Cricket 2021

[Rosencrantz]

Why are they playing on a beach ??

Because India needed a result.

 

[Hants_red]

We have two days, so we can take it slowly. Nope two wickets in quick succession.

 

[Alistair20000]

We have two days, so we can take it slowly. Nope two wickets in quick succession.

3 now with the night watchman Jack Leach out first ball.

Just a question of when now.

 

[Colesman Ballz]

3 now with the night watchman Jack Leach out first ball.

Just a question of when now.

I think that we will be doing well if we are still batting after lunch tomorrow !

 

[HH12]

Because India needed a result.

I understand that but think they might have taken preparing a home pitch a bit too far this time - still its worked out well for them so job done

 

[Rosencrantz]

I understand that but think they might have taken preparing a home pitch a bit too far this time - still its worked out well for them so job done

Up to the match referee. Seeing as it is now going into the fourth day and it hasn't been dangerous for the batsmen, it's unlikely it will be sanctioned in any way. They have just prepared a pitch to suit their strengths and our weaknesses rather than the more "sporting" pitch of the first test.

Maybe the ECB will see that preparing such pitches at Taunton might be helpful in developing our batsmen to play spin to a better level rather than having the likes of Dom Sibley trying to work it out during test matches. But that's another argument .

 

[Alistair20000]

Same pitch for both sides and India could not guarantee winning the toss which was an important consideration.

 

[Rosencrantz]

Same pitch for both sides and India could not guarantee winning the toss which was an important consideration.

They've just played better on an old fashioned bunsen. I'm not sure winning the toss would have made it too different. It's no real difference to us leaving some grass on the wicket in home games against the sub continent sides.

 

[Alistair20000]

They've just played better on an old fashioned bunsen. I'm not sure winning the toss would have made it too different. It's no real difference to us leaving some grass on the wicket in home games against the sub continent sides.

Received wisdom is that first use of a spinning pitch is rather important for the batting side in India.

We made good use of the pitch first time up in the previous test.

Not doubting that they have better spinners than us though.

 

[Rosencrantz]

Received wisdom is that first use of a spinning pitch is rather important for the batting side in India.

We made good use of the pitch first time up in the previous test.

Not doubting that they have better spinners than us though.

It favours the side batting first but if it's turning appreciably on the first day some of that advantage will be taken away. India are just better when the ball is spinning. Just the same as we are much better when the ball is moving sideways for the quicks. This game might be closer if we won the toss but I suspect the outcome would have been the same.

In the first test we made good use of the pitch and applied scoreboard pressure. I don't think the pitch deteriorated that much when India were batting in their first innings. We just better than India throughout the test.

We knew it was going to be a tough tour as India are probably the best all round team at the moment.