*Official* Sri Lanka in India

[Uppercut]

It's still a good batting surface, but India's bowlers have looked pretty threatening today. 642 runs on board means the spinners could have upto five fielders around the bat and they attacked, couldn't get a breakthrough though. India have managed 8 maidens in 24 overs, Sri Lanka could only send down 11 off 154. - From cricinfo.

Already a third of the overs ent down are maidens. That shows how poorly SL bowlers were doing, although Herath did pick up in the end.

Different attitude too. The match situation means Sri Lanka can't really attack. Hard to see them collapsing twice, but you never know.

 

[Raghav]

They are more interesting because NZ has a pretty brittle batting line up and tend to collapse often. And even their bowliing attack has been pretty weak for a while and the top teams have taken advantage of that.


If we were to use this reasoning, the pitches in BD are the best because they produce the most results.. Check out the ratios... Every team defeats BD in BD..

just go back to previous posts, and see who dragged NZ pitches in to as comparison.. you will get answer

 

[honestbharani]

just go back to previous posts, and see who dragged NZ pitches in to as comparison.. you will get answer

you know pretty well why I dragged NZ pitches into the argument. Every team prepare pitches that suit them and hence most of the time with the good teams, the home batsmen do better than the away batsmen and that is precisely the case with Indians... You are the only one who finds it boring when Sehwag and Gambhir are going great. Most of the cricketing world thinks they are lucky to be watching such a level of aggressive batsmanship, flat wicket or not... So quit your whining or take it elsewhere as this is getting irritating now. If you think flat pitches are bad, it is bad when both sets of batsmen make runs. Stop spouting nonsense on how it is boring only when Indians are doing well.

 

[Sanz]

It is just so annoying to even come to CW anymore. A very good thread about cricket is hijacked by hatemongers.

 

[Edged&Taken]

curious, if there was a whine on day one

 

[Shri]

Less than 300 runs were scored today, 9 wickets fell(not a single run out) and after that the pitch is supposed to be a road? What DO you guys expect to get out of a day's play in a test? Humor me.

 

[Shri]

Oh, and I would have asked the same question if it was a game that didn't involve India. So, posters dont take it the wrong way.

 

[Uppercut]

I think that statistic's quite misleading. If Sri Lanka lose their remaining nine wickets for under 300 runs tomorrow then you'll have a point, but losing eight wickets for 240 runs isn't a sign of difficult batting conditions when you're 417/2 to begin with.

Truth is, we can only realllly judge the pitch once both teams have batted, so it's best to put the mud-slinging on hold. Today's play certainly wasn't enough to conclude that it's not a road.

 

[Sir Alex]

I think that statistic's quite misleading. If Sri Lanka lose their remaining nine wickets for under 300 runs tomorrow then you'll have a point, but losing eight wickets for 240 runs isn't a sign of difficult batting conditions when you're 417/2 to begin with.

Truth is, we can only realllly judge the pitch once both teams have batted, so it's best to put the mud-slinging on hold. Today's play certainly wasn't enough to conclude that it's not a road.

Uppercut, it is actually harder to lose wickets like that when the team is batting 417-3 as compared to 221-3 in my opinion. The pitch is surely assisting bowlers and actually Sri Lanka could have been three down had luck went Sreesanth's way.

 

[Shri]

I think that statistic's quite misleading. If Sri Lanka lose their remaining nine wickets for under 300 runs tomorrow then you'll have a point, but losing eight wickets for 240 runs isn't a sign of difficult batting conditions when you're 417/2 to begin with.

Truth is, we can only realllly judge the pitch once both teams have batted, so it's best to put the mud-slinging on hold. Today's play certainly wasn't enough to conclude that it's not a road.

I saw the game for about an hour before the day ended. There is a bit of turn in the pitch. Not very slow but not sharp either. And the ball bounces up to the knee one ball and goes straight to the ankle the next ball. The pitch is only going to get worse from here and batting isn't going to get easier if the bowling is disciplined. So, I feel a result is very likely here.

 

[Prince EWS]

A pitch that starts off completely flat and gradually offers more and more assistance as the game goes on is actually "worse" than a completely dead wicket IMO. It obviously makes for more entertaining cricket towards the middle and end of a Test but it makes the result a completely farce due to the huge advantage winning the toss has. At least a flattie is "fair" to both teams.

 

[honestbharani]

A pitch that starts off completely flat and gradually offers more and more assistance as the game goes on is actually "worse" than a completely dead wicket IMO. It obviously makes for more entertaining cricket towards the middle and end of a Test but it makes the result a completely farce due to the huge advantage winning the toss has. At least a flattie is "fair" to both teams.

so are pitches that start off green and flatten out.. You cannot really have it either way. Then you say the tracks are too flat.. What else can be prepared?

 

[Uppercut]

I saw the game for about an hour before the day ended. There is a bit of turn in the pitch. Not very slow but not sharp either. And the ball bounces up to the knee one ball and goes straight to the ankle the next ball. The pitch is only going to get worse from here and batting isn't going to get easier if the bowling is disciplined. So, I feel a result is very likely here.

Well maybe. I thought it looked like it was getting slower. There won't be another 400-run day but set batsmen will be there for as long as they like.

I'd have the draw as favourites, but the bookies seem to agree with you. India have bowled really well, but they'll have to keep bowling that well to force a result, and Sri Lanka are seriously good at batting on pitches like this. Whether the pitch can be blamed or not, I think a draw is the most likely outcome.

 

[Prince EWS]

so are pitches that start off green and flatten out.. You cannot really have it either way. Then you say the tracks are too flat.. What else can be prepared?

Yeah, it's the classic groundsman's problem really. Essentially there are two ways to go about it - you can either try to prepare a pitch that provides an even contest between bat and ball for the entire 5 days and doesn't change much at all (which is basically a myth entirely) or you can try to prepare a pitch that gives the quicks early assistance, then flattens out in the middle of the game before drying out even beyond that and giving the spinners assistance at the end. Innings 1 and 4 would be more bowler friendly and innings 2 and 3 more in favour of the batsmen, leaving the toss with minimal effect and giving batsmen, quicks and spinners all a period in the match when things were in their favour.

Obviously, a bit of variation in pitches is always a good thing and home teams should be allowed to play to their strengths as well, but it seems like groundsmen don't even bother trying to prepare a fair and balanced pitch anymore - either that or they have just become quite bad at it. It's not just India either - in fact I don't even think they're the worst offenders.

 

[Uppercut]

Yeah, it's the classic groundsman's problem really. Essentially there are two ways to go about it - you can either try to prepare a pitch that provides an even contest between bat and ball for the entire 5 days and doesn't change much at all (which is basically a myth entirely) or you can try to prepare a pitch that gives the quicks early assistance, then flattens out in the middle of the game before drying out even beyond that and giving the spinners assistance at the end. Innings 1 and 4 would be more bowler friendly and innings 2 and 3 more in favour of the batsmen, leaving the toss with minimal effect and giving batsmen, quicks and spinners all a period in the match when things were in their favour.

Obviously, a bit of variation in pitches is always a good thing and home teams should be allowed to play to their strengths as well, but it seems like groundsmen don't even bother trying to prepare a fair and balanced pitch anymore - either that or they have just become quite bad at it. It's not just India either - in fact I don't even think they're the worst offenders.

I don't know if they are getting particularly bad at preparing fair and competitive pitches. Pitches are much less inclined to deteriorate heavily than they have been previously, and as I've pointed out before, the effect of winning the toss is statistically negligible in test cricket. (In the last ten years, the toss-winner has won 134 and lost 128 games).

Pitches that deteriorate from ball one or start of green before flattening out aren't ideal, but the idea that the toss has a great deal of impact on the match is invariably overplayed, usually by fans of whichever team loses. Far more decisive in deciding the outcome of a match is which team bats, bowls and fields better, and if Sri Lanka are to lose this game, there's no way they can point to the toss given the way they played on the first day.

 

[Prince EWS]

I don't know if they are getting particularly bad at preparing fair and competitive pitches.

What I think they've been getting bad at is preparing pitches that are fair to bowlers. Pitches in world cricket at the moment generally tend to start flat and end flat. This actually makes for a fair contest between two teams, as I said, but it doesn't really make for particularly enthralling cricket a lot of the time.

My original comments were directed at those trying to defend this pitch by saying it's deteriorating and will get worse as the game goes on. Now sure, that'll make for a more interesting contest between bat and ball as the game progresses if so, but it'll make this pitch poor in a completely different way - unfair to the team losing the toss. There are multiple ways a pitch can be poor and the only way this pitch is going to get better in one way is if it gets worse in another.

And again it should be noted that I'm not saying any other country is any better in this regard, so replying to this post with scorecards from Australia or New Zealand or whatever isn't really going against my point.

 

[Uppercut]

What I was getting at was that even if this pitch does deteriorate, it won't really have been that unfair on the team losing the toss because pitches these days very rarely are. It'll still be a 500+ pitch tomorrow, and probably the next day too, and the team that has the advantage once runs become particularly hard to come by will be the team that's batted and bowled better over the match. On a pitch that starts out this flat, the team that has to bat last on a wearing surface isn't necessarily the team that wins the toss, it's the team that concedes a first-innings lead.

 

[Sanz]

so are pitches that start off green and flatten out.. You cannot really have it either way. Then you say the tracks are too flat.. What else can be prepared?

People always complain, Remember this series ? So much complaining was done about the pitches, scheduling etc.

TVS Cup in India (Aus, Ind, NZ) - Oct - Nov 2003

 

[Raghav]

you know pretty well why I dragged NZ pitches into the argument. Every team prepare pitches that suit them and hence most of the time with the good teams, the home batsmen do better than the away batsmen and that is precisely the case with Indians... You are the only one who finds it boring when Sehwag and Gambhir are going great. Most of the cricketing world thinks they are lucky to be watching such a level of aggressive batsmanship, flat wicket or not... So quit your whining or take it elsewhere as this is getting irritating now. If you think flat pitches are bad, it is bad when both sets of batsmen make runs. Stop spouting nonsense on how it is boring only when Indians are doing well.

You mean to say Indian pitches doesn't require any special attention to make test matches more interesting?

 

[Shri]

You mean to say Indian pitches doesn't require any special attention to make test matches more interesting?

I will answer that question, if you wouldn't mind. Can you name a few venues where test matches are played in India?(use google or cricinfo if you have trouble)