Played against Holding at Rishton and Enfield , but Blackburn Road and Dill Hall Lane were puddings in comparison , so didn't seem as quick as Callan . Alexandra Meadows was a much quicker track.

Yes it is Rog. As an ex-Enfield player we always used to call Alexandra Meadows , Headquarters ! East Lancs have had a poor 10 years but let's hope they're coming out of it. I played around the time when " Mad Dog " Ian Callan ( he was quick !) and Allan Border were professionals .

You're right Matt , on the first morning things looked pretty grim. All credit to Alex Davies ( Rovers fan !) and Liam Livingstone for getting us in this position.

Give Me Just A Little More Time - Chairman of the Board

I wouldn't play Duckett again on the tour . I'd pick Jennings , who from what I've read is more like Hameed , although another left hander . Cook , Jennings , Root , Ali , Bairstow , Stokes, Buttler , Woakes, Rashid , Broad , Anderson Cook really has to step up and score some big runs for the team and take the pressure off the middle order

That would be my team too Chaddy . It's tempting to push Bairstow up the order, but he had one of his rare failures ( in 2016) at 4 today , so better to have him at 5 I'd leave Ali at 4. Hopefully Cook will have a better time of it in the next test - our batting is heavily reliant on him scoring big.

That's a fair point but there's a fine balancing act between testing his mental ability and finishing him off . , From what I've seen of him so far , despite a great season in county cricket , Duckett looks out of his depth in test cricket. However I accept India away is a tough as it gets. Hopefully if he is given another chance at number 4 he'll prove himself. Bayliss has said in the past he likes to give players one game too many rather than one too few .

My Girl - The Temptations

Mott the Hoople - All The Way From Memphis

3rd Test in Mohali and I'm sure there will be changes . If Broad is fit then this is my team and batting order : Cook Hameed Root Ali Bairstow ( wk ) Stokes Buttler Woakes Rashid Broad Anderson

Run, Baby Run ( Back Into My Arms ) - The Newbeats

Wimbledon fortnight used to bug me no end when it interfered with watching Test cricket on TV ,in the days when the BBC covered both . At school the neighbouring convent school had some tennis courts. When we were in the 6th Form and allowed out of the school gates , we used to pretend to like it so we could get a couple of games with the girls . Happy days !

Murray arguably used some hate language against the English when he was a young man which he now says was a joke . I'm willing to forgive him on that one as he's apologised and regrets it. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/tennis/my-regrets-over-england-joke-by-andy-murray-8142475.html If there was a top tennis match taking place in my back garden , I'd shut the curtains , but all credit to Murray , he is a great British sportsman as well as a proud Scot , and I hope he sees himself as both.

Young Hearts Run Free - Candi Staton

The Eddie Jones bandwagon keeps rolling.. He offered the opinion that George Ford " can be better than Beauden Barratt ( the All Blacks fly half) No doubt about it " He then went onto to say " People rave about Beauden but I don't " I just love Eddie's attitude - 11 on the spin now . Come on England ! The All Blacks ? Cynical and the experts in the dark arts as well as high tackles. Ferocious and brutal game , made great viewing. . Like I said, the England v Ireland game in Dublin next March is going to be epic.

Fairly predictable outcome once India had won the toss , got to 500 plus and England didn't match or get ahead of them . Three points regarding this match and test matches in general : 1) Instead of a toss ,is it time to allow the visiting team to choose whether to bat or bowl ? I've not looked at the statistics but my gut feeling is that on the whole, home teams tend to be huge favourites in test cricket . In many cases groundsmen are instructed to produce wickets that favour the home team , whether it's green seaming wickets or huge turning wickets . This might be negated slightly if the away team can choose to bat or bowl first . 2) DRS now makes it incredibly difficult to survive on a turning wicket. In my day it was drummed into you when playing a forward defensive, to get your leg as far down the track as possible , bat and pad together . You had to be incredibly unlucky to be given out if the ball hit your pad, DRS has changed the way batters approach defence and makes the whole job far more difficult , especially in circumstances like today where survival is the be all and end all. 3) Virat Kholi needs to study an O'Level in the " Spirit of the Game " His dissent shown when the DRS decisions went against him was nothing short of a disgrace Two positives to take forward to Mohali . The last time England were in India , Cook was captain and came back from a 1- 0 defeat to win 2 -1 . Down under , in an attempt to arrest a 5 test losing streak , Australia have turned to Middlesbrough born opening batsman Matt Renshaw , who lists his hero as Alastair Cook

Yep the Burnley lad who supports Arsenal - top man. Stokes and Bairstow to put on 200 ? They've done it before

Both Ends Burning - Roxy Music

India 317-4 . Tough day at the office today . Couple of quick wickets tomorrow morning will help get us back into this , otherwise we're looking at a difficult 5 days.

Walk Away From Love - David Ruffin

Australia thrashed again and now lost 5 on the bounce. I wonder if Steve Smith's looking on in envy at Cook's cautious declaration !

Rather than start a topic " Autumn Series " I've tagged this onto 6 Nations . Another win for Eddie Jones's England , comprehensively beating an " average" South Africa. That's 10 in a row . The more I hear and read about him and watch his team perform , the more my respect increases for this guy . An England missing a couple of key players , looked pretty formidable after they got the rash of early penalties out of their system. It bodes well for a second grand slam on the trot . The Ireland v England game is already looking like a game of gargantuan proportions. The next England football manager to be an Aussie ? I wonder if they could get Jones and Bayliss to do it part time !

Perhaps he could have been a bit more positive but I'm sure he consulted Bayliss and Farbrace on the declaration . The pitch started to disintegrate as the 5th day progressed but if it hadn't, then India had more than enough good batsman to pull off an unlikely win with a smaller target and more overs. I thought he got the declaration just right and if England had got Kohli early on, they'd have probably won. After what happened in Bangladesh it was important England didn't lose the first test of the series. I think the tour and the challenges ahead will get harder , but our spinners out bowled theirs and we have found a diamond in Hameed ( shame for Lancs but we have to accept that the whole point behind county cricket is to produce players for England) , so I'm pretty optimistic we can be competitive.

Soul II Soul - Back To Life

Whilst England are taking a well earned rest after today's efforts , I wondered what cricket aficionados on brfcs feel about the expansion of the Lancashire League and the addition of Darwen, Clitheroe and Great Harwood to the established 14 . Personally I think it'll add a bit more interest to the League and the new derbies such as Rishton v Great Harwood and Darwen v East Lancs are quite mouth watering !