'Official' Pakistan in West Indies

[morgieb]

Strong games for the spinners here.

 

[Xuhaib]

Dont think this pitch is as bad as it has been made out to be, however there are still a lot of questions to be asked about a pitch that makes Bishoo look like a world beater.

???
he is accurate has a very good slider the leg break turns with the novelty factor and a pitch supporting him he is a handful, sure he does not get the Warne drift yet but he does everything else right for a leggie.

 

[Borges]

lol at whinging about the pitch because it has some life in it. No wonder there have been so many batting paradises throughout the 2000s. As soon as there's some difficulty for the batsmen everyone is up in arms. God forbid they may struggle for runs

Agreed that this pitch is no worse than a road which gives no chance to the bowlers; because it is more of a rarity, one could argue that this is the better of the two. Though, as has been pointed out, it is not one that is totally rigged against the batsmen. It is the batting that has not been of test standard.

Also agreed that there would be far less criticism of the pitch if it had been a green top that overly favoured the pace bowlers. But a pitch that assists spin? Good god, No! Make a spin bowler look good? Sacrilege! This just can't be cricket.

 

[Xuhaib]

Borges,

even world class batsman like Chanderpaul was playing and missing atleast 2-3 times an over and needed couple of slices of luck to get to 36 I am not saying its unplayable but is certainly sub standard.

 

[GotSpin]

It'd be a shame if the WICB receives criticism for this pitch because they'll just continue to churn out batting paradises. I'd rather put a fork in my eye than see Sammy score a century on the flat wickets that have characterised the caribbean lately.

 

[GotSpin]

Borges,

even world class batsman like Chanderpaul was playing and missing atleast 2-3 times an over and needed couple of slices of luck to get to 36 I am not saying its unplayable but is certainly sub standard.

Bishoo scored 24 runs.

 

[Xuhaib]

the reason a green track will not get as muck flak is because if a batsman is in or feeling in good touch he will still get value for his strokes on the other hand this pitch apart from helping the bowlers is also not conducive to good strokeplay.

 

[GotSpin]

the reason a green track will not get as muck flak is because if a batsman is in or feeling in good touch he will still get value for his strokes on the other hand this pitch apart from helping the bowlers is also not conducive to good strokeplay.

Why not? If they actually used their feet instead of playing on the back foot they could easily play their shots. Besides, the three wickets yesterday picked up by the windies were all from good pace bowling

 

[Xuhaib]

Bishoo scored 24 runs.

not every one gets out < 10 for a pitch to be deemed poor watch the scorecard of a recent Warwikshire game where they have been penalised for a substandard pitch Mo Yo scored 180 in the game,even his 24 had a dropped catch and a plumb LBW and not to forget countless play and misses.

I am not calling this an unplayable track but it surely is poor standard.

 

[Borges]

Borges,

even world class batsman like Chanderpaul was playing and missing atleast 2-3 times an over and needed couple of slices of luck to get to 36 I am not saying its unplayable but is certainly sub standard.

Agree with that. Any pitch that does not provide a reasonably even contest between the ball and the bat; to harp on an earlier theme, one that does not allow us to distinguish between the great, the good and the merely competent, is sub standard.

My point is that pitches that extravagantly assist spin bowlers are the ones singled out for criticism. Ones that are loaded in favour of the batsmen are not deemed 'sub standard'. And those that are clearly rigged in favour of quick bowlers are actually often termed 'good'.

 

[Xuhaib]

not everything can played on the front foot when te ball turns and bounces so much, Only seen the highlights of the last session and it seems the wickets fell to quality of new ball bowling not pitch but my argument is for the whole game and not just last innings.

 

[Athlai]

lol at whinging about the pitch because it has some life in it.

Spinning from the first few overs is dire though.

 

[Teja.]

Absolutely love this pitch, It's not the greatest pitch in the world and it'd be death for cricket if every pitch was like this but I don't get the whining for one occasional extremely bowling friendly wicket.

 

[smash84]

It'd be a shame if the WICB receives criticism for this pitch because they'll just continue to churn out batting paradises. I'd rather put a fork in my eye than see Sammy score a century on the flat wickets that have characterised the caribbean lately.

I am so with you on this. If once in a decade such a pitch is produced people start whining and crying. At least it restores some balance and does add variety to the game. I am also sure that good batsmen if they spend time on this pitch can grind out runs. It requires more application than other pitches.

Absolutely love this pitch, It's not the greatest pitch in the world and it'd be death for cricket if every pitch was like this but I don't get the whining for one occasional extremely bowling friendly wicket.

This

 

[Spark]

Why not? If they actually used their feet instead of playing on the back foot they could easily play their shots. Besides, the three wickets yesterday picked up by the windies were all from good pace bowling

(y)

Stand by my comment that a good player of spin will find a way to make runs if he applies himself. Even with two pretty average batting lineups we're going to go into the 4th day.

 

[smash84]

(y)

Stand by my comment that a good player of spin will find a way to make runs if he applies himself. Even with two pretty average batting lineups we're going to go into the 4th day.

Going into the fourth day with ordinary batting line-ups doesn't mean that the pitch is not easy to bat on. Are you watching this match or are you only following this on cricinfo???

 

[Spark]

But why does every Test pitch have to be easy to bat on?

It's not dangerous, there aren't balls taking off people's heads from a full length. It's just difficult to bat on. I like these pitches every now and then, really shows you who can and can't play spin.

 

[morgieb]

lol at whinging about the pitch because it has some life in it. No wonder there have been so many batting paradises throughout the 2000s. As soon as there's some difficulty for the batsmen everyone is up in arms. God forbid they may struggle for runs

It's not so much that it has life, more just a massive dustbed. There are reasons why West Indian pitches are so dire.

 

[GotSpin]

The problem being that apparently its ok to let a test match have 1500+ runs in it, but not ok for the batsmen to struggle and actually apply themselves.

 

[smash84]

But why does every Test pitch have to be easy to bat on?

It's not dangerous, there aren't balls taking off people's heads from a full length. It's just difficult to bat on. I like these pitches every now and then, really shows you who can and can't play spin.

There is a difference between a dangerous pitch and a bad pitch too IMO.

FTR there are many deliveries of spinner that have kicked up extraordinarily. Secondly what about the extremely low bounce in just about every other over where the ball does not even rise a foot above the ground after pitching. Is that not a bad pitch??? Not dangerous but is it not bad???

I am actually all for having pitches that really test the batsmen but at least they can have consistent bounce???? Not when you have deliveries coming in that are barely above ankle height