***Official*** India in South Africa 2017/18

[anaksr]

And now Iam wondering whether Virat decision to bat first was a masterstroke. This pitch will be hell in 4th innings.

 

[Spark]

Geez this SA side is brittle. Massive missed opportunity for India in this series.

 

[Daemon]

Geez this SA side is brittle. Massive missed opportunity for India in this series.

Qdk is a big culprit imo. Batted extremely poorly and always let India back into the game.

 

[vcs]

Bhuvi's a proper batsman. He can average as much as Philander does with the bat.

 

[Top Cat]

Need to try and get 20 more runs from the last 3 wickets here. Of that this pair needs to get us another 10...Ishant can hang around and give one of these support while Bumrah will get out pretty quickly.

 

[TT Boy]

Easy as you like for these two now. They will presumably keep swinging but there are plenty of singles on offer.

 

[Spark]

Qdk is a big culprit imo. Batted extremely poorly and always let India back into the game.

Yeah, but Elgar having a severe reversion-to-mean (and then some) and the middle order getting starts but never really driving it home has hurt too. And I feel like I've watched this bowling performance before: when they're off, they're all off by just enough to let the opposition slip away.

 

[TT Boy]

Cheap wicket.

 

[Stapel]

And now Iam wondering whether Virat decision to bat first was a masterstroke. This pitch will be hell in 4th innings.

Will it?
It probably will be on day 5, but we won’t get there. This pitch has been ‘hell’ to bat on from the word ‘play’ on day one. So far, I find it very hard to judge how much harder it has become.

Doing the easy (& usually silly) thing and judge by the scores per innings, it’s becoming easier ��

 

[vcs]

Ah.. he hit that pretty well. Ngidi been badly underbowled in this innings. Get it to 250 somehow. Another 20 would be invaluable.

 

[Daemon]

Hopefully we stick to good line and lengths instead of banging it in like they have. Also target the stumps a lot more.

Bumrah should be pretty unplayable here.

 

[Bahseph]

Should be enough for India. Just hope there's some fight from the SA boys. Man I'd love to know what Kohli's real opinion on Bhuvi is. I'd honestly back him to be more consistent with the bat than Pandya. Obviously won't produce the odd ridiculous innings though.

 

[Stapel]

Well, 241 to win.

How many overs left today?

 

[Daemon]

Hopefully we stick to good line and lengths instead of banging it in like they have. Also target the stumps a lot more.

Bumrah should be pretty unplayable here.

lol Shami banging in the new ball straight away.

 

[vcs]

lol Shami banging in the new ball straight away.

Seems to have worked. Good start.

 

[Daemon]

That's a KL Rahulesque poke

 

[vcs]

Holy crap.

 

[Top Cat]

If South Africa get away with this complaining about an unsafe pitch and the match ends in a draw/cancelled then India should rightly be furious. Our lower order gutsed it out there against Morkel, Rabada, Ngidi and Philander on a hideously difficult pitch so we shouldn't take any crap if SA complain to get the match cancelled.

 

[Daemon]

**** this. Won't even be mad if they call it off. India will definitely feel hard done by but it's for the best.

 

[Stapel]

lol Shami banging in the new ball straight away.

Though not brillant in any way, simply presenting the opposition an opportunity to make a mistake is an often overlooked tactic.

A bit like positioning a bunch of fielders on the rope on the leg side and asking the bowler to go short. Test batsmen shouldn't fall for that trap, but they do. So worth a try.