Australia vs India, 4th test at the SCG, Jan 3rd - 7th

[TigerCraig]

So any updates on the Neroli/Isa slip & slide off ?

Would be the highlight of the match summer

Knowing our luck it would be Worland and Skull instead

 

[Park cricketer]

 

[TigerCraig]

DT_fanatic Park cricketer, where have this generation of India's fast bowlers emerged from? Is it because groundskeepers are finally making home wickets conducive to pace bowling, or because they finally got development right?

Interesting article here https://scroll.in/field/887153/from-1932-to-2018-where-do-indias-test-cricketers-come-from

 

[Jimthegreat]

Let’s talk positives...

1. Didn’t lose a wicket today.

2. Marsh couldn’t get his usual 30-40 to save his test spot innings

Or if we reviewed Pujuara on 89 in the First Test we win the Series. Lost by 31 runs, that cost us 34.....lol.

 

[Gethelred]

See, Pujara's runs, as noteworthy as they were, are not the reason India won this series; Bumrah's bowling in Melbourne is, IMO.

It bothers me that bowlers don't get the accolades their bowling deserves, unless they're McGrath or Warne like names.

 

[footyfan1978]

Rain time musings:

I hope one day the Ashes occurs on a dust bowl in Kolkata or Mumbai and an India vs Pakistan test occurs at the MCG or Perth. Or an India vs Australia contest at Headingley or Lords under overcast skies.

Would be very interesting I think. Who knows,

Be very interesting if Kohli not win so many tosses of coin this series. Who knows what would have happened.

 

[Park cricketer]

DT_fanatic Park cricketer, where have this generation of India's fast bowlers emerged from? Is it because groundskeepers are finally making home wickets conducive to pace bowling, or because they finally got development right?

Think Indian cricket has always been a very methodical one that has always focused on getting the basics right first. Like driving with a high elbow or playing with a straight bat, etc., for batsmen. For bowlers, it was always about getting the line and length right first. For years, we have produced numerous medium fast/medium pace bowlers who had uncanny skills with the ball, but they were never as fast like their cousins across the border or their Australian/South African counterparts. I read somewhere that the plan was always to coach a bowler to get his lines and lengths right and then increase his pace, but it never really happened that way. Many pacers started out with good pace with erratic lengths but sort of tapered down to medium pace to get their lengths right.

Then people started looking at what they were doing wrong and many pace academies were setup in the country, the MRF pace academy being the most famous of them. Many Australian legends like Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thompson were brought to the country and conducted numerous coaching clinics every few months. Glenn McGrath especially has spent a lot of time coaching young Indian pacers in the MRF academy. Finally people started understand the science behind fast bowling and what's needed to sustain the pace like diet, lifestyle, strength conditioning, etc.

The fitness improved rapidly especially with Virat Kohli leading the example and he brought about a marked change in the attitude of the Indian team. Dhoni while he was the captain always wanted bowlers who could hold their lines and lengths right, and sacrificed pace for accuracy. Kohli realised soon that accuracy is important but accuracy at 140+ clicks is way more difficult to face for a batsman than accuracy at 130 clicks. So he persevered with pacers who can consistently bowl 140 and above in Shami and Yadav at home and used them as an attacking weapon.

The big difference though was when Bumrah came out of nowhere, identified by the Mumbai Indians scouts and he has been the game changer for India. We have never had a bowler as fast as him but at the same time, as accurate as him in his spots where he bowls. What's special about him is that he has lax and almost elastic joints and he's one of those weird kids who can bend their elbow and fingers in the negative angle. That hyperextension at his elbow produces a whiplash like action that allows the ball to rear up from good length, and when you combine that with his pace and unerring accuracy, he's a special special bowler. Despite Pujara's brilliance and the great performance of the other pacers, without Bumrah we wouldn't have won the series. I don't know how long he is going to sustain with that action, but we've to enjoy him while he lasts, even if only for a short while.

 

[Park cricketer]

Be very interesting if Kohli not win so many tosses of coin this series. Who knows what would have happened.

The toss becomes a factor when you lose chasing a stiff target in the last innings but you can't blame the toss when you get shot out for 150 in the first innings on a docile wicket.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

Test cricket is struggling world wide banning the players to come across as noble has hurt the game here crowds are down ratings are down as is interest in the form of the game.

Is it really struggling? The crowds have been good this summer without being exceptional. England and India produce good crowds to test cricket just as we do here.
The vast majority of people who go to watch test cricket don't go to watch 20/20 so they are two totally different groups of people.

Most people who love their cricket will tell you the interest in Test Cricket has fallen because of the massive advantage being given to batsman by the pitches being prepared. Not every test but a majority of them.
We saw just in this series how good test cricket is in the first 2 tests only for the interests to fall when poor pitches were prepared in Melbourne and Sydney, add to that the Aussies are an average side and you get what you get.

There has been 19 days of test cricket this summer with an average crowd of 25'829 per day.

The average BBL crowd this summer is 21'753 per game. So is BBL struggling?

 

[footyfan1978]

The toss becomes a factor when you lose chasing a stiff target in the last innings but you can't blame the toss when you get shot out for 150 in the first innings on a docile wicket.

You get bowled out for 150 any time, you got no excuses unless it a minefield pitch. However the side that won the toss won every match so makes you wonder how series changes if toin coss other way this series. Cannot help but wonder. Does not change fact we are s**t batting side though.

 

[barrackers]

India only have themselves and their long first innings to blame for not getting a win this test.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

Or if we reviewed Pujuara on 89 in the First Test we win the Series. Lost by 31 runs, that cost us 34.....lol.

Don’t remind me of that howler!

 

[Park cricketer]

You get bowled out for 150 any time, you got no excuses unless it a minefield pitch. However the side that won the toss won every match so makes you wonder how series changes if toin coss other way this series. Cannot help but wonder. Does not change fact we are s**t batting side though.

I do think that the toss has become more crucial nowadays. The toss has always been an advantage throughout test history but it's become more pronounced now because of the universal batting fragility in all teams and so they can't hack the pressure of batting last.

We lost 7 out of the 8 tosses in our tours to South Africa and England (lost 2 in SA and all 5 tosses in England) and all of those matches were very close. I felt we were unlucky with the toss and quite a few matches among those would've swung the other way had we won the toss. But it's just the way cricket is and I guess the luck evened out in Australia for us. I'm not really sure how to solve the toss advantage but one thing I believe is that if the toss is present, the visiting team should get the advantage. I don't mind touring teams awarded the tosses in India and I don't mind us getting the advantage when we're on tour. But that's also not e most ideal way I think, the home team having to bat last everytime. So we've just to go on with the way it is and teams should strive to improve to a point where they aren't dependent on toss because no great team has ever depended on the toss in cricket history.

 

[Gethelred]

India only have themselves and their long first innings to blame for not getting a win this test.

... or, you know, only getting 25 overs in over the final two days of the match out of a potential 180 due to rain.

Nah. Couldn't be that!

 

[Red Dog Styles]

Ridiculous all the ridicule that the Mcg received, however Sydney gets away with missing 171 overs in a Test match

On [device_name] using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[footyfan1978]

I do think that the toss has become more crucial nowadays. The toss has always been an advantage throughout test history but it's become more pronounced now because of the universal batting fragility in all teams and so they can't hack the pressure of batting last.

So we've just to go on with the way it is and teams should strive to improve to a point where they aren't dependent on toss because no great team has ever depended on the toss in cricket history.

Agreed. I just think the combination of types of pitches and ordinary sides the toss at present is just more crucial but it should not be. Just no great teams are present right now so a lot of ordinary to s**t sides. Just a cycle of cricket where no great sides at moment. Someone will still have to be best though even when standards are down across the board.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

I do think that the toss has become more crucial nowadays. The toss has always been an advantage throughout test history but it's become more pronounced now because of the universal batting fragility in all teams and so they can't hack the pressure of batting last.

We lost 7 out of the 8 tosses in our tours to South Africa and England (lost 2 in SA and all 5 tosses in England) and all of those matches were very close. I felt we were unlucky with the toss and quite a few matches among those would've swung the other way had we won the toss. But it's just the way cricket is and I guess the luck evened out in Australia for us. I'm not really sure how to solve the toss advantage but one thing I believe is that if the toss is present, the visiting team should get the advantage. I don't mind touring teams awarded the tosses in India and I don't mind us getting the advantage when we're on tour. But that's also not e most ideal way I think, the home team having to bat last everytime. So we've just to go on with the way it is and teams should strive to improve to a point where they aren't dependent on toss because no great team has ever depended on the toss in cricket history.

Or we could produce good cricket pitches which offer something to everyone including the fast bowlers. A good cricket pitch is not one which offers the batsman and only the spin bowlers a chance.
Day one of a good test match pitch should see a solid green grass cover and substantial moisture in the pitch, then we now have a toss that means something.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

Ridiculous all the ridicule that the Mcg received, however Sydney gets away with missing 171 overs in a Test match

On [device_name] using BigFooty.com mobile app

Can't do much about rain.
Both pitches looked like they were prepared by the leading Indian Curator. Absolute s**t heaps.

 

[HLM*]

The toss becomes a factor when you lose chasing a stiff target in the last innings but you can't blame the toss when you get shot out for 150 in the first innings on a docile wicket.

Didn’t India lose 8/78 on that same ‘docile’ wicket that Australia got skittled on?

 

[Park cricketer]

Didn’t India lose 8/78 on that same ‘docile’ wicket that Australia got skittled on?

Yeah and none of that was due to the pitch and it had everything to do with clever field setups by Tim Paine and Cummins and Indian batsmen getting sucked into it easily, probably because of a lazy attitude as they already had a 300 run lead at that moment.

 

[Park cricketer]

Or we could produce good cricket pitches which offer something to everyone including the fast bowlers. A good cricket pitch is not one which offers the batsman and only the spin bowlers a chance.
Day one of a good test match pitch should see a solid green grass cover and substantial moisture in the pitch, then we now have a toss that means something.

Yeah but you can't have the perfect pitch every match. It's a bit hard to reproduce a perfect pitch with the perfect conditions every single time. Teams just have to adapt to the conditions.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

Yeah but you can't have the perfect pitch every match. It's a bit hard to reproduce a perfect pitch with the perfect conditions every single time. Teams just have to adapt to the conditions.

Of course you can't but it is clear people have no interest in bat dominating ball. The best test matches are generally the ones where a side is bowled out on day 1 and has the other side 1-2 down at stumps.
You have sides 2-4 for 300 at stumps and you have probably lost half your audience by lunch. Me personally I only need 3-4 overs to see how the track is playing, once I saw the ball doing nothing then its off to other interests.

 

[HLM*]

Yeah and none of that was due to the pitch and it had everything to do with clever field setups by Tim Paine and Cummins and Indian batsmen getting sucked into it easily, probably because of a lazy attitude as they already had a 300 run lead at that moment.

Lol. Of course it was.

To imply that the pitch and conditions were the same on days 3 and 4 to what they were when India batted for the opening two days is laughable.

India made the most of winning the toss and getting use of the best conditions for batting.

 

[Park cricketer]

Lol. Of course it was.

To imply that the pitch and conditions were the same on days 3 and 4 to what they were when India batted for the opening two days is laughable.

India made the most of winning the toss and getting use of the best conditions for batting.

Whatever makes it better..

 

[DT_fanatic]

India only have themselves and their long first innings to blame for not getting a win this test.

I don’t think they care. I know I don’t.


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