Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]

[Sithara007]

The third test between England and South Africa will start by tomorrow. At this point, the series is tied at 1-1, and the winners of this match will walk away with a series win. The match will take place at Kennington Oval, London (advantage to batsmen?). It will be interesting to see whether South Africa will drop Simon Harmer and bring in Marco Jansen. It was a stupid move to drop Jansen in the first place and this significantly contributed to their poor performance in the second test. And England will be once again dependent on Anderson/Broad for bowling.

[Juggy777]

The third test between England and South Africa will start by tomorrow. At this point, the series is tied at 1-1, and the winners of this match will walk away with a series win. The match will take place at Kennington Oval, London (advantage to batsmen?). It will be interesting to see whether South Africa will drop Simon Harmer and bring in Marco Jansen. It was a stupid move to drop Jansen in the first place and this significantly contributed to their poor performance in the second test. And England will be once again dependent on Anderson/Broad for bowling.

@Sithara007 so far this series has been contested evenly and neither team can claim absolute superiority at this point, hence they’ll both have to try a bolder approach to win this game. Furthermore Rassie van der Dussen and Jonny Bairstow are ruled out, but do you think that South Africa or England will suffer because of their absence or their absence won’t matter at all for this crucial game?.

[JSRAW]

The third test between England and South Africa will start by tomorrow. At this point, the series is tied at 1-1, and the winners of this match will walk away with a series win. The match will take place at Kennington Oval, London (advantage to batsmen?). It will be interesting to see whether South Africa will drop Simon Harmer and bring in Marco Jansen. It was a stupid move to drop Jansen in the first place and this significantly contributed to their poor performance in the second test. And England will be once again dependent on Anderson/Broad for bowling.

@Sithara007 so far this series has been contested evenly and neither team can claim absolute superiority at this point, hence they’ll both have to try a bolder approach to win this game. Furthermore Rassie van der Dussen and Jonny Bairstow are ruled out, but do you think that South Africa or England will suffer because of their absence or their absence won’t matter at all for this crucial game?.

England's middle order will suffer the most as Jonathan Redhair Bairstow was in terrific form and changed the tide for the Poms singlehandedly couple of times.

Rassie Dussen is good and played a few nice innings but not a very impactful batter as compared to Bairstow.

Having said that we should expect a nice contest despite some players missing from the team and hope no 3-4 days test.

[Sithara007]

The third test between England and South Africa will start by tomorrow. At this point, the series is tied at 1-1, and the winners of this match will walk away with a series win. The match will take place at Kennington Oval, London (advantage to batsmen?). It will be interesting to see whether South Africa will drop Simon Harmer and bring in Marco Jansen. It was a stupid move to drop Jansen in the first place and this significantly contributed to their poor performance in the second test. And England will be once again dependent on Anderson/Broad for bowling.

@Sithara007 so far this series has been contested evenly and neither team can claim absolute superiority at this point, hence they’ll both have to try a bolder approach to win this game. Furthermore Rassie van der Dussen and Jonny Bairstow are ruled out, but do you think that South Africa or England will suffer because of their absence or their absence won’t matter at all for this crucial game?.

Jonny Bairstow scored a total of 67 runs from his three innings so far in this series. Rassie van der Dussen also disappointed so far, with just 76 runs from his three innings. There will be some impact for both the teams from their absence, but I am sure that other players will be able to make up for it. Who will be the replacements? England seems to be more comfortable with their middle order, and Ben Stokes needs some support from the lower order batsmen. South African top and middle order looks more brittle.   

[TheGreatPython]

Jonny Bairstow scored a total of 67 runs from his three innings so far in this series. Rassie van der Dussen also disappointed so far, with just 76 runs from his three innings. There will be some impact for both the teams from their absence, but I am sure that other players will be able to make up for it. Who will be the replacements? England seems to be more comfortable with their middle order, and Ben Stokes needs some support from the lower order batsmen. South African top and middle order looks more brittle.   

Right now as things are going most chances England is going to win this last test match and series because in last five matches at Oval England won four and South Africa won only one when Hashim Amla done his triple century as this is mostly a batting pitch which helps both batsmen and bowler which is surely better for England and South Africa is surely feeling under pressure after losing second test and now having lost there a good batsman even he was not contributing good but still a good batsman.

Ben Stokes and company having better middle order which is good for them as they can do much better than South Africa specially with the advantage of home right now they are ahead of visitors which are trying to settle their inner troubles but have no enough resources for this third and last test match.

[Tony116]

You're all statement about this concern is absolutely right but sadly no one can do anything about this right now with most of the boards and media houses are having their own commitments, and they can't waste their time on these matches which are not going to have any potential for their growing their profit even we have some good players which are going to do very good in future but in present mostly now viewers also have no enough time for watching these matches.

As you can read here now many peoples are not watching IPL which is much better entertaining and good as time is running very fast and these things need good time which is not available in current situation when economical peoples are suffering badly around the world.

The problem with cricket is that it has become a lot slower in general compared to other popular sports, like FIFA/football. In this world right now people have to be a lot more productive. Therefor, I do not think anyone currently has the time to watch a T20 match without leaving even one over. I can certainly say that cricket is not as popular as it used to be once. Even before COVID-19 cricket was a lot more popular than what it is now.

And if we look at football almost every country in the world is taking part in it professionally. So there is no problem if even one or two big football-playing countries do not play or have any problems playing football. Its flow is not disrupted.

But on the other hand, if there is any problem in the top cricket-playing nations, cricket is affected in a huge way. So, there will always be a risk in investing in cricket. But at the same time, I also think that it is a risk that is worth taking.

[BALIK]

Jonny Bairstow scored a total of 67 runs from his three innings so far in this series. Rassie van der Dussen also disappointed so far, with just 76 runs from his three innings. There will be some impact for both the teams from their absence, but I am sure that other players will be able to make up for it. Who will be the replacements? England seems to be more comfortable with their middle order, and Ben Stokes needs some support from the lower order batsmen. South African top and middle order looks more brittle.   

Right now as things are going most chances England is going to win this last test match and series because in last five matches at Oval England won four and South Africa won only one when Hashim Amla done his triple century as this is mostly a batting pitch which helps both batsmen and bowler which is surely better for England and South Africa is surely feeling under pressure after losing second test and now having lost there a good batsman even he was not contributing good but still a good batsman.

Ben Stokes and company having better middle order which is good for them as they can do much better than South Africa specially with the advantage of home right now they are ahead of visitors which are trying to settle their inner troubles but have no enough resources for this third and last test match.

The last test match between South Africa and England ended with South Africa getting a really bad beating. There is no doubt that it will be very difficult for them to make a comeback after that. Before the last match that South Africa played against England, the team was really in good form. As a result, I think England will now be able to go about their work with much more confidence going forward.

Ben Stokes was not playing well before this match, but he played quite well in this match, and both Ben Stokes and Ben Foakes both played well in this match. I am expecting them to carry this momentum forward. And I hope South Africa will stop experimenting with the players when they have the series on the line from next time.

[Sithara007]

The news from South African camp is that Marco Jansen will be included in the place of Simon Harmer. And this was needed, due to Harmer's poor performance during the second test. There is a chance that Aiden Markram will be replaced with Khaya Zondo, in order to increase the number of black players in the team. Harry Brook will replace Bairstow for England. Matthew Potts is left out and Ollie Robinson is retained for the third test. For Dean Elgar this is going to be perhaps the most important series in his career till now.

[JSRAW]

^^It seems Proteas twitter admin is very slow, they are updating everything about the T-20, and ODI squad but not the test squad.

On the other hand, Poms are kind of quick, they released their playing XI and Debutant Harry Brook is Bairstow's replacement. I like how they mention player's local club too.

[Sithara007]

South Africa made four changes to the squad. I am not sure how it will turn out for them. Rassie van der Dussen and Lungi Ngidi are out injured, while two players have been dropped - Simon Harmer and Aiden Markram. The replacements are: Ryan Rickelton, Khaya Zondo, Wiaan Mulder and Marco Jansen. And that means that South Africa will have just one spin bowler (Keshav Maharaj), with the part-time spin of Markram missing in addition to Harmer. Out of the two teams, for me England looks the more balanced one.   

[wiss19]

The problem with cricket is that it has become a lot slower in general compared to other popular sports, like FIFA/football. In this world right now people have to be a lot more productive. Therefor, I do not think anyone currently has the time to watch a T20 match without leaving even one over. I can certainly say that cricket is not as popular as it used to be once. Even before COVID-19 cricket was a lot more popular than what it is now.

And if we look at football almost every country in the world is taking part in it professionally. So there is no problem if even one or two big football-playing countries do not play or have any problems playing football. Its flow is not disrupted.

But on the other hand, if there is any problem in the top cricket-playing nations, cricket is affected in a huge way. So, there will always be a risk in investing in cricket. But at the same time, I also think that it is a risk that is worth taking.

We can complain about Test cricket and ODI but right now T-20 and new versions like 100 and T-10 are doing amazing stuff for people's entertainment and future is safe with these formats even still few things which need to settle but as these formats are going to more popular than surely revenue and other structure could be developed as well and many small countries will be able to do much better than current situation.

Soccer is surely a world-class brand with deep roots in UEFA, South America and Africa but sadly cricket fail in this way as just two or three countries want their control which is surely hurting badly this all, but I am happy now with this new version and few developments things are changing, and we will be able to break this deadlock which is giving power to few countries for controlling all things for their own way.

In future test could be settled for few countries and ODI is going to be down or even out from picture and T-20 and 100League is surely going to be had bright future as right now two countries are already on this format England and West Indies more will also join this club in near future.

[Sithara007]

First session is washed out as a result of rain. The latest news is that a pitch inspection will be carried out in around 45 minutes from now. Maybe there is a chance of play resuming by 2pm (England time)? London weather doesn't look very promising. Rains are predicted for the remainder of today, as well as for the next two days. It will be extremely disappointing, if this match, as well as the series end up in 1-1 draw. And still there are people who are arguing to reduce the duration of test matches from 5 days to 4 days. 

[JSRAW]

First session is washed out as a result of rain. The latest news is that a pitch inspection will be carried out in around 45 minutes from now. Maybe there is a chance of play resuming by 2pm (England time)? London weather doesn't look very promising. Rains are predicted for the remainder of today, as well as for the next two days. It will be extremely disappointing, if this match, as well as the series end up in 1-1 draw. And still there are people who are arguing to reduce the duration of test matches from 5 days to 4 days. 

Word is there won't be any play tomorrow too as their Monarch Queen Elizabeth is dead so guess there would be a national mourning day or something.

IDK if they have any plans of extending this test match and taking it to reserve day, if not then we have only 3 days left for this test.

[SATWAT]

First session is washed out as a result of rain. The latest news is that a pitch inspection will be carried out in around 45 minutes from now. Maybe there is a chance of play resuming by 2pm (England time)? London weather doesn't look very promising. Rains are predicted for the remainder of today, as well as for the next two days. It will be extremely disappointing, if this match, as well as the series end up in 1-1 draw. And still there are people who are arguing to reduce the duration of test matches from 5 days to 4 days. 

Word is there won't be any play tomorrow too as their Monarch Queen Elizabeth is dead so guess there would be a national mourning day or something.

IDK if they have any plans of extending this test match and taking it to reserve day, if not then we have only 3 days left for this test.

Tomorrow we have no play in this test match, but one update is not available as they are going to extend day or no.
Hopefully tomorrow we will have all the latest updates about this as well.

[LittleBitFunny]

First session is washed out as a result of rain. The latest news is that a pitch inspection will be carried out in around 45 minutes from now. Maybe there is a chance of play resuming by 2pm (England time)? London weather doesn't look very promising. Rains are predicted for the remainder of today, as well as for the next two days. It will be extremely disappointing, if this match, as well as the series end up in 1-1 draw. And still there are people who are arguing to reduce the duration of test matches from 5 days to 4 days. 

The match is now tied at 1-1. So if the third match is abandoned due to rain or the match is a draw then maybe both the teams will be happy. In the first match, we only saw the dominance of the South African players. The performance of England's batsmen was very disappointing. But England batted brilliantly in the second match and as a result, England won by an innings. I expected the last match to be more competitive.

Queen Elizabeth II of England has died. England may declare national mourning in the coming days. Is there any possibility of this match being abandoned?

[fullhdpixel]

First session is washed out as a result of rain. The latest news is that a pitch inspection will be carried out in around 45 minutes from now. Maybe there is a chance of play resuming by 2pm (England time)? London weather doesn't look very promising. Rains are predicted for the remainder of today, as well as for the next two days. It will be extremely disappointing, if this match, as well as the series end up in 1-1 draw. And still there are people who are arguing to reduce the duration of test matches from 5 days to 4 days. 

The match is now tied at 1-1. So if the third match is abandoned due to rain or the match is a draw then maybe both the teams will be happy. In the first match, we only saw the dominance of the South African players. The performance of England's batsmen was very disappointing. But England batted brilliantly in the second match and as a result, England won by an innings. I expected the last match to be more competitive.

Queen Elizabeth II of England has died. England may declare national mourning in the coming days. Is there any possibility of this match being abandoned?

Right now as updates are coming most chances with mutual understanding both boards abundant this match because England is going to be in mourning for some days, and they already announce all cancelations which were expected and about this match we will have all updates on Friday with this all South African team could be happy and feel better because this is going to be beneficial for them.

If they announce this series as draw which is also very positive end for South Africa as they could be going to have points for WTC league table but if they announce this match is going to play again after few days which is also possible then most chances we are going to have five days game which is also good but as I read right now both boards are in contact and most chances any decision from ECB is going to be acceptable for Cricket South Africa.

[Sithara007]

Word is there won't be any play tomorrow too as their Monarch Queen Elizabeth is dead so guess there would be a national mourning day or something.
IDK if they have any plans of extending this test match and taking it to reserve day, if not then we have only 3 days left for this test.

If they want to mourn Elizabeth's death, then they should add one day to the end. Already 90 overs are lost due to rain, and if this news is correct another 90 overs will be lost as well. Anyway, I was not hopeful of getting a lot of play today, given the weather conditions. Here in India, although we mourning period if some important individual passes away, none of the sports events are called off. At the most there will be special programs on the national television, and a 2-minutes silence before important meetings.

[onecall123]

Word is there won't be any play tomorrow too as their Monarch Queen Elizabeth is dead so guess there would be a national mourning day or something.
IDK if they have any plans of extending this test match and taking it to reserve day, if not then we have only 3 days left for this test.

If they want to mourn Elizabeth's death, then they should add one day to the end. Already 90 overs are lost due to rain, and if this news is correct another 90 overs will be lost as well. Anyway, I was not hopeful of getting a lot of play today, given the weather conditions. Here in India, although we mourning period if some important individual passes away, none of the sports events are called off. At the most there will be special programs on the national television, and a 2-minutes silence before important meetings.

England and South Africa will not play their third test on day two due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II. There hasn't been a single ball played so far. Several reports indicate that the game could continue tomorrow, and that tomorrow would count as the second day of the match. It is better to start the test on Saturday as day 1 due to the bad weather and to mourn Elizabeth's death.

[JSRAW]

Word is there won't be any play tomorrow too as their Monarch Queen Elizabeth is dead so guess there would be a national mourning day or something.
IDK if they have any plans of extending this test match and taking it to reserve day, if not then we have only 3 days left for this test.

If they want to mourn Elizabeth's death, then they should add one day to the end. Already 90 overs are lost due to rain, and if this news is correct another 90 overs will be lost as well. Anyway, I was not hopeful of getting a lot of play today, given the weather conditions. Here in India, although we mourning period if some important individual passes away, none of the sports events are called off. At the most there will be special programs on the national television, and a 2-minutes silence before important meetings.

Anglosphere is going nuts over this (except Irish), they seem to be quite attached to their Monarch. This is kinda weird for the majority of the non-white world due to colonial exploitation and history of brutality.

I wonder what are South African team's thoughts atm. Decency is required in bad times, also in diplomatic relations but I think this would be an awkward situation for them

Edit

Okay, this is confirmed now, there is no reserved day.

https://www.icc-cricket.com/news/2787049

[Sithara007]

Anglosphere is going nuts over this (except Irish), they seem to be quite attached to their Monarch. This is kinda weird for the majority of the non-white world due to colonial exploitation and history of brutality.

I wonder what are South African team's thoughts atm. Decency is required in bad times, also in diplomatic relations but I think this would be an awkward situation for them

That's definitely not the case. I am browsing Twitter and I can see everyone except the English celebrating Elizabeth's death.

https://twitter.com/Jessica_Whitney/status/1567935370897281025
https://twitter.com/AuthorNNBrown/status/1567977150963146753 (Buckingham Palace video)
https://twitter.com/comradesipho/status/1567864955017351170
https://twitter.com/TVsCarlKinsella/status/1567855083206938624
https://twitter.com/chimeracoder/status/1567889228637290498
https://twitter.com/IndigenousX/status/1567990400736178176
https://twitter.com/KarenAttiah/status/1567889946765148171


And in Northern Ireland (still a part of the United Kingdom), fireworks are going off in Republican counties where Sinn Fein wins a majority of the votes. I saw a few tweets from Scots and the Welsh, who were equally happy with the death of Liz. And here in India, although I didn't saw anyone celebrating, a lot of people were angry about the looted wealth and the refusal to return the Koh-i-Noor jewel.