***Official*** England in India

[hendrix]

Saying it now: this is an awful Test wicket. Awful.

Honestly, I'd probably take a minefield over this. One of the most insipid sessions of Test cricket I've seen in a long, long time.

+1.

IIRC Nagpur's always been bad, but this is truly horrible viewing.

 

[tooextracool]

All about the bounce

Not been a lot of that either, the only one to get uneven bounce was Sharma. Might change by Day 2, but none of the spinners got anything to work with on that surface except for the fact that the batsmen had to dance down the track and hit the ball with all their might and your mortgage behind it to get the ball past the inner circle.

 

[Xuhaib]

this looks like a late 90's Sharjah track where a side would crawl to 170-65in 50 overs then would win the game by restricting the opposition to 147-8

 

[Contra]

+1.

IIRC Nagpur's always been bad, but this is truly horrible viewing.

It's always been bad with 3 results in the previous games?

 

[tooextracool]

Turn the ball?

If Dharmasena ever turned a ball, I certainly missed it.

 

[SS1]

Honestly, I'd probably take a minefield over this. One of the most insipid sessions of Test cricket I've seen in a long, long time.

Spot on.

Wickets like this are disgraceful and I'd like to see penalties for preparing something so ridiculous. Is it any wonder folk aren't going watching a Test on a wicket like that ?

I've already commenced a rain dance, 5 days of this could be unbearable.

 

[Spark]

Not been a lot of that either, the only one to get uneven bounce was Sharma. Might change by Day 2, but none of the spinners got anything to work with on that surface except for the fact that the batsmen had to dance down the track and hit the ball with all their might and your mortgage behind it to get the ball past the inner circle.

It's about the low bounce. It means Ajmal can bowl that awkward length that you can't quite get to the pitch to, so you have to play more from the crease - always risky. Add that to the fact that he can turn it both ways off a very straight line with no discernible change in action or line, and it's a recipe for carnage if he gets it right.

 

[smash84]

61/2 in one session doesn't sound like it won't be a result oriented pitch

 

[Spark]

61/2 in one session doesn't sound like it won't be a result oriented pitch

My "hope" is that this pitch will dry enough to bring the spinners into the game into a meaningful way. Otherwise, the wickets will mostly come from balls shooting off cracks, and that's just not meaningful cricket. EDIT: Or reverses.

The thing that gets me is the number of short, wide pies which have been dots because it's just impossible to get any sort of timing on this deck. That's just a bad, bad pitch - failing to reward good cricket or punish bad cricket.

 

[Teja.]

Ishant 2-9?

What sort of devilspawn pitch is this?

 

[smash84]

My "hope" is that this pitch will dry enough to bring the spinners into the game into a meaningful way. Otherwise, the wickets will mostly come from balls shooting off cracks, and that's just not meaningful cricket.

Oh ok......isn't that a minefield though?

 

[Spark]

Oh ok......isn't that a minefield though?

Well, not the kind of minefield that makes for interesting cricket.

 

[Howe_zat]

Ishant 2-9?

What sort of devilspawn pitch is this?

Ishant's got at least 3 to shoot below knee height and got Compton with one that climbed on him

The 60 runs are mainly Chawla/Jadeja pies

 

[SS1]

My "hope" is that this pitch will dry enough to bring the spinners into the game into a meaningful way. Otherwise, the wickets will mostly come from balls shooting off cracks, and that's just not meaningful cricket. EDIT: Or reverses.

The thing that gets me is the number of short, wide pies which have been dots because it's just impossible to get any sort of timing on this deck. That's just a bad, bad pitch - failing to reward good cricket or punish bad cricket.

The only real hope for scoring on this is over the top when the spinner goes too full.

Everything missing the stumps won't (or shouldn't) be played at. Anything hitting the stumps but not full should be blocked off the front foot.

Its going to be awful, awful cricket with maybe a touch of Sehwag/Pietersen/Prior livening things up for short periods.

 

[harsh.ag]

If Dharmasena ever turned a ball, I certainly missed it.

I remember Dharmasena's bowling for the fact that Azhar took him to the cleaners beautifully. Back to the match, and it is pretty certain that India are going to be outplayed by England's bowlers. They have much better fast bowlers, and better spinners, it seems like. So unless the batting dramatically improves, oh wait.... we just replaced Yuvraj with Jadeja. Hmmmmm............

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Stand by what I said earlier, i'd be happy setting India 200 on day 4 as the pitch will only deteriorate from here and the bounce could be impossible by then, god help the players when it starts turning.

 

[SS1]

Whats a decent first innings score on here then ?

350 and I'd snatch your hand off.

 

[Spark]

Yeah I said 300 before, but I'm revising it down to 250 now as that will take aaaages to get, unless Sehwag goes absolutely bonkers.

Match really needs KP/Sehwag to fire though, just to be a worthy spectacle.

 

[Teja.]

Ambrose would seriously do the gangnam style on this pitch against anyone.

 

[SS1]

Yeah I said 300 before, but I'm revising it down to 250 now as that will take aaaages to get, unless Sehwag goes absolutely bonkers.

Match really needs KP/Sehwag to fire though, just to be a worthy spectacle.

KP is absolutely vital to how England go here. If he goes without a significant score, England will post something pretty low. If he stays in, they'll post a healthy first innings score on this track.