What a joke this is. How can they get away with producing a pitch like this ? Might as well play on a beach or a tarmac car park. 5 days of lockdown entertainment down the drain....
Takes them 10 seconds to decide an inside edge for an Indian batsman, 10 minutes and 5 replays and zoom for Joe Root when there was clear spike on Ultra edge.
I reckon Root got that decision because of the poor decisions yesterday. What do we reckon is a good lead on this pitch? 150?
I hate these pitches. No one wants to watch cricket played on a hard pitch where the first innings is completed on the 4th day with both sides having racked up 550 runs leaving a draw the only possible outcome, but we also don't want to see cricket played on a pitch that falls apart when the umpires coin hits the turf.
Call me a cricket purist, but I rather miss seeing the odd Test match like that occasionally! It used to be a more common thing 25/30+ years ago I'd say.
They should have all done that. More likely to get some connection than they have prodding at straight ones and missing.
26 wickets in just over a day and a half is criminal. I hope you can report the state of the pitch because when you have a part time bowler taking a Michelle and even India, who's batsmen play spin very well, struggle badly all in the first two days it's not good enough. Great for India who will win but not great for Test cricket
Comfortably. Probably enough time if the pitch deteriorates to use the full 5 days and make it a best of 3 series ?
The BCCI couldn't care less about what is and what isn't great for test cricket. Never have. As long as they win at all costs. And reach the Test Championship final.
Just declare now England and get Crawley bowling lobbing some up in the air to get it over with ASAP.
Been a few 2 day test matches including one England v West Indies in 2000. Mind you between 1946 and 2000 there wasn’t a two day test match. https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283076.html
Not to mention that stumping that was given not out when it clearly looked out. I must be hallucinating. Jack Leach has hit a 6
3rd umpire completely ignored a clear spike with Foakes and just said flat line. Disgusting. They might as well come home.
If India were a county team they'd get fined for this pitch. It's been exciting, but this is ridiculous. Cook made a good point, Root should not be getting 5-er on day two of a test wicket.
Imagining agreeing to play an series in India with home umpires. They can't fly umpires around for the tests but can fly Butcher and Swann back and forth to commentate.
The commentary on this game is like when you watch a stream of the Watford game on another teams Ifollow and the commentators are ridiculously biased.
Least they only had to get 49. If it was 130 or something and India won by 10 wickets they would have just said we were bad losers and told to get on with it. But as they struggled they might have some empathy .
What a ****ing **** Michael Vaughan is. I'm sure he'd have got his head down and knocked off a quick 50 in both innings.
Kohli's comments about lack of batting prowess were ridiculous and laughable. He's not going to argue whilst they keep winning. At least it can only be Australia OR India in the test finals. Terrible teams both of them.
Wicket for the next Test match. It was a poor surface. Test matches should not finish within two days. The ICC should step in and fine India for such poor preparation. They can do. However home sides have always prepared wickets that suit their bowlers if they can. The slowing of pitches in the West Indies did their fast bowlers no service at the tail end of the Ambrose, Walsh and Patterson era. Even in India pitches are less spin friendly with a consequent rise in swing and pace bowlers in their armoury. They have struggled against spin when normally in the past it was meat and drink to them with players like Laxman, Azharuddin, Dravid and of course Tendulkar. Overseas spinners on tour have decent records. The selection of one front line spinner beggars belief on a pitch where a part timer like Root picked up what will likely be career best figures. You play with angled bat,. soft hands, front foot out to the pitch or make sure you use quick footwork. Plenty of the batsmen on both sides failed to do either. The Sibley yahoo for example was an incredibly poor shot attempt for instance. Seems to me with the huge amount of white ball cricket many batsmen seem to have forgotten how to tackle spin even accounting for a terrible track.
