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***Official*** India Tour of South Africa, 2023/24

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
Rohit on the money. Hopefully this lights something up his belly and is hungry for something more than just vadapavs this time. :p


I love how he has called out the bias in the ICC as well as the larger cricketing media. Excellent presser from Rohit. Virat Vs Australia levels. πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ‘
 

Nintendo

Cricketer Of The Year
Rohit on the money. Hopefully this lights something up his belly and is hungry for something more than just vadapavs this time. :p


I love how he has called out the bias in the ICC as well as the larger cricketing media. Excellent presser from Rohit. Virat Vs Australia levels. πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ‘
A bias obviously exists, but isn't part of the issue just how these decks go? A pitch like the pink ball game India played vs England in 2019 where it's turning square on day 1 is only going to get worse and worse, while a green top in England won't have that unless cracks start forming cause pacers are bowling. (FYI, not defending this pitch. Ball that got gill out was a good example of why this pitch was so bad. Balls where staying low and bouncing over head height from the pacers on a similiar length.
 

Chin Music

State Vice-Captain
It's pretty simple there is nothing wrong with pitches being more in favour of a home team's bowling, be this spin or pace but there is a line drawn on when the favour is too much in a bowler's favour. The other side of the coin are the Pakistani roads of the last couple of years.
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
A bias obviously exists, but isn't part of the issue just how these decks go? A pitch like the pink ball game India played vs England in 2019 where it's turning square on day 1 is only going to get worse and worse, while a green top in England won't have that unless cracks start forming cause pacers are bowling. (FYI, not defending this pitch. Ball that got gill out was a good example of why this pitch was so bad. Balls where staying low and bouncing over head height from the pacers on a similiar length.
Yeah but here is the context that is lost often about that pink ball test in 2021. The first pink ball game in Adelaide also had similar issues., esp. the night session. It takes time to work out things. They realized the SG pink ball skids off the surface faster in the night and bowlers delivering into the pitch from a height made it almost impossible to line up as the pitch also had cracks which in normal surfaces would have been just a turner, not a significantly difficult one.

The 4th test in the same series showed what sort of pitch they actually wanted. It was still turning but it was not unfair and batsmen had a chance even though it did favor the spinners.
 

Molehill

Cricketer Of The Year
In all honesty, that Modi pitch was ****ing **** for an ODI match, let alone WC Final.
Same as 2019 to be honest, another rubbish pitch for a World Cup Final that gets largely forgotten because of what happened at the end.

As for home bias, if a home team cannot produce a pitch to suit their own bowlers then we may as well give up. What needs to be prevented (as others have mentioned) are pointless roads that cannot give you a result.

This pitch became a lottery and actually handed any home advantage away (a bit like the big turner that India lost to Aus on).
 

Nintendo

Cricketer Of The Year
Yeah but here is the context that is lost often about that pink ball test in 2021. The first pink ball game in Adelaide also had similar issues., esp. the night session. It takes time to work out things. They realized the SG pink ball skids off the surface faster in the night and bowlers delivering into the pitch from a height made it almost impossible to line up as the pitch also had cracks which in normal surfaces would have been just a turner, not a significantly difficult one.

The 4th test in the same series showed what sort of pitch they actually wanted. It was still turning but it was not unfair and batsmen had a chance even though it did favor the spinners.
My point was more that decks that rag on day 1 and keep low for the spinners (2nd and 3rd test of the last border gavaskar are a good example) are just going to get worse and worse. A greentop isn't or shouldn't in theory cause a bunch of spinners aren't bowling over and over. It's not a pink ball thing.
 

Sunil1z

International Regular
My point was more that decks that rag on day 1 and keep low for the spinners (2nd and 3rd test of the last border gavaskar are a good example) are just going to get worse and worse. A greentop isn't or shouldn't in theory cause a bunch of spinners aren't bowling over and over. It's not a pink ball thing.
Green top is also lottery imo . Once the Team batting first gets bowled to around 100 score , the team batting 2nd is only 2 average partnership away from taking a decisive lead .
 

Spark

Global Moderator
My point was more that decks that rag on day 1 and keep low for the spinners (2nd and 3rd test of the last border gavaskar are a good example) are just going to get worse and worse. A greentop isn't or shouldn't in theory cause a bunch of spinners aren't bowling over and over. It's not a pink ball thing.
There can definitely be greentops that get worse and worse in Australia, especially Perth; if the pitch has too much grass and is too soft, then what can happen is that you get a raging but actually somewhat consistent bouncy greentop which can be very difficult to survive on but has great value for shots on Day 1, but once the brutal heat bakes all the indentations and divots into the pitch it gets faster, but inconsistent in both bounce and pace and becomes close to impossible to bat on by Day 4. I think the Perth Test this summer might have been an example of that; it's clear that batting got way harder as the Test wore on and it wasn't exactly a road to start with. Those are rare outside of Perth and SA though.
 

Spark

Global Moderator
But also greentops can also be lotteries in a more basic ways: being bowled out for double digits just kinds of wrecks you, regardless of what happens after that. It takes a really unusual confluence of circumstances, like the pitch massively flattening out in the 4th innings (i.e. Headingley 2019) for there to still be a game after that, and that in itself can be seen as fundamentally unfair to the side batting first.
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
My point was more that decks that rag on day 1 and keep low for the spinners (2nd and 3rd test of the last border gavaskar are a good example) are just going to get worse and worse. A greentop isn't or shouldn't in theory cause a bunch of spinners aren't bowling over and over. It's not a pink ball thing.
That is just a theory. It has often been proved that both turners improve over time and greentops worsen over time. And for its worth, pitches with inconsistent bounce add an element of physical danger to the players which is almost never the case on turners.
 

Spark

Global Moderator
That is just a theory. It has often been proved that both turners improve over time and greentops worsen over time. And for its worth, pitches with inconsistent bounce add an element of physical danger to the players which is almost never the case on turners.
It really depends on where the greentop is. In England and NZ they can often flatten out. In Australia it depends on where it is; in somewhere like Hobart or Melbourne it stays relatively consistent, at Perth or Brisbane with the high bounce and hot sun it can turn into an absolute nightmare for batsmen by Day 3. South Africa is pretty similar.
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
It really depends on where the greentop is. In England and NZ they can often flatten out. In Australia it depends on where it is; in somewhere like Hobart or Melbourne it stays relatively consistent, at Perth or Brisbane with the high bounce and hot sun it can turn into an absolute nightmare for batsmen by Day 3. South Africa is pretty similar.
That is what I mean. Its not just about the where, the over head conditions also play a role with pitches. Its just silly how we generalize something that can be so very location specific.
 

Nintendo

Cricketer Of The Year
But also greentops can also be lotteries in a more basic ways: being bowled out for double digits just kinds of wrecks you, regardless of what happens after that. It takes a really unusual confluence of circumstances, like the pitch massively flattening out in the 4th innings (i.e. Headingley 2019) for there to still be a game after that, and that in itself can be seen as fundamentally unfair to the side batting first.
Wasn't headingley majorly overhead conditions? Deck definitely flattened out but from memory during the first three innings it was stop start with menancing overhead, while it was pretty sunny most of the 4th innings.
 

Spark

Global Moderator
Wasn't headingley majorly overhead conditions? Deck definitely flattened out but from memory during the first three innings it was stop start with menancing overhead, while it was pretty sunny most of the 4th innings.
Nah it seamed around a lot off the pitch on the first two days. England got bowled out for 60-odd in the sun! Turned into an absolute road by Day 4 though.
 

OverratedSanity

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My point was more that decks that rag on day 1 and keep low for the spinners (2nd and 3rd test of the last border gavaskar are a good example) are just going to get worse and worse.
In most cases yes. This is certainly not a universal rule though. Definitely seen some pitches in Asia that spin early and then get slower and slower as the match goes on. It'll still turn but survivability gets easier.
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
some bangladesh pitches turn sharper when the ball is new but it becomes slow turn as the ball gets old
Many Indian pitfches turn sharp on day 1 session 1 due to the moisture coz the SC teams mostly play their home season in the winters. They always flatten out or get slower and slower and batting becomes far easier ( at least survival) as the game goes on.
 

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