***Official*** South Africa in India 2015

[Black_Warrior]

Using Sambit Bal's opinion to back up my point is not something I'd ever do.

What a dire and uncalled for post. I have not even commented on the pitch. In fact I fully defended the pitch in the 1st test match, which is the game I watched. I clearly mentioned that I had not watched this game, and reading some of the discussions, since I didn't have anything to contribute as I hadn't watched the game, I just posted something I read from a well respected cricket journalist. You read too much into things. This is not the first time you have done this. You assume a certain meaning, and then attack me based on that. Just stop.

 

[OverratedSanity]

wtf

Calm down, I wasn't even directing that post at anyone in particular. Post probably reads like it was a dig at you now I think about it, but I was just making a general point (ie) Sambit Bal is dire.

 

[Black_Warrior]

There was runs to be made in this pitch. Batsmen had to be gritty, look ugly and persevere, almost all the batsmen except maybe Vijay and Pujara were unwilling to do that. As cliche as it sounds, if you are willing to grind it out , you will get runs. Most of the wickets today were down to SA batsmen trying to hit their way out of trouble and Indian batsmen just being Indian batsmen when they are on top.

Yeah that's exactly what I gathered from the first test match. South Africa have 3 proven batsmen in the side, 2 of whom are AWOL. The rest of the guys (and we can include De Plessis in this) have never really faced such conditions ever before and are relatively inexperienced. When you have a couple of new guys, there is a greater onus on the senior batsmen and captain to perform. It will be interesting to see how this lot performs at home. WI last year can't be counted.

 

[Gnske]

Got salty in here fast, surprised people are that reluctant to say the pitch is even the slightest bit ****.

 

[weldone]

Go back 5 years in a time machine, grab Sehwag, Gambhir, Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman and bring their 2010 selves to 2015 and dump them on this pitch and India would have made 300-350 easily.

Ya I'd go back 7 years and bring Ganguly too to ensure we cross 350 regularly. I may consider dropping Gambhir for Murali Vijay but that will be the only change if at all.

 

[indiaholic]

On an unrelated note.. All this talk about an unplayable pitch reminds me of India's tour to NZ in 2002 - 03. Think we scored a combined 500 runs over two tests and Dravid and Tendulkar scored about 250 of those.

 

[cnerd123]

Ya I'd go back 7 years and bring Ganguly too to ensure we cross 350 regularly. I may consider dropping Gambhir for Murali Vijay but that will be the only change if at all.

urgh ffs stop it. This is worse than the people calling this pitch ****.

 

[OverratedSanity]

On an unrelated note.. All this talk about an unplayable pitch reminds me of India's tour to NZ in 2002 - 03. Think we scored a combined 500 runs over two tests and Dravid and Tendulkar scored about 250 of those.

Yep those pitches weren't unplayable either. The waahh that India had over them was lame. They were pitches that definitely offered help to the bowlers but rewarded good defensive techniques.No coincidence at all that Dravid, Tendulkar and Mark Richardson were the only ones to score any substantial runs.

 

[harsh.ag]

Got salty in here fast, surprised people are that reluctant to say the pitch is even the slightest bit ****.

Moving the goalposts here.

 

[weldone]

urgh ffs stop it. This is worse than the people calling this pitch ****.

Don't comment about things you don't understand. And don't dictate me, you have no authority to do so. I know better than you what to post and what not. Oil your own machine.

 

[harsh.ag]

On an unrelated note.. All this talk about an unplayable pitch reminds me of India's tour to NZ in 2002 - 03. Think we scored a combined 500 runs over two tests and Dravid and Tendulkar scored about 250 of those.

Yep those pitches weren't unplayable either. The waahh that India had over them was lame. They were pitches that definitely offered help to the bowlers but rewarded good defensive techniques.No coincidence at all that Dravid, Tendulkar and Mark Richardson were the only ones to score any substantial runs.

Haha we had Bangar on that series as opener haha

 

[Gnske]

Moving the goalposts here.

And you ****s still can't find the target.

 

[harsh.ag]

Lol their best spinners are Tahir, Harmer and Duminy. Who the **** are they supposed to bring on sir?

Sir is ours, sir.

 

[Contra]

haha WOW LOVING IT! check out the whining from some of the ex players on twitter lmfao, Michael Vaughan especially worried cuz England I think are due to tour next. I don't care if India lose tests because of this but we need to keep having proper Indian wickets such as these. Just ftr Bangalore was a typically good batting track so lets not pretend that each pitch is "doctored".

Oh and btw, Delhi has generally been the most spinner friendly wicket in the last few years, if it plays anything like a typical Delhi wicket, expect another turner

 

[OverratedSanity]

haha WOW LOVING IT! check out the whining from some of the ex players on twitter lmfao, Michael Vaughan especially worried cuz England I think are due to tour next. I don't care if India lose tests because of this but we need to keep having proper Indian wickets such as these. Just ftr Bangalore was a typically good batting track so lets not pretend that each pitch is "doctored".

That's where I have to disagree. For all the whining, I still believe pitches like this hurt our chances more than they help them.

 

[Contra]

That's where I have to disagree. For all the whining, I still believe pitches like this hurt our chances more than they help them.

Our batsmen are just going to have to suck it up and learn to bat better in these conditions. If anything this should make them better batsmen.

 

[sreeku7]

Those who think this is a difficult pitch to bat on,do not know that Test Cricket was played on much more treacherous surfaces in the days of uncovered pitches.Derek Underwood, used to run through strong batting sides on drying pitches after a rain.Batsmen brought up on those kind of pitches would not complaint about this Nagpur pitch

 

[Contra]

So I just saw the highlights and some of those shots were terrible, Rahane's was terrible in the second innings as well. Literally its just been batsmen not being able to execute their attacking shots well enough for the most part.

 

[Daemon]

Heh, these pitches aren't fantastic imo because they offer too much to spinners for my liking, but they're not 'bad' pitches. Just some random thoughts:

- If the batsmen were slightly more competent we'd have a fantastic test match and run chase on our hands
- You've got to bat really well to make runs here and I find watching good batting making runs in tough conditions very satisfying
- The new ball is useless, which is something I really dislike about this surface
- It rewards accurate spinners, but most of the other aspects of spin bowling take a bit of a backseat (obviously they're not completely irrelevant as Elgar's slowness and flight, Jadeja's once in a while round arm dart and Ashwin's variations out of the hand have shown)
- Yeah there's reverse on offer but decent spin is still far more likely to pick up wickets, so unless there's someone like Morkel bowling out of his skin then the quicks aren't very useful
- Edges not carrying to slip is bleh
- Keeping is a nightmare
- The close in fielding has been high quality, and very fun to watch. Kohli's rubbish technique in the slips being exposed yet again was painful
- There's so much pressure when the batsmen face up to a lobbed up delivery, the atmosphere and emotions are kinda different to what we usually witness because of the slowness of the whole thing - the nervess/calmness of the batsmen, the anticipation in the circle of fielders around the batsmen, batsmen being pussies and trying to hit out, batsmen being confident and ballsy and doing the same (yeah there's a difference) etc
- This brings so much variety to Test cricket, it's great to see impatient, limited overs grown batsmen completely **** the bed the minute they're in unfamiliar territory, be it India in England, Aus in Eng/India/UAE, England in the UAE etc.

I'm torn tbh, on one hand I love us winning and dominating while people wahh about how **** the pitch is, but on the other I don't enjoy the cricket being played here as much as I would if (i) fast bowling was more involved and (ii) meh spinners weren't taking as many wickets

 

[MW1304]

Not having a go at anyone in particular because it seems to be ubiquitous, but why has 'wahhh' become a reasonable thing to say? It sounds really obnoxious.