The four pitches remaining

[pasag]

Wondering how they've been holding up in the domestic games and what to expect over the remainder of the series? We had months to discuss the Cardiff pitch, but not much has been said of the four that are left.

 

[Uppercut]

Lord's is next, and the last match there was a bit of a bore-draw. The qualification for games in England is that if it's overcast, batting still won't be easy. But I fully expect a cricket-killer game.

 

[superkingdave]

I'm not sure for the other grounds whether the domestic games have too much bearing on the test pitches. With the amount of preparation that goes into the test pitches, especially at the grounds with a large square, they can be quite different.

Cardiff was obviously slighty different with them never having prepared a test pitch before, the FC pitches were a decent guide (and it seems it turned out pretty much like those pitches)

 

[Scaly piscine]

Well if it's another flat pitch at Lord's expect the England batsmen to make a game of it.

 

[Richard]

Lord's being next (back in its rightful Second Test slot) you'd have to imagine will not offer a great deal, but the pitch we had for the match against West Indies a couple of months back was waaaay more sporting than anything we've had since Ashes 2005.

Trent Bridge there's really no way of knowing what it's going to produce, it's different almost every year; Headingley it depends completely on the prevailing weather as has been the case since time immemorial; The Oval you can be pretty certain there'll be virtually nothing in it for seam and virtually nothing in it for seam. Last time there was anything much for either was a decade ago, and that was an odd-one-out case itself.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Well if it's another flat pitch at Lord's expect the England batsmen to make a game of it.

Ind33d, they showed plenty of reason to think this in Cardiff.

Wait....

 

[Top_Cat]

Ind33d, they showed plenty of reason to think this in Cardiff.

Wait....

Silly, all the English batsmen just got themselves out. Don't you know anything about cricket?

 

[DaRick]

Silly, all the English batsmen just got themselves out. Don't you know anything about cricket?

(Please excuse the swears and stupidity that will ensue)

Channeling a typical yobbo Australian supporter:

****ing oath mate

hauritz was bloody terrible. he isnt a spinners arse. shoulda taken 10 wickets on that deck. warney woulda done a thousand Gattings on that surface

ponting was bloody horrible too

shoulda declared before the auzzies reached 600

needed time to bowl the pathetic poms out

seeking him have a sook at the press conference was ****ing unaustralian LOLZ]

he just bitches and blames everyone cpet himself!1!1! ZOMG!

[/end]

Well, as you can see, whatever Ponting does, if you believe many Australian supporters, he's a terrible captain. He simply can't win.

One person on another forum hilarously argued that Australia should've declared before reaching 600. Only problem is, the English would've played differently, they weren't as psychologically jaded and they probably would've had an opportunity to set us a small chase and make life difficult for us. They could play with the freedom that they did in the first innings and the game would probably be dead long before time.

 

[DaRick]

Lord's being next (back in its rightful Second Test slot) you'd have to imagine will not offer a great deal, but the pitch we had for the match against West Indies a couple of months back was waaaay more sporting than anything we've had since Ashes 2005.

Trent Bridge there's really no way of knowing what it's going to produce, it's different almost every year; Headingley it depends completely on the prevailing weather as has been the case since time immemorial; The Oval you can be pretty certain there'll be virtually nothing in it for seam and virtually nothing in it for seam. Last time there was anything much for either was a decade ago, and that was an odd-one-out case itself.

Typo here.

Back on topic, that odd case you are referring to - would that be 1997, where Phil Tufnell ran riot? (Murali also cleaned up England at the Oval a year later - I've seen footage of that; it was a terrific performance)

 

[shivfan]

Cardiff does seem a pitch very much like those found at the ARG and at Queens Park Oval last year....

It's interesting to see the the English and Welsh authorities are quite capable of preparing dead batting strips against stronger opposition as well. And like the West Indies, England find themselves hanging on for a draw in nail-biting circumstances despite this!

Posters on this MB have accused the West Indies of deliberately preparing these dead pitches. I wonder if they share the same view of the English authorities for preparing this Cardiff pitch against an Australian side that's ranked number one in the world by the ICC Test rankings....

 

[superkingdave]

Ind33d, they showed plenty of reason to think this in Cardiff.

Wait....

Think that's the point he's making tbh...if its a flatty at Lords, it should be a bore draw, but you can't count on that with England's batsmen

 

[inbox24]

It was said somewhere that Graeme Smithers told the England cricket team that to beat Australia they needed to produce essentially flat decks which just turned a little bit. That's probably what the rest of the pitches are gonna be like. If that's the case then I hope nearly every game is a draw like the last one with England just hanging on.

 

[Matt79]

It was said somewhere that Graeme Smithers told the England cricket team that to beat Australia they needed to produce essentially flat decks which just turned a little bit. That's probably what the rest of the pitches are gonna be like. If that's the case then I hope nearly every game is a draw like the last one with England just hanging on.

Surely Cardiff would have shown them the problem with that line of thinking...

 

[GIMH]

Ind33d, they showed plenty of reason to think this in Cardiff.

Wait....

Haha, whoooooosh

 

[Richard]

Typo here.

Ay, not for the first time when trying one "seam" and one "spin", two of one of them has resulted.

Back on topic, that odd case you are referring to - would that be 1997, where Phil Tufnell ran riot? (Murali also cleaned up England at the Oval a year later - I've seen footage of that; it was a terrific performance)

Was actually referring to 1999 actually TBH, had forgotten that it was pretty much the same in 1997. Let's not forget, Caddick's performance in 1997 was crucial, same way Tufnell's was.

Other than that, just about every Oval deck in my memory has offered nothing to any bowlers. That 1998 one was one of the best examples, and it just makes Murali's performance even more phenomenal.

 

[Richard]

It was said somewhere that Graeme Smithers told the England cricket team that to beat Australia they needed to produce essentially flat decks which just turned a little bit. That's probably what the rest of the pitches are gonna be like. If that's the case then I hope nearly every game is a draw like the last one with England just hanging on.

It's all well and good trying to do that - if the prevailing soil isn't right, you can't do so.

 

[Uppercut]

But as I've said before, it's often a fast deck, so it still gets plenty of results.

 

[Richard]

Surely Cardiff would have shown them the problem with that line of thinking...

Nah, there's no way you could expect that to happen. Swann being as poor as he was was never likely; equally, Hauritz being as less-than-dreadful as he was was never likely. Replay that match 10 times and England would probably dominate it more times than not.

Equally, though, that pitch was far from ideal. Yes, there was plenty of turn but there wasn't as much pace and bounce as would be ideal. More pace and bounce, even if there was a fraction less turn with it, would indeed be ideal. But as I say, there's virtually no chance of getting that at any of the remaining four grounds.

 

[Uppercut]

Replay that match 10 times and England would probably dominate it more times than not.

lennyandkarl.jpg

 

[Richard]

But as I've said before, it's often a fast deck, so it still gets plenty of results.

I think the pace is often overstated TBH, there's been more than one accusation in the last decade-and-a-bit that it's lost the speed and bounce it was famed for in the early-1990s.

One of the main reasons for there being so many results there in recent years has been the fact that one batting line-up or other has often run-out of steam:
SA in 2008 one of the best examples
England in 2007 managed to put-up just enough of a show to take advantage of India's generosity
England in 2006 messed-up completely but Pakistan let them off by dropping catches then deciding that a stance against Darrell was more important than that one game
In 2005 one dropped catch changed the game from result to draw, even with all the lost play
In 2004 West Indies were diabolical for much of the time and more so than normal in the final match
In 2003 South Africa imploded as they have on not-a-few occasions, hence the "choker" tag
In 2002 both teams batted a bat-a-thon before the last day was washed-out
In 2001 England weren't quite good enough to force a draw from Warne and co.
In 2000 West Indies' batting was in shambolic state against England's swing bowlers all summer
In 1999 as I say there was a decent bit in the pitch for seam and spin
In 1998 Murali's magnificence averted a 600-plays-600
In 1997 it was effectively similar to 1999
In 1996 England batted diabolically and Mushtaq Ahmed bowled superbly
In 1995 both teams batted a bat-a-thon

And then you go back to 1994, 1993, 1992, 1991 where as I say there was some of the famed real pace and bounce and all four Tests had results. Devon Malcolm enjoyed himself especially in the two lattermost years.