[Cricket] India v England Test Series

[Si Gull]

6 down, Pope. Superb catch by Pant.

 

[Charity Shield 1910]

Really not surprised. If you could prepare the totally perfect dust bowl for your bowlers this is it. Fine India will win but honestly if they want the test match system to survive you can’t have pitches this doctored. It’s playing like a day 10 pitch. It’s unplayable and no amount of Indian commentators exploding with excitement at the excellence of their bowlers can hide that.

Or England could put less time into producing slow bowlers and produce a few proper spinners instead - you know someone who actually turns the ball. I do appreciate that such an idea in English cricket establishment is akin to the 4th industrial revolution but it might be worth looking at.

 

[Sid in the Sharknado]

There's not really any difference between India preparing this pitch and England making subcontinent teams play at Leeds/Trent Bridge in May. Ultimately the host nation can do what it likes, and the touring team can either deal with it or they can't.
In this match in particular things might have gone differently if Stokes had been fit to bowl more overs, and if Ali could keep a consistent length. As it is Sharna's innings will probably be not far off the difference between the sides.

 

[jakarta]

Well, no Follow-On, don't suppose India would have like to have batted on this last in any case!

EDIT: ninth wicket down, this isn't going past the third day...

 

[CHAPPERS]

As soon as Archer was ruled out the game was up

 

[jakarta]

So just the 195 Runs behind then...

 

[Charity Shield 1910]

the pundit on ch4 "Waffle, drivel, waffle, India have everything to play for". How on earth is she stealing a living as a cricket pundit. How about they call up Donna Symmonds to do this instead.

 

[Si Gull]

Plenty of time for India to bat through their innings and still bowl England out. Hard to see any other result than an India win, barring a batting/bowling miracle.

 

[Rodney Thomas]

There's not really any difference between India preparing this pitch and England making subcontinent teams play at Leeds/Trent Bridge in May. Ultimately the host nation can do what it likes, and the touring team can either deal with it or they can't.
In this match in particular things might have gone differently if Stokes had been fit to bowl more overs, and if Ali could keep a consistent length. As it is Sharna's innings will probably be not far off the difference between the sides.

Or if we'd won the toss. In reality, the toss shouldn't be that important.

 

[knocky1]

Sharma having problems and only hitting sixes here and there.

 

[Sid in the Sharknado]

Or if we'd won the toss. In reality, the toss shouldn't be that important.

It's not like one of the old uncovered wickets where a team would win the toss, score 300 and then it'd rain and the other team gets skittled twice for about 100.

Sharma was able to score 160 on this pitch, Foakes scored 40 not out against the Indian attack today. Batting first is clearly important but if we'd bowled better we could have kept India down to 250 and if we'd batted better we could have matched that.

Edit: I'm not saying this is a good test wicket, just that the main reason we're losing by so many is that we've not played well.

 

[The Wizard]

Ultimately it’s that Sharma innings that is the difference, without that innings the rest of the Indian batsman scored about the same as we did, a special knock to make that on this wicket and as a few of us said, we had a feeling that would be the difference.

Take the L and move on, would have snapped hands off for 1-1 heading into the pink baller.

 

[knocky1]

Ultimately it’s that Sharma innings that is the difference, without that innings the rest of the Indian batsman scored about the same as we did, a special knock to make that on this wicket and as a few of us said, we had a feeling that would be the difference.

Take the L and move on, would have snapped hands off for 1-1 heading into the pink baller.

India were unhappy with Pant before this test as he whacks out to much. Gave him another chance and he slowed down with 58 n.o. from a mere 77 balls in the first innings here and Rahane refound some form.

 

[jakarta]

Terrible Umpiring...

 

[The Wizard]

Disgusting umpiring again for that LBW review earlier, how is hiding your bat behind your bad deemed playing a shot?

Sets a precedent that England could just hide the bat behind the pad and pad everything away, I’m sorry to say this as he umpired the first test on the field well but I genuinely feel he’s cheating deliberately and that’s not something I say lightly.

 

[Phil B]

What did people expect . A decent wicket fit for a Test Match ?

No chance - this is a one day wicket - decent for the 1st day and then -boom - instant dust bowl.

There has to be someone at the ICC who can see this - then again India seem to have them in their pocket, so
expect nothing - and fast !

 

[The Wizard]

It is a dust bowl but there’s Nothing wrong with the pitch IMO, India have prepared a pitch that was best for them, just like we prepare nice green wickets. It doesn’t make for good cricket but the Indians have done what they needed to do to win, alongside that magic Rohit innings, which pretty much sewed the game up on the first day, I’m not convinced England would have made 330 even on that day 1 surface.

The third umpire has concerned me more, the level of blatant cheating in this test has been so brazen I find it hard to comprehend how he won’t be reprimanded, not only poor decisions but poor explanations.

 

[Gwylan]

It is a dust bowl but there’s Nothing wrong with the pitch IMO, India have prepared a pitch that was best for them, just like we prepare nice green wickets. It doesn’t make for good cricket but the Indians have done what they needed to do to win, alongside that magic Rohit innings, which pretty much sewed the game up on the first day, I’m not convinced England would have made 330 even on that day 1 surface.

The third umpire has concerned me more, the level of blatant cheating in this test has been so brazen I find it hard to comprehend how he won’t be reprimanded, not only poor decisions but poor explanations.

It wasn't the third umpire who decided that Sharma was playing a shot - that was the onfield one. Like most people, I was staggered about that decision but, thinking about it since, Sharma could have been playing the ump. It's well known that some umpires are more generous than others about LBWs (DIckie Bird, for example, very rarely gave them unless it was stone cold) and the batsman knew that he could get away with that half-hearted shot.

I don't know: it was a very strange decision (I didn't see yesterday's so can't comment on them).

But I do find the English whinging about the pitch rather tiresome. We prepare seaming greentops for visiting teams when they come over here, so can scarcely moan about bowler-friendly conditions.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

It is a dust bowl but there’s Nothing wrong with the pitch IMO, India have prepared a pitch that was best for them, just like we prepare nice green wickets. It doesn’t make for good cricket but the Indians have done what they needed to do to win, alongside that magic Rohit innings, which pretty much sewed the game up on the first day, I’m not convinced England would have made 330 even on that day 1 surface.

The third umpire has concerned me more, the level of blatant cheating in this test has been so brazen I find it hard to comprehend how he won’t be reprimanded, not only poor decisions but poor explanations.

I agree about the pitch apart from the fact it fails the test for a test match. no way would it hold up for 5 days. It would have been swept up and put in the bin by then. I don't like the green tops either in this country though often with early tests it is down to the weather to a degree.

I used to know Pete Eaton at Sussex CCC and he ended up as the top groundsmen for the ECB inspecting pitches. There are/were very strict criteria to adhere to. He said you wouldn't last long in the game if you doctored the wickets. Preparing a type of pitch is one thing, fully doctoring it so it fall apart is another

 

[Sid in the Sharknado]

I agree about the pitch apart from the fact it fails the test for a test match. no way would it hold up for 5 days. It would have been swept up and put in the bin by then. I don't like the green tops either in this country though often with early tests it is down to the weather to a degree.

I used to know Pete Eaton at Sussex CCC and he ended up as the top groundsmen for the ECB inspecting pitches. There are/were very strict criteria to adhere to. He said you wouldn't last long in the game if you doctored the wickets. Preparing a type of pitch is one thing, fully doctoring it so it fall apart is another

If a test match has to last for 5 days for the pitch to be considered acceptable then almost every pitch in England over the last 5 years fails.

We're losing this because we played badly for the first two days, and if we'd managed to turn up this would be a really entertaining match with the bowlers always in the game. I'd prefer this to the usual Chennai 4-day borefest with the only interesting action on the last day once the pitch has broken up.

Even the England team barely bother to claim their pitches aren't doctored nowadays. I know David Lloyd has claimed in the past that groundsmen would refuse to speak to him in the run up to the match, but frankly as this is the same man who claims that England's 2005 ashes win was down to Sky money I don't believe him. Strauss yesterday vaguely said the pitches would "miraculously" have more grass when England had a match to win. Except of course at the Oval in 2009 when we had Swann and suddenly the pitch was shaved and disintegrated.