*Official* World Test Championship Final 2021

[The Hutt Rec]

Fantastic day from NZ, totally turned the test on it's head. In the box seat for tomorrow ... please be sunny ffs!!!

 

[Niall]

Have a few doubts about the best-ness of the Indian quick bowling in this match tbh.

This test is probably gone for India now, but I don't think England's lol batting line up will be to concerned about this much vaunted bowling line up.

Hopefully for India's sake that Siraj plays the first England test.

 

[Moss]

The good news is the openers have built a platform where if we cop a Bumrah or whoever spell tomorrow, a few slogs can get us parity unless India bowl insanely well.

Make India work for everything.

Yeah it’s a platform, but they’ll have to work out where the runs are coming from. In both innings so far drying up the runs has paid dividends, with helpful cloud cover never too far away to enable the dukes do its thing.

 

[Flem274*]

weather looks **** tomorrow, patchy the day after, solid on the reserve day.

Result wise NZ need to bat once and hope the weather holds for a reasonable length of time. India need parity or better then to get a move on with the bat before forcing a meme spell NZ 60 all out type collapse (eminently possible in this 'teams away from home' world).

This test is probably gone for India now, but I don't think England's lol batting line up will be to concerned about this much vaunted bowling line up.

Hopefully for India's sake that Siraj plays the first England test.

bruh are you high? india's bowling today would have driven a stake through a couple of those dudes, and i don't think the english openers are terrible, just below average.

 

[Arachnodouche]

Vital wicket that. NZ over a hundred behind still. Hope they have a good think overnight and come out firing tomorrow. Not out of it yet.

 

[honestbharani]

Our seamers were too short all day. Its like all it took was one drive and they went back to the back of a length tight bull ****. That is not gonna win us this game. NZ's opening bowlers were erratic but at least they bowled full enough to keep threatening.

Have no idea what is gonna happen tomorrow. But I have always believed that this Indian side is always gonna fight back and do better than what everyone expects. Hope it is the same tomorrow or whenever we get the next session and for the rest of this game.

It says a lot that Ashwin looked the most threatening of our bowlers consistently today. Hopefully the seamers correct their lengths tomorrow.

We needed 300 after the hard work yesterday. That shot by Ashwin was particularly disappointing as he was scoring freely without cover driving off the front foot. The one edge should have alerted him to keep that shot away for a bit. He seems to think he can bat like Klusener for some reason lol.

Few bullet point thoughts on NZ -

• Conway is special.
• Big Daddy Kane is playing late, cant let him settle.
• Latham was quite lucky but has excellent game awareness and instincts.
• KJ did a Philander on Virat.
• 4 of our batters threw away their wickets with poor shots. And NZ have already had 2. Jaddu was strangled. For all the demons in the pitch and in the conditions, most 90s batsmen would have ground out 350 type scores here for their teams.
• Southee is having a late career revival a la Anderson. Great to see.
• Hope they bat with some carelessness tomorrow or whenever we get the next session. Its our only hope at this point.

 

[Flem274*]

Ashwin was not the most threatening Indian bowler today. He was a solid 4th. His day might come tomorrow, but come on.

Most 90s batsmen were ****. They all averaged 35 for a reason. This Indian side, Dravid and Tendulkar aside, are light years ahead of your 90s batsmen in English conditions.

 

[The Hutt Rec]

weather looks **** tomorrow, patchy the day after, solid on the reserve day.

Result wise NZ need to bat once and hope the weather holds for a reasonable length of time. India need parity or better then to get a move on with the bat before forcing a meme spell NZ 60 all out type collapse (eminently possible in this 'teams away from home' world).

bruh are you high? india's bowling today would have driven a stake through a couple of those dudes, and i don't think the english openers are terrible, just below average.

You kept going on about how Anderson and Broad were going to destroy us for a 60 all out as well, time to accept we actually have a pretty decent batting line up.

 

[Burner]

Ashwin was not the most threatening Indian bowler today. He was a solid 4th. His day might come tomorrow, but come on.

Most 90s batsmen were ****. They all averaged 35 for a reason. This Indian side, Dravid and Tendulkar aside, are light years ahead of your 90s batsmen in English conditions.

Nah, not in English conditions. Everywhere else, yes, but not in England.

 

[Flem274*]

You kept going on about how Anderson and Broad were going to destroy us for a 60 all out as well, time to accept we actually have a pretty decent batting line up.

I will never say this during a live match unless we are playing a tasty looking Sri Lankan pace attack in NZ.

This Indian bowling attack is world class. They've caused chaos collapses before.

 

[honestbharani]

Ashwin was not the most threatening Indian bowler today. He was a solid 4th. His day might come tomorrow, but come on.

Most 90s batsmen were ****. They all averaged 35 for a reason. This Indian side, Dravid and Tendulkar aside, are light years ahead of your 90s batsmen in English conditions.

Yeah they averaged 35 but can grind out runs in such conditions. Which was my point. These guys can go huge and score quickly (except Puji) on good tracks but in challenging conditions they cant grind it out.

And Ashwin was threatening a lot more than Bumrah or Ishant. Shami was the most threatening till that last spell of his or maybe the one before where he kept bowling way too short after a very good first spell where his length was fuller than the other two on average. And the openers played really well, so when I say threatening, I mean more like he made them change their shot at the last moment or hurried them etc. Of course conditions are more suited to swing bowling but we have none apparently in this side.

 

[honestbharani]

I also think Virat is kinda obsessed wth playing correctly the last few years now than playing to get runs. He has amazing control percentages and looks very calm and assured but the runs are just not coming coz he is defending a lot more, sorta Sachin from around 99-2008 or so. He should just look at scoring runs from now and the safest ways to do that, instead of trying to be so very technically correct etc. Coz playing this way, sooner than later, in hostile conditions, someone is gonna get him out with a great ball.

 

[Teja.]

Ashwin was not the most threatening Indian bowler today. He was a solid 4th. His day might come tomorrow, but come on.

Most 90s batsmen were ****. They all averaged 35 for a reason. This Indian side, Dravid and Tendulkar aside, are light years ahead of your 90s batsmen in English conditions.

'Dravid and Tendular aside' is not a minor thing ftr. Dravid averaged 69 in England and Tendulkar 54. Ganguly averaged 65 in England as well. All 3 over significant sample sizes. Those guys absolutely smashed English bowling over multiple tours. Our current batting line up is just not comparable in skill to those guys purely with respect to facing swing bowling in England imo.

 

[Flem274*]

I also think Virat is kinda obsessed wth playing correctly the last few years now than playing to get runs. He has amazing control percentages and looks very calm and assured but the runs are just not coming coz he is defending a lot more, sorta Sachin from around 99-2008 or so. He should just look at scoring runs from now and the safest ways to do that, instead of trying to be so very technically correct etc. Coz playing this way, sooner than later, in hostile conditions, someone is gonna get him out with a great ball.

His plan was perfect imo. I was so impressed on Day 1. Today he got a good ball and messed up. It happens, life sucks. I'm still scared of him in his second innings. We will need something special to get him out.

 

[honestbharani]

His plan was perfect imo. I was so impressed on Day 1. Today he got a good ball and messed up. It happens, life sucks. I'm still scared of him in his second innings. We will need something special to get him out.

STFU with ur Gambhiring, lol.

He does look good, that is the point. He looks totally in control and then one comes with his name on it, or Rahane runs him out stupidly or he runs out of partners. He cant be a very mild Pujara+. He needs to dominate a bit more too. That is why I was happy to see him try that upper cut off Wagner yesterday. Put away the cover drives, but punish width if you can off the back foot, ensure you keep scoreboard ticking somehow with soft hands and deft touches. Should really be the game plan for all our batsmen till they are set, and then they can bat the way that suits them best from that point.

 

[Flem274*]

'Dravid and Tendular aside' is not a minor thing ftr. Dravid averaged 69 in England and Tendulkar 55. Ganguly averaged 65 in England as well. All 3 over significant sample sizes. Those guys absolutely smashed England over multiple tours. Our current batting line up is just not comparable in skill to those guys purely with respect to facing swing bowling in England.

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Wow I'm pleasantly surprised by Ganguly's record there. I remember him being awwwwful against the moving ball.

I was mainly thinking the openers and other hangers on in the comparison, and I think my general point about the average 90s test batsman holds. If you average 35 today even in this era of some pretty silly bowling partnerships, you're out. Back then teams often had no one better and selectors looked on those players more kindly.

Just part of the 00s legacy changing selectorial expectations I guess, but we still look on those 90s players with rose tinted glasses because occasionally they did something good.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

If you average 35 today even in this era of some pretty silly bowling partnerships, you're out.

not if you play for WI, Eng, even SA

 

[Flem274*]

Put away the cover drives, but punish width if you can off the back foot, ensure you keep scoreboard ticking somehow with soft hands and deft touches. Should really be the game plan for all our batsmen till they are set, and then they can bat the way that suits them best from that point.

this was literally their plan, they just couldn't execute it today. even pant was patient af until he misread which way jamieson was swinging it.

 

[honestbharani]

this was literally their plan, they just couldn't execute it today. even pant was patient af until he misread which way jamieson was swinging it.

Its not a great look when you cant hold your plan for even 20 balls though, is it? Rohit, Pant and Ashwin all fell to needless front foot cover drives and Rahane had the worst non-Chump brain fade in recent memory.

 

[Flem274*]

not if you play for WI, Eng, even SA

Those teams aren't exactly happy with the situation though.