South Africa tour of India (2 Tests/3 ODIs/5 T20s)

[FreoRicci]

India will blame no one else but the curator. Hilarious.
Suffer

 

[Grumpyshades]

didn't watch a minute of it but sux shit India

 

[010203]

Gambhir said India got the pitch they wanted.

 

[Grumpyshades]

Gambhir said India got the pitch they wanted.

some are dumb enough to believe the pitch wasn't 'pre ordered'

 

[PhatBoy]

some are dumb enough to believe the pitch wasn't 'pre ordered'

I doubt they wanted it playing tricks for fast bowlers in the first 6 balls of a match where they have no idea if they will bat or bowl. They picked four spinners in a match where 16 of 38 wickets fell to 3.5 specialist fast bowlers

Use some common sense and understand he’s talking genetically about a spin-friendly surface, which it was. It was the other shit that came with it that made it unfit for cricket

 

[MJG14]

Just realised this is only a 2 Test series. Very disappointing, 3 would have been great. Thought it may have been because South Africa would be heading back for their home summer, but there's a limited overs series afterwards, including 5 pointless T20I's

I guess that's the way things are these days.

 

[Snarls Barkley]

Just realised this is only a 2 Test series. Very disappointing, 3 would have been great. Thought it may have been because South Africa would be heading back for their home summer, but there's a limited overs series afterwards, including 5 pointless T20I's

I guess that's the way things are these days.

Oh my bad! I just had a quick squiz at the fixtures and assumed it would be 3 Tests, what a waste! Fixturing everywhere is awful, unless Australia/England/India are playing each other there seems no interest to play a proper series

 

[cricketnut14]

Just realised this is only a 2 Test series. Very disappointing, 3 would have been great. Thought it may have been because South Africa would be heading back for their home summer, but there's a limited overs series afterwards, including 5 pointless T20I's

I guess that's the way things are these days.

yeah south africa have no test cricket this summer and 8 tests in their next summer.

india have the next test and 1 against afghanistan in january (not part of the WTC) and their next home test series will be against australia in 14 months or so.


india have now lost 3 tests in this WTC cycle.

india will now have to win 7 of their remaining 10 tests to qualify for the WTC final.
1 more v SA, 2 v SL (A) , 2 v NZ (A) and 5 v Aust (H).
they would want to start banking wins before they play Australia.

 

[Nuggetz]

gambhir you cuck, flipping political choice. campaigner.

 

[Nuggetz]

****ing campaigner

 

[Bedi]

Lol just saw the scorecard. That is awesome!

 

[PhatBoy]

SA have now lost only one of their past 13 matches, along with a draw in the West Indies.
Their streak includes a test win in Pakistan, India, England vs Australia in the WTC final, 2 away wins in Bangladesh, and a win in the West Indies.

It is not certain how they would have gone fielding a full strength team in that well publicised series in NZ - where they actually acquitted themselves well anyway - but if you remove those matches - and in the interest of fairness I’ve also removed the wins against Zimbabwe - they have gone:

17 matches
13 wins
2 draws
2 losses

The defeats have been on that Newlands minefield that was, by balls bowled, the shortest test match in history, and the first test in Pakistan where the hosts to an extent did roll out a fairly spin friendly deck though it wasn’t unplayable by any means.

They are one, two batsmen of 40+ average away from being a really, really powerful team

 

[revo333]

Embarrassing for India.

Hilarious for everyone else.

They need to go to back to selecting a normal 11.

For the last 3-4 years their test teams have always seemed a little off balance for me, maybe that comes with Pant and Jadega batting in the top 6 and they don't know how to fill the rest of the spots so they pick players who do a bit of everything.

 

[MisterMarcus]

Embarrassing for India.

Hilarious for everyone else.

They need to go to back to selecting a normal 11.

For the last 3-4 years their test teams have always seemed a little off balance for me, maybe that comes with Pant and Jadega batting in the top 6 and they don't know how to fill the rest of the spots so they pick players who do a bit of everything.

Outside of Jaiswal and Gill ( to some extent Rahul), their batting lineup kind of sucks.

Everyone from Pant downwards seems to be batting at least one spot too high, arguably two. They've got the "England of the 90s" thing going on, with a lot of bits-and-pieces all rounders in the middle order, followed by a few absolute ferrets in the tail.

 

[revo333]

Outside of Jaiswal and Gill ( to some extent Rahul), their batting lineup kind of sucks.

Everyone from Pant downwards seems to be batting at least one spot too high, arguably two. They've got the "England of the 90s" thing going on, with a lot of bits-and-pieces all rounders in the middle order, followed by a few absolute ferrets in the tail.

Maybe they are trying to kill the interest of test cricket in India so everyone goes all in for T20.

 

[Borisdog]

Maybe they are trying to kill the interest of test cricket in India so everyone goes all in for T20.

You can't help thinking there's something in that statement. They have no problem producing decent decks for IPL. At least 50% of the Test match pitches are well sub-standard at best.

 

[revo333]

You can't help thinking there's something in that statement. They have no problem producing decent decks for IPL. At least 50% of the Test match pitches are well sub-standard at best.

Australia got smashed in the first test last summer and we were all calling for heads.

Only one sample but there fans don't seem to bothered about the defeat on reddit.

 

[PhatBoy]

You can't help thinking there's something in that statement. They have no problem producing decent decks for IPL. At least 50% of the Test match pitches are well sub-standard at best.

That’s not true though is it.
The pitches against the West Indies weren’t sub standard. They weren’t incredible, but they weren’t sub-standard.
Before that they played NZ and in the first test India were shot out by the NZ quicks for 45 then both teams made 400.
The next test there were 3 scores of 250, the deciding factor being India themselves falling over for 150 in an innings. I’d say it’s those sorts of scores that actually produce the BEST cricket to watch most of the time.
The third test was similar - first innings scores of 250+, second innings scores below 200 as - unbelievably - an Asian pitch deteriorated.

The seven home tests before those were two against Bangladesh which were fine, and the five against England: England won one on the back of Ollie Pope’s innings, and were well and truly ‘in’ at least two of the others as Root and Duckett and even Crawley all made runs. Their problem wasn’t making runs, it was avoiding collapses once they lost a wicket from a good position. Jaiswal also, he was a problem as he clobbered run a ball double centuries in two tests.

Even the series against Australia where I’d say they DID produce something substandard - particularly the test pitch they rolled out for the final two matches including the match when they had a 2-1 lead - the toughest pitch they produced gave AUSTRALIA a win, not India. Earlier that series they rolled out a pretty hard one but Rohit Sharma managed to hit 150+ on it.

If you changed their name from India no one would care. They would attribute it to the natural strike rate of a country producing bad wickets that are ‘over the top’ once in a while. Because it is the rich father of the game who everyone hates - including myself in that capacity - people seem to think that it happens more there than other places.

Objectively, it doesn’t.

 

[Borisdog]

That’s not true though is it.
The pitches against the West Indies weren’t sub standard. They weren’t incredible, but they weren’t sub-standard.
Before that they played NZ and in the first test India were shot out by the NZ quicks for 45 then both teams made 400.
The next test there were 3 scores of 250, the deciding factor being India themselves falling over for 150 in an innings. I’d say it’s those sorts of scores that actually produce the BEST cricket to watch most of the time.
The third test was similar - first innings scores of 250+, second innings scores below 200 as - unbelievably - an Asian pitch deteriorated.

The seven home tests before those were two against Bangladesh which were fine, and the five against England: England won one on the back of Ollie Pope’s innings, and were well and truly ‘in’ at least two of the others as Root and Duckett and even Crawley all made runs. Their problem wasn’t making runs, it was avoiding collapses once they lost a wicket from a good position. Jaiswal also, he was a problem as he clobbered run a ball double centuries in two tests.

Even the series against Australia where I’d say they DID produce something substandard - particularly the test pitch they rolled out for the final two matches including the match when they had a 2-1 lead - the toughest pitch they produced gave AUSTRALIA a win, not India. Earlier that series they rolled out a pretty hard one but Rohit Sharma managed to hit 150+ on it.

If you changed their name from India no one would care. They would attribute it to the natural strike rate of a country producing bad wickets that are ‘over the top’ once in a while. Because it is the rich father of the game who everyone hates - including myself in that capacity - people seem to think that it happens more there than other places.

Objectively, it doesn’t.

I don't care who wins the games.

What's true in your eyes isn't seen the same way by others, as much as you'd like to have everyone think you're always right.

Variable bounce, low bounce, things like that happen Day 1 on most pitches rolled out for Test matches in India. Largely they're Kapok mattresses. That to me is sub-standard when you see what they can achieve in IPL. And pretty constantly.

 

[PhatBoy]

I don't care who wins the games.

What's true in your eyes isn't seen the same way by others, as much as you'd like to have everyone think you're always right.

Variable bounce, low bounce, things like that happen Day 1 on most pitches rolled out for Test matches in India. Largely they're Kapok mattresses. That to me is sub-standard when you see what they can achieve in IPL. And pretty constantly.

So in other words, ‘bugger the evidence and the actual events, it’s all a feeling.’

Variable and low bounce:
They literally DONT happen in most test matches there on day one.

Watch the games, read the reports. And if that variable bounce DOES occur, what’s the difference between that, and sideways movement that you encounter on day one in a SENA country, which you will usually find almost impossible to replicate in Asia? Why should one be okay but not the other? This is my problem. People always accuse me of having some love affair with India: if you read my posts, plainly I don’t, I can’t stand them for the most part.
But fans here are always happy for a pitch to do all sorts of things….. if it’s in favour of fast bowlers and is ‘thrilling.’
As soon as those factors fall in favour of spinners in an Asian country or the fast bowling assistance is via low bounce rather than pace or sideways movement, it’s horrible for the game.

If they produced the pitches they put out for the IPL you’d be complaining that they may as well roll out a concrete slab for five days.

 

[cricketnut14]

SA have now lost only one of their past 13 matches, along with a draw in the West Indies.
Their streak includes a test win in Pakistan, India, England vs Australia in the WTC final, 2 away wins in Bangladesh, and a win in the West Indies.

It is not certain how they would have gone fielding a full strength team in that well publicised series in NZ - where they actually acquitted themselves well anyway - but if you remove those matches - and in the interest of fairness I’ve also removed the wins against Zimbabwe - they have gone:

17 matches
13 wins
2 draws
2 losses

The defeats have been on that Newlands minefield that was, by balls bowled, the shortest test match in history, and the first test in Pakistan where the hosts to an extent did roll out a fairly spin friendly deck though it wasn’t unplayable by any means.

They are one, two batsmen of 40+ average away from being a really, really powerful team

on track and well placed to make another WTC final.

after the next test, they have 8 tests at home (all next summer) 3 v Aust, 2 v Bang, 3 v Eng and then a 2 test tour away in sri lanka.

 

[PhatBoy]

on track and well placed to make another WTC final.

after the next test, they have 8 tests at home (all next summer) 3 v Aust, 2 v Bang, 3 v Eng and then a 2 test tour away in sri lanka.

Pending of course how they go in the second test against India, I’ll be very interested to see how they fare against Sri Lanka.

It would be a very rare run for any SENA/WI team to have at any one time, possibly 3 wins and a drawn series from the 4 Asian tours.

I think realistically they COULD win all those series, equally they could lose 3 of them. They still have some proving to do with the bat

 

[ioppolo]

Embarrassing for India.

Hilarious for everyone else.

They need to go to back to selecting a normal 11.

For the last 3-4 years their test teams have always seemed a little off balance for me, maybe that comes with Pant and Jadega batting in the top 6 and they don't know how to fill the rest of the spots so they pick players who do a bit of everything.

They could do themselves a favour and curate a semi normal pitch. Their younger batsman might be able to actually contribute.

Fair play to Washington Sundar this test. Acquitted himself well at number 3.

 

[Borisdog]

So in other words, ‘bugger the evidence and the actual events, it’s all a feeling.’

Variable and low bounce:
They literally DONT happen in most test matches there on day one.

Watch the games, read the reports. And if that variable bounce DOES occur, what’s the difference between that, and sideways movement that you encounter on day one in a SENA country, which you will usually find almost impossible to replicate in Asia? Why should one be okay but not the other? This is my problem. People always accuse me of having some love affair with India: if you read my posts, plainly I don’t, I can’t stand them for the most part.
But fans here are always happy for a pitch to do all sorts of things….. if it’s in favour of fast bowlers and is ‘thrilling.’
As soon as those factors fall in favour of spinners in an Asian country or the fast bowling assistance is via low bounce rather than pace or sideways movement, it’s horrible for the game.

If they produced the pitches they put out for the IPL you’d be complaining that they may as well roll out a concrete slab for five days.

No, no, you're right of course.

 

[PhatBoy]

No, no, you're right of course.

Look at the games. Come back to me and tell me how frequently over the last 5 years pitches have done this.