Cricket: The Official Thread

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India set a few unwanted records in their second innings against Australia today.



Quite the collapse. :crazy:
 
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I woke up and checked the score to see if India were still batting or how Australia's was going. 'It was over hours ago' was not on my radar of possible outcomes. And to think Hazlewood had 5 wickets for 4 runs until his second last ball.
Now India go to the next test without their best batter.
 
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Australia v India looked like a great series. I did manage to see coverage of parts of it but nothing from the final test match in Brisbane.

In good news for non-Australian cricket fans, they're no longer unbeatable at the Gabba. :)
 
I was reading up on the 3rd Test between India and England and gotta say, wow, that's brutal. I don't think I've ever seen a test end in less than two days, not even domestic four day matches. And I know spin is favoured in Sub-continent conditions, but all the wickets except two falling to spin? That's gotta be some kind of a modern-era record.
 
JKgo
I was reading up on the 3rd Test between India and England and gotta say, wow, that's brutal. I don't think I've ever seen a test end in less than two days, not even domestic four day matches. And I know spin is favoured in Sub-continent conditions, but all the wickets except two falling to spin? That's gotta be some kind of a modern-era record.
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What an absolute **** pitch that was. Where's the balance between bat and bowl.
 
JKgo
I was reading up on the 3rd Test between India and England and gotta say, wow, that's brutal. I don't think I've ever seen a test end in less than two days, not even domestic four day matches. And I know spin is favoured in Sub-continent conditions, but all the wickets except two falling to spin? That's gotta be some kind of a modern-era record.
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Joe Root who is a good part time spinner took 5-8 against a team that is normally very good at playing spin.
 
bjl23
What an absolute **** pitch that was. Where's the balance between bat and bowl.
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Now normally, I'd start arguing that preparing pitches to "assist" the home team is par for the course, but yeah, I agree with you on this one. A test is supposed to go on for five days, but that pitch... Wow.

polysmut
Joe Root who is a good part time spinner took 5-8 against a team that is normally very good at playing spin.
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You're being charitable here, I wouldn't exactly call Root a "good" part timer. What little I've seen him of bowling, he looked okay-ish at best. Wasn't his bowling average over 40? I'd say that's not all that great even for a part-timer. Even Temba Bavuma, who can be categorised as a part-part-part time bowler, averages 47-ish (first-class).

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The fourth test will be played on the same venue, right? I wonder how the pitch will play, assuming they are using another one. Will the BCCI choose to prepare a 'fairer' wicket since India can't lose the series now?
 
JKgo
The fourth test will be played on the same venue, right? I wonder how the pitch will play, assuming they are using another one. Will the BCCI choose to prepare a 'fairer' wicket since India can't lose the series now?
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It will be the same venue, obviously on a different strip though and with a week in between games.
I think India need to win the 4th test match to qualify for the world test championship final against New Zealand. Otherwise Australia will play New Zealand in the final.

JKgo
You're being charitable here,
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Probably, yes. If so, I was being charitable to the state of that wicket as well as to Joe Root as a bowler.
 
polysmut
I think India need to win the 4th test match to qualify for the world test championship final against New Zealand. Otherwise Australia will play New Zealand in the final.
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I see. I haven't checked out the standings so had no idea. That's kind of bizarre, though, because Australia lost their home series to India in a rather resounding manner, and I don't remember them playing all that well against England either, yet they still qualify for the finals? Looks like I'll have to check out how the points system works for the championship.

Edit: Ok, I see. India is indeed on top of the table, but losing or drawing means their win percentage will drop below that of Australia's.

No wonder Australia didn't want to play SA in an away series. Never mind the COVID19 scares, they probably didn't want to endanger their chances of competing in the finals, even if the odds of them losing to SA are pretty low. Probably.
 
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Akila Dananjaya had an intersting day out for Sri Lanka against the West Indies...
His second over went 4WWW14
His third over went 666666

yep, consecutive overs contained a hat trick an six 6s.
 
The 4th test in India v England has so far been closer than the previous two matches. England 205 all out and India 186-6 with Pant on 50 not out.

As a follower of the England team, their sub-standard batting of recent weeks is fresh in my mind. The outcome of this match could be decided by whether or not they collapse in the 2nd innings.
 
In a T20 match, what are the percentages of a side batting first and having posted over 200 runs, lose said match, and in one of the most resounding manner, too?

:irked:

I'm not a statistician, but I can hazard a guess that the percentage would be very low. But it just happened to South Africa in a bilateral series against Pakistan today.

SA posted the score of 203 for five wickets. In any other times, that would've been a winning score, considering that Pakistan could only muster less than 150 in their previous encounter.

In their chase, Pakistan knocked those runs down with two overs to spare. With only one wicket down, too. :banghead:

In the process, they set a few records for themselves, apparently. The destroyer in chief, PAK's captain Babar Azam hit his maiden century (120+), which also happened to be the fastest one by a PAK batsman, and it was also the first T20 century scored on the ground, which is somewhat ironically named Centurion. The opening stand (197) was second highest in the world ever, although I can't confirm this.

Props to Babar Azam, as he made the chase look super easy. But I'd venture to say that the half of the chase was done for them by South Africa's abysmal bowlers. They had been pretty lacklustre throughout the series, but today had to be their worst display so far. No discipline, no imagination, didn't stick to basics when needed, full tosses when not needed, letting easy singles through... At least there were no no balls this time around, which is a small consolation.

Most of SA's front line bowlers are away in IPL, but that can't be an excuse for this lack of... depth in the side.
 
It's me again, this time with yet another bad news for South African cricket in general.

On last week Friday, South Africa's Minister of Sport officially stripped Cricket South Africa, the cricket governing body here, of national recognition. Just like that, this country no longer has a national cricket team. Here's the link that briefly explains how the mess escalated to this point.

To make matters worse, South Africa's Emerging XI lost their T20 match to Namibia. To Namibia. Seriously now?

How low can this country's cricketing standard fall? Utter disgrace, this.
 
In a practical sense, what does this do to the team in the immediate future?

Meanwhile, Tamim Iqbal brought up his 50 with the team score on 52 in the final innings of their test against Sri Lanka.
 
Barra333
In a practical sense, what does this do to the team in the immediate future?
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There was supposed to be a tour of West Indies around June/July this year, but that's pretty much off the table now. Not sure what's the financial penalty involved with the cancellation of an international series like that.

Everything's uncertain right now, apparently the Sport Minister sort of gave the members council until this week Friday to concede.
 
JKgo
There was supposed to be a tour of West Indies around June/July this year, but that's pretty much off the table now. Not sure what's the financial penalty involved with the cancellation of an international series like that.

Everything's uncertain right now, apparently the Sport Minister sort of gave the members council until this week Friday to concede.
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I just read the article you linked briefly... If I understand correctly, it comes down to the independence of the board? Is this the representatives from the provinces or the smaller board above that? And independent of what - government appointment/interference?
Sucks that it has come to a national association being stripped of their recognition, and I hope they sort it out soon - I have fond memories of watching SA as my prime cricket watching years were the Kallis/Rhodes/Donald eras when they always played Australia hard.
 
Barra333
I just read the article you linked briefly... If I understand correctly, it comes down to the independence of the board? Is this the representatives from the provinces or the smaller board above that? And independent of what - government appointment/interference?
Sucks that it has come to a national association being stripped of their recognition, and I hope they sort it out soon - I have fond memories of watching SA as my prime cricket watching years were the Kallis/Rhodes/Donald eras when they always played Australia hard.
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It's a shameful backstory, this - the "independence" they talk about is regarding real independence from the provincial cricketing boards. This all stemmed from 2019 (ish) when a big-ass scandal rocked the local cricket scene, and a retired judge was brought in to investigate then suggest a way forward to resolve the situation. The judge recommended this action of restructuring the CSA board to an independent one where the provincial sides don't have such an iron grip on the proceedings.

The new development happened after I finished posting (well past midnight on Sunday) that the members' council and the CSA board successfully came to an agreement after a marathon negotiation and will forward the results to the Sports Minister. Maybe there's a brighter ending to this sorry saga, after all.
 
I've been watching the latest South Africa vs India series, and something struck me as rather surprising, particularly the 3-match ODI series currently being played.

So far, two ODI matches have been played, and in both times, South Africa fielded more spinners than India. Which is unthinkable ten, fifteen years ago - hell, I'd say it's unthinkable five years ago. Yet here we are. Funnily enough, it was the spinners that took the game away from India in both matches while seamers looked rather unthreatening for both camps. Funny to see how South Africa's reputation as offering seamer-friendly surfaces have somewhat wrong-footed India like this.
 
Wow. That's sudden. Didn't expect that.

One of the favourite anecdotes regarding Warne I've heard: he frequently came over here as a Cricket ambassador after retiring from the game. In one of those trips, he went to a school in Kwazulu Natal and demonstrated one of his googlys (googlies?) while telling the kids, "This here is the delivery that flummoxed your Daryll Cullinan." :lol: Dunno why but that story always stuck with me.

He's gone way too soon. What a character he was.
 
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Loss of two Australian cricketing greats in a couple of days, hard to take but watching them both play that's what I'll remember.
 
So....interesting tactics being employed now in the Ashes.

Could this prompt a rule change?

EDIT: 16 runs off 12 overs
 
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Barra333
I'm only watching the text feed on cricinfo, but are they basically bowling bodyline?
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Pretty much.

Short ball after short ball like Australia did apparently (I didn't see the highlights of England's innings)

EDIT: And another wicket.

EDIT 2: It's kinda like watching a baseball game where pitches outside the strike zone don't get called as a ball.
 
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