rd over: India 91-1 (Dravid 36, Laxman 41) This is brilliant: we have our first ever OBO cake. Katie Cannon promised to send one in the 28th over on Thursday , and here it is. In a Morrisons bag. I will share it with Alan Gardner, my OBO colleague today (Bull is off sick with a bruised fingernail doing real journalism at the ground) and report back. A cake! A real cake! Anyway, the cricket. Yes. Another near miss for England, with Laxman flick-pulling Anderson in the air but between the men at midwicket and mid on. In fairness, I think he had the shot under control, just about. One more from Anderson and then it might be time for Broad. 32nd over: India 88-1 (Dravid 35, Laxman 38) Tremlett beats Dravid with an excellent lifter. Dravid kisses his teeth, walks to short leg and presses the reset button. As the chaps on Sky said this morning, nobody bats time like Dravid. And now Dravid is dropped! I don’t believe it, Ian Bell has dropped him at short leg. It was a really sharp chance, but Bell doesn’t drop them. He never drops them. Dravid inside-edged a defensive stroke onto the pads, from where it deflected high above Bell’s head. He thrust up a right hand, but the ball didn’t stick. Tremlett beats Dravid next ball as well. This has been a brilliant over. “Over coffee this morning have been musing on Broad’s bad luck this Test,” says Tom Crane. “He could have had a five-for but for the dropped catches, and was then denied a ton but the declaration yesterday. Had he achieved both of these he’d have been on the Honours Board with both bat and ball in the same Test. Anyone know if the last time this was achieved? By and England player?” Here’s the full list . You’ll notice a certain English superhero did it a few times. 31st over: India 87-1 (Dravid 35, Laxman 38) There has been no sign of swing, and Bumble reckons the only swing England might get is reverse. As a result they are bowling a fairly orthodox length, with just the occasional full delivery as a surprise weapon. Anderson’s line is a maybe a touch too wide in that over, which allows Laxman to shoulder arms at most of the deliveries. A maiden. “Are you short of emails because your entire traditional readership queued up at 2am to get in and now have no need of you?” says Stephen Russell. “It’s like empty-nest syndrome, even more so because you know they’ll bankrupt themselves buying chips and beer and come crawling back to you for the next game.” 30th over: India 87-1 (Dravid 35, Laxman 38) Dravid chases a full, wide delivery from Tremlett and slices it on the bounce to Pietersen in the gully. This has been a good start from England. If they could pick up one of these early on, especially Dravid, they will really fancy their chances. “The required rate at the start of play was 3.85 runs per over,” says Richard Clarke. “Comeonindia!” 29th over: India 87-1 (Dravid 35, Laxman 38) Here’s Jimmy Anderson, who has had a surprisingly poor match. He has just two slips and a gully – and England will regret that now, because Laxman has just fenced one in the air through the vacant fourth-slip area for four. That’s well worth the first ‘BAH!’ of the day. It won’t be the last. 28th over: India 81-1 (Dravid 34, Laxman 33) This is sport at its most life-affirming, and they haven’t even bowled a bloody ball yet! To wild cheers, Chris Tremlett runs in to bowl the first ball of the day to Laxman… and Harmisons it down the leg side. The atmosphere is sensational. “Every ball is being cheered” says an incredulous Bumble. Laxman gets the first run of the day with a work to leg. A pretty good first over from Tremlett, that loosener aside. “It is bedlam here,” says Mike Selvey. And that’s just the press box, arf. “The queues are beyond massive and for an hour or more people have been turned away from joining. Queues started at around two o’clock this morning and stretched at one time for more than a mile. Yet here we are ten minutes before play and the ground is barely half full. Lord’s is simply not geared up to cash sales. There have been problems with touts too who have paid people to queue for the max four tickets per head allowed. MCC rapidly reduced that to one per person to try and counter that. But it is already obvious as a different type of crowd who have got a beautiful morning and a tremendous day in prospect.” Sachin Tendulkar can bat from around 12.25pm. I know this because, er, it says so on Twitter. That’s how journalism works, right? Gautam Gambhir is also ready to bat, although probably only in an emergency. Don’t bother going to Lord’s . It is already sold out . Great stuff, and a triumph for the MCC, who priced tickets at £20 and allowed under-16s in free. (Prompting an amusing aside from Ebeneezer Hussain on Sky: “I’ll go in as an under-16, bring a load of kids and get them to pay…”) Even my iPod is excited about today’s play . On shuffle this morning, with 7,877 songs to choose from, it went for this . All together now: “I fell into a burning ring of fire…” So , how many of your colleagues have pulled a sicky today? I contemplated it, but I knew that, knowing my luck, the camera would cut to me having a public display of affection with a bottle of gin at precisely the moment everyone I know at the Guardian lifted their head to look at the TV screen my innate professionalism and simple yet profound love for you, the reader, inevitably won out. I wonder what the most absurd excuse for having today off has been. If hot dogs be the food of love… “Rob, I finally accepted I’m never going to be selected for England last week and – in full Samit Patel style – entered my first ever competitive eating competition,” says Luke Dealtry. “I went to support a friend but there was a no-show, so I was roped into the ‘rookie’ section. And then I found myself sitting alone at a table save for 19 full-size hot-dogs, 30 minutes to do the business and a large crowd of rubberneckers (and they talk about the pressure on Sachin ). Pleased to report I finished in second place on 11 not out in the time allotted, so I did alright. The first five were easy but things got progressively harder with numbers 8-11 being literally some of the toughest eating I have ever done. By the end, I was on a near-constant retch, was succumbing to a 180-pounder headache and had meat-sweats so bad you could’ve fried bacon on me. But I finished. Best of all, my friend vomited on 16 so was disqualified, gifting me bragging rights. I’m never, ever, ever doing that again.” Other bits and bobs 1. A postgraduate student at City University London is conducting some research into how people read and interact with live coverage on guardian.co.uk and would like to recruit some readers to interview over the telephone about their experiences. She’s already had the Naylor Experience. If you are interested in taking part you can fill in this form . 2. Thanks so much to those who sponsored my friend Adam , who is doing a series of runs for SANDS. My colleague Steph Fincham is also bike-riding around Sri Lanka in support of MAG . For the rest of the series, starting on Friday, we’ll have an auction for a pretty cool piece of memorabilia that Lord Selvey has provided. Preamble Morning. In this age of entitlement, all most folk are interested in is instant gratification, which is a shame because playing the long game can be seriously rewarding. A recent study showed that 99.94 per cent of sexual relationships eventuate from one party grinding the other into submission until they are too tired to say anything except “I do”; and it’s fair to say that, if England find a way to take nine Indian wickets today, it will be a darn sight more fulfilling than if they were to blow them away before lunch. This is a going to be a long, long day; a day for that sub-genre of cricket tragics, the cricket masochists. It’ll be a day of nip and tuck, ebb and flow, booze and fags (if you’re so inclined). We’re all going through the wringer. And it’s going to be brilliant . If you’re not so excited that you can’t sit still, you need some urgent shakabuku. For England, things are less urgent. Ninety-eight overs is a bloody long time. England need to chip away, taking every chance and a good percentage of the half-chances. They need to stay calm, even if India are one down at lunch or three down at tea. And they reALLY NEED TO GET EITHER DRAVID OR BLOODY LAXMAN OUT EARLY BECAUSE MY BLOOD PRESSURE CAN’T TAKE THE PROSPECT OF INDIA CHASING OVER 450 TO WIN. Sorry, where was I? Ah yes, staying calm. For both sides it’s going to be a unique test of talent, technique, nerve, patience, stamina, self-belief and ability to ignore the itchy cleft that invariably afflicts you on such a sweltering day. The sort of test only this remarkable and superior sporting format can provide. The precedent for today is neon-lit: the last day at Old Trafford in 2005. Then, as now, thousands were locked out of the ground. Then, England needed ten wickets and Australia 399 runs; today England need nine wickets and India 378 runs. That Test went straight into the pantheon. By 7pm, it might need to shift up and make some room for Lord’s 2011. India in England 2011 England cricket team India cricket team Cricket Over by over reports Rob Smyth Alan Gardner guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 25, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.