Tour Matches

[BoyBrumby]

I personally don't see what's so good about the Taunton Travel Inn, but each to their own...

Also of interest: this is the list of team scores in completed innings in FC games at Taunton this season: 642, 210, 50, 309, 238, 185, 165, 358, 452, 321 - average of 293. Not that flat...

Dare say Lords offers up roughly the same sort of figures too.

How did Zaheer look yest? His lack of success in the wicket column would be my main cause of concern were I an Indian fan.

 

[Cevno]

Okay, I'm sure they have done well on seaming wickets, but that wasn't my point. One of the arguments for Zaheer, in particular, is that he can do more on flatter pitches than most other bowlers in world cricket, due to growing up in conditions that don't suit seamers. If that is the case, then yesterday's bowling cannot be dismissed as "flat ol' Taunton" - its not as if Somerset rack up 300-2 every time they bat. I'm not saying yesterday's performance mean we're gonna hammer you in the Tests, but if I was an India fan, I wouldn't be happy with it.

As for the bolded part, not sure what that has to do with anything. Pitches in India haven't been raging turners recently, and even if they had that doesn't affect my point.

I haven't seen this match at all, so can't comment on how this pitch is ,but a really flat pitch is really flat for any bowler around the world. Say the one India had in Srilanka in the tour last year or the ones where Lara scored his 375 or 400 etc...

Then there are pitches which are flattish but still offer something for the bowlers, say 400 to 450 par score wickets which slightly reduce in the second innings ,also then there are wickets which are really flat in the first innings and then deteriorate in the second like Sydney.

All these type of wickets differ from country to country too, for example in India the bowl won't swing much at all when it is new but due to the abrasiveness, the old bowl reverses sooner on more flattish wickets. Then there are some wickets where the bowl will spin very early on and the pacers will only play a support role largely while the match is low scoring.
Don't think there are many more flat wickets in wicket in India at all compared to Australia or England. Just that different bowlers play different kind of roles on different wickets. Can't really group wickets in different stadiums together these days, let alone different countries.

Obviously, not to happy about this performance against a FC side but not reading too much into it myself as have not seen the wicket and the bowlers have just arrived after a long break plus we are slow starters on tour.

 

[MW1304]

My point about the pitches wasn't huge, anyway, so I'm not going into discussion about pitches around the world. I just found it funny that some people were dismissing the performance yesterday because its Taunton - I think Neil showed best that its not entirely fair. Yes, this doesn't really have any impact on the Tests, but its stupid to put it down to the pitch, I'd be very annoyed at my bowlers.

 

[MW1304]

If Zaheer is mediocre,then Anderson must leave cricket fields & join us in paddy fields here.

That's perfect.

Hmm... either you don't understand sarcasm or just didn't understand my joke...

 

[The_roc]

Oh.That would be quite unfair given that Sachin & co. fielded a whole day watching a mediocre like Suppiah scoring a ton.

Mediocre? World record holder?

 

[Cevno]

My point about the pitches wasn't huge, anyway, so I'm not going into discussion about pitches around the world. I just found it funny that some people were dismissing the performance yesterday because its Taunton - I think Neil showed best that its not entirely fair. Yes, this doesn't really have any impact on the Tests, but its stupid to put it down to the pitch, I'd be very annoyed at my bowlers.

Yeah ,don't think you can put down the performance only on the pitch without actually seeing the match.
But at the same time, don't think you can read too much into that performance as well without knowing everything and due to the other factors i mentioned.

Can't speak for others, it hasn't affected me or my estimation of the series personally either way tbh and wouldn't have even if they were 300 all out yesterday.

 

[weeman27bob]

Suppiah averages 39.73 for the season and has scored 145 not out. With a bit of data extrapolation (based of the players season FC average), this is how the England top order should do in an innings. To counter for the return of Indian players and a different pitch, I've assumed that any further score by Suppiah will not count. As such the Engand players should score:

Cook - 207
Strauss - 144
Trott - 146
KP - 155
Bell - 357
Morgan - 266
Prior - 169

Personally I look forward to seeing England at 1444/7 at Lords.

Also, I would have just done test statistics, but then Ian Bell would be scoring 1204 runs in the innings which I think might be a shade unrealistic.

 

[centurymaker]

Yeah ,don't think you can put down the performance only on the pitch without actually seeing the match.
But at the same time, don't think you can read too much into that performance as well without knowing everything and due to the other factors i mentioned.

Can't speak for others, it hasn't affected me or my estimation of the series personally either way tbh and wouldn't have even if they were 300 all out yesterday.

yeah, tbf zaheer did have strauss lbw once.
plus, zaheer bowled within himself- didn't want to give any advantage to strauss by bowling his stock deliveries.
was undercooked too- needed to get some bowling under his belt- bowled at a gentle pace.

sreesanth looked completely out of sorts- FAT plus sprayed it around- won't play any tests unless someone gets injured.

pleased that the managment gave ishant a break because he looked a bit tired in the 3rd test- his pace was down.

 

[marc71178]

Would be most amusing for the undercooked excuse to come out for players who have just missed a perfect opportunity for match practice.

 

[Howe_zat]

Suppiah averages 39.73 for the season and has scored 145 not out. With a bit of data extrapolation (based of the players season FC average), this is how the England top order should do in an innings. To counter for the return of Indian players and a different pitch, I've assumed that any further score by Suppiah will not count. As such the Engand players should score:

Cook - 207
Strauss - 144
Trott - 146
KP - 155
Bell - 357
Morgan - 266
Prior - 169

Personally I look forward to seeing England at 1444/7 at Lords.

Also, I would have just done test statistics, but then Ian Bell would be scoring 1204 runs in the innings which I think might be a shade unrealistic.

It's more or less impossible to argue with this.

 

[AlwaysProteas]

Suppiah averages 39.73 for the season and has scored 145 not out. With a bit of data extrapolation (based of the players season FC average), this is how the England top order should do in an innings. To counter for the return of Indian players and a different pitch, I've assumed that any further score by Suppiah will not count. As such the Engand players should score:

Cook - 207
Strauss - 144
Trott - 146
KP - 155
Bell - 357
Morgan - 266
Prior - 169

Personally I look forward to seeing England at 1444/7 at Lords.

Also, I would have just done test statistics, but then Ian Bell would be scoring 1204 runs in the innings which I think might be a shade unrealistic.

By the same extrapolation, Raina will take a 5fer (If India take all 10 wickets) in the first innings.
Edit: Now it looks like he will only take 3.33 wickets.

 

[Uppercut]

My point about the pitches wasn't huge, anyway, so I'm not going into discussion about pitches around the world. I just found it funny that some people were dismissing the performance yesterday because its Taunton - I think Neil showed best that its not entirely fair. Yes, this doesn't really have any impact on the Tests, but its stupid to put it down to the pitch, I'd be very annoyed at my bowlers.

Yeah, it was really overcast for the second two sessions yesterday too, and they didn't even manage to keep the run rate reasonable. There's no getting away from the fact that it's a really poor performance in the field.

But I don't give it too much weighting with regards to how the test series is going to go. Don't think there's much of a relation between the results of tour games and the results of the following series.

 

[Furball]

I don't think the strength of the opposition matters that much. If Zaheer Khan gets to bowl 30 overs, then as long as he's not bowling absolute filth that's much better than just stepping off a plane and bowling at Lord's. Who he's bowling to or how many wickets he takes doesn't really matter.

.

 

[Cevno]

Why the hell are Sky broadcasting the Eng - u19 Vs Sa - u19 but not this match?

I would have thought there would be more interest in this tour match ahead of a big series.

 

[Uppercut]

.

Yeah, exactly. They play this match so they don't bowl like this in the first test.

 

[weeman27bob]

Why the hell are Sky broadcasting the Eng - u19 Vs Sa - u19 but not this match?

I would have thought there would be more interest in this tour match ahead of a big series.

Quality of play is better in the u19 game...

 

[vcs]

****, Sreesanth picked up a wicket.

 

[nsniks]

Mishra - 11nb, What the hell?????

 

[vcs]

Munaf Patel's economy rate is pretty outstanding in that scorecard.

 

[AlwaysProteas]

Feels like T20. Perhaps declaration coming up soon.

Edit: Just as I post, they delcare at 425/3