IMO The complete series was a pure gem and the greatest in Indian test history as far as the SENA tour goes because of circumstances and narrative buildup. Check out this book The Miracle Makers: Indian Cricket's Greatest Epic. You'll find some backstage stories of this tour.

I don't think any Indian test cricket fan will forget this series in their lifetime.

It was Anurag Thakur who got kicked out due to the Lodha Committee but yeah Lodha Committee came into existence because of N Srinivasan's brigade, there were other reasons as well like State power play between all of the parties. Corruption at the top might not be an issue these days but these guys still didn't implement Lodha committee recommendations. Remember how Ganguly kept his chair (They made excuses like COVID)? 

True, everyone had a field day during the UPA tenure. NDA deserves the credit, for all its faults that's one area they somehow better than the previous gov. Having said that, itwould be naive if we think that they are dudh ke dhule huye. For me, ish hamam mein sab nange hai.

In the political arena, he doesn't strike me as a bright one but I think in sports ministry he's okay-ish, most of the time he looks like a photo-op guy that's about it.

Corruption in BCCI at the top level is not a big issue anymore and we hardly hear anything nowadays but in State Boards, it's a different ball game and it has become such a well oiled machine that almost every party takes a cut.

Those byes were expensive ones because most of those deliveries went to the boundary line with big brainless wides.

Records and streaks are meant to be broken. Pakistan will cross the line eventually, which could take time or maybe soon. We don't know but it will happen for sure. 

The scorecard suggests that the Pakistani batter fought well in patches and came close, but the same old classic collapse happened again.

Overall, it was a good contest and Australia is a different beast at home so i won't blame them much. Pakistan can still take a lot of positives from this match, at times they were doing pretty good in both departments. Although those first inning extras were blasphemous.

To my knowledge Anurag also belongs to power hungry and corrupt family, it goes under the radar because he hails from Himachal.

Likes of Srinivasan-Pawar are worse breed and comparing with Shah's clan won't be right. Shah's family is Power-hungry for sure but it's true for every political family and tbh they earned it and they are not corrupt when compared to other political families.

IMHO these sorts of excuses are not helpful, sure fans can speculate anything as far as they find justification because they need hope but for a professional player this shouldn't be a big concern, if it is then they are cheating themselves and everyone else.

They can try Mukesh but i think Krishna deserves another chance, yes he failed royally but sometimes it does happen and i feel he could be the next Ishant Sharma (the last leg of his career was amazing) saying this because BGT tour is on the line.  

The batting lineup is kinda new so consider this as a transition period, during this timeline failure comes and at times it does look ugly but you have to give a long rope to youngsters even if they fail.

Oh well, it wasn't a contest at all. It's called bullying the guest and i guess that's how Proteas feel when they visit India.

Bowling paradise but opposition batters outbatted the visitors and our bowling unit just looked toothless, hard to compete when only 2 bowlers are turning up at the job. I had high hopes for the debutant but he failed miserably and the opposition took him to the cleaner. Lord also needs some soul searching and also needs to learn a thing or two about this mortal world, if not then just rip off the golden arm. No complaints to Anna, he did his job well with the ball.

On batting, oh boy! No defense for this club level batting.

Losing by an inning wasn't on the memo card and that too today lol

But good to see Indians treated and are being so nice to Elgar and gave him a farewell gift, such a nice gesture  . Nothing went in India's way and they indeed got outplayed in every department, winning the series in South Africa will remain a pipedream for another 3-4 years.

16/4 to 151/4 looks bad and 52 extras in the first inning is going to sting now even more.

When the Aussies were struggling at 16/4, I thought maybe Pakistan could create history in the boxing day test match but this golden opportunity seems to be slipping away. Gotta feel for Hasan, he bowled beautifully but test cricket can be harsh sometimes and you don't get any rewards.

Both Anurag Thakur and Jay Shah are a product of nepotism  but Mota Bhai's launda seems quite in administrative roles and not many people are aware of the fact that this mf got into an administrative job in his early 20s, mainly due to his daddy mota bhai so nepo kid does have a decade of experience under his belt and he's only 35.

Well, in the subcontinent you don't need this sort of qualifications, you are good to go if you are connected to ruling parties. One major difference is that in Indian state boards are largely independent and overall it's decentralized because different political parties hold stakes in each state board so need some sort of consensus or call it powerplay. It's more like you scratch my back and i'll scratch yours.  

Nah, PCB officials get sacked whenever a new gov comes into power. Rambo got a little bit breather though and it happened the first time.

In the tests Buvama is not a bad cricketer so can't take him lightly but atm he pulled his hamstring.

I think the damage is already done and it's only going to get worse lol. Dude averages almost 50 at home as an opener. Some might call it home track bully but that's not the case because South African pitches are not batting friendly be it local or visiting team. One can only admire his grit and talent on such a deck.

Yeah, it did get better but Bumrah and Siraj looked very threatening, Proteas were lucky to not lose at least 3 wickets in the first hour. Siraj did go overboard in the last session but Boom was phenomenal throughout the day.

I did notice Rohit chirping in his (Krishna) ears every now n then tho so not sure if that's the case. Elgar deserves all the credit, this guy always manages to shit on us most of the time when he plays at home and when things are tough. 

Lol Elgar just shitposted another ton on his farewell series, apart from the initial Uh and ahh, he looked like he's batting on a different track and if I am being honest their new batter Tony de Zorzi looked technical sound and debutant David Bedingham not looking bad as well.

Thakur and Krishna look like weak links, especially the latter. He's usually a good bowler and has a wonderful FC record but on his debut, he's looking toothless, still, fingers crossed for the debutant.


It's his first test match  and Shami nursing his ankle injury.

Have virtually no hope from the PCB, at the same i have full confidence that they will blow every good opportunity.

The thing is PCB is full of braindead individuals be it Rambo who was blabbing about "Blank check" or the new guy Zaka Ashraf who triggered a fair amount of people with the "Dushman Mulk" remark. FFS you are head of PCB, you can't be that unprofessional and play for the gallery when sitting at the top. In contrast look at BCCI, they might be corrupt af but they never say things like that or even react to these antics and give random interviews. They are all about business, that's it.

Maybe the time has come for PCB to play some daring card. India vs Pakistan fixture in the ICC tournament does generate revenue, not the highest rating if we go by recent WC numbers but it's enough.

PCB could threaten ICC to boycott these tailormade (Keyword) fixtures, not publicly because it'd be dumb and they have already done that countless times. Instead, they should go privately when everyone is at the high table conference and pitch it. This move requires backbone, some planning, and most importantly for once PCB officials must think about Pakistan cricket first and not look for a shortcut or personal gains.

It was a good outing for the bowlers but jeez 50+ extra runs?

The scoreline could've been 280-290 if they were a bit careful with those extras. In the first inning, extras made the second highest mode of runs for Australia, hope that doesn't come back to haunt Pakistan. That's where subcontinent bowlers always get carried away with the extra bounce and pace.

Yeah, that's my understanding.

The pitch was challenging and a few dismissals were out of nowhere, like a ball misbehaving with uneven bounce from the back of the length. It always creates doubt in the batter's mind and sometimes makes batting like a lottery. Ashwin and Iyer's wickets are a good example of uneven bounce and it's almost impossible to tackle when someone facing 140+ kmph. 

Rahul's job won't be easy, accumulating runs with the tailenders is an art and requires a lot of luck in challenging conditions. Hope he farms the strike successfully. Indian seamers are good but they need to pick up the line as quickly as possible and hope the sun stays hidden, otherwise, some passage of play could become helpful for the batters. I am excited to watch Krishna here, if he gets in his groove early then he can do some serious damage.

Compensation drama would be some fun for bystanders and it will surely provide some meme content so i am in for this scenario and will grab my popcorn lol

The last time PCB followed the compensation narrative, it blew back in their face and they ended up wasting millions only to lose a case and had to pay for all BCCI's expenses. Having said that, this time they might have some case because it's an ICC tournament but they have to play their cards right.

This is seam bowling heaven where one team went with a full seam attack so don't let the scorecard fool you.

It's not a 350-400 pitch but a 250-285 runs pitch at best and I reckon it will be a low scoring match where even 70-80 runs inning would be considered epic. India needs to add 40-50 more runs and i think they are set for the first inning.