Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]

[JSRAW]

~snip~
The run machine is on fire at the moment and it won't be long before he crosses Ganguly's record in test matches. I feel like he will score another double century today while Jadeja will support him from the other side.

South Africa will probably lose this one by an innings at this rate unless their batsmen perform well like in the first match. Am expecting India to declare around the 550 point and South Africa will be under immense pressure.

He's swinging bat now ( 2 half chances on slip at the same over against Maharaj) but he should reach another 200 runs mark and his eyes are on Sachin's record, its tough nut to crack though. As far as South African is concern they looks frustrated and it shows in their body language as well (Rabada-De Kock were about to get into verbal fight with each others)

Anything above 500 looks solid, it would be great if they can get last 100 runs as quick as possible.

Edit :

Session belongs to India : 473/4  Virat : 194

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[eaLiTy]

As far as South African is concern they looks frustrated and it shows in their body language as well (Rabada-De Kock were about to get into verbal fight with each others)

Anything above 500 looks solid, it would be great if they can get last 100 runs as quick as possible.

Kohli is getting close to a double century and it is not a surprise that the South African players are getting frustrated because nothing is going their way.
After reaching his milestone i am sure they will increase the run rate and declare the match so that India will have the change to bowl to the tired South African players in the final session.

[7788bitcoin]

India is a very strong position now as they crossed 500 runs and Kohli has crossed his double century and now they have to increase the run rate and declare the innings and it all depends upon how long they are willing to extend the declaration, South Africa looks really tired as they are bowling no balls even by spinners and now Kohli got lucky, not sure how many chances the Indian batsman got.

[ene1980]

South Africa looks really tired as they are bowling no balls even by spinners and now Kohli got lucky, not sure how many chances the Indian batsman got.

Really pathetic situation to see spinners bowling no balls and they are really tired because of the hot and humid climate, they increased their run rate now and they might declare the innings after Jadeja getting to his half century, there is no point in playing further and keep on accumulating runs, Jadeja just need one more run for his half century.

Edit: Jadeja scored his half century and still no declaration  .

[eaLiTy]

Edit: Jadeja scored his half century and still no declaration  .

India is putting some runs on the board at 7 runs per over and we still have 25 overs left in the day and both the players are hitting sixes at ease and South Africa is missing the chances in the field, Kohli gave two chances and both were no balls and South African players are dead tired in the field and India crossed 550 runs and the pitch looks dead and South African players could put some runs on the board as the pitch is not offering any assistance to the bowlers.

[Haunebu]

Wow. This is Kohli's highest score so far in test matches and he is decimating the South African bowlers at the moment. On the other side, Jadeja is also on fire. At this rate, Kohli might be eyeing a triple century and then go on to declare the match.

The South African team has been performing badly from a long time now and they seem to be sinking further into the abyss. They need to make radical changes if they wish to stay relevant in the future. Loving the Indian team performance at the moment.

[ene1980]

Wow. This is Kohli's highest score so far in test matches and he is decimating the South African bowlers at the moment. On the other side, Jadeja is also on fire. At this rate, Kohli might be eyeing a triple century and then go on to declare the match.

What is the point in chasing personal milestones and they are delaying the declaration for Jadeja to score his century and Kohli to score his highest score and they have already scored 600 runs and still batting, they are batting at over 8 runs per over but if South African players can play these kind of innings then it will end up in a draw, the pitch is having some turn but the South African spinners are not able to take advantage of that and the fielding positions are not helping either as the Indian players are scoring these runs with ease.

[akhjob]

At jadeja's dismissal, India declared for 601 and now Umesh Yadav strikes in his 1st over removing Markaram. The score is 2/1 for South Africa. Indian team would be happy with the inclusion of Yadav for the 2nd Test as he started with a bang. Looking at the current situation, I think India won't need to bat the 2nd innings.

Edit : Umesh strikes again in his 2nd over For Elgar, indecision costed his wicket. SA 14/2
Wait did they lose another wicket... No. Bavuma safe

[eaLiTy]

What is the point in chasing personal milestones and they are delaying the declaration

The point is to win the match by an innings as South Africa already lost two wickets  . Now the pitch has turned to a bowling wicket as South Africa is finding it difficult to play the ball and Umesh Yadav has bowled two beautiful deliveries and showed his inclusion as the right decision, before the match i wanted to have three spinners in the team but they know better about the pitch.

[Haunebu]

What is the point in chasing personal milestones and they are delaying the declaration for Jadeja to score his century and Kohli to score his highest score and they have already scored 600 runs and still batting, they are batting at over 8 runs per over but if South African players can play these kind of innings then it will end up in a draw, the pitch is having some turn but the South African spinners are not able to take advantage of that and the fielding positions are not helping either as the Indian players are scoring these runs with ease.

You might be one of the few people in the world who actually thinks that South Africa still has a chance in this game. The only thing that can save South Africa currently is the rain and nothing else since they are already lost 3 wickets.

Personal milestones are worth it if the team is in a good position(India are in a fabulous position) though I did not expect Kohli to declare before a triple century. Yadav is on a roll along with Shami and it is almost game over for South Africa.

[JSRAW]

South Africa is in big trouble once again, exactly similar situation as Last Test Match. Where they were 3 down at 2nd day stump, it would be interesting to see if their middle order is ready to face the challenge or not?

Anyways, Sharing something, it might cheer couple of Proteas's fans here.....So turns out Temba Bavuma can see the future 


https://twitter.com/tbavuma10/status/784682892706324480

[ene1980]

You might be one of the few people in the world who actually thinks that South Africa still has a chance in this game. The only thing that can save South Africa currently is the rain and nothing else since they are already lost 3 wickets.

If i am inquiring about the declaration even after scoring 600 runs you came to a conclusion that South Africa has a chance to win the match  . The reason i was saying is because India has put enough runs on the board and they need to put pressure back to the South African players because the team members were really tired after fielding for two days and India need to exploit that rather than delaying the declaration.

[romero121]

South Africa is in big trouble once again, exactly similar situation as Last Test Match. Where they were 3 down at 2nd day stump, it would be interesting to see if their middle order is ready to face the challenge or not?

Anyways, Sharing something, it might cheer couple of Proteas's fans here.....So turns out Temba Bavuma can see the future 


https://twitter.com/tbavuma10/status/784682892706324480

Same as the first test match things were happening. In the thread discussion came across a statement Umesh Yadav's addition to the team will help India big. The initial wickets taken by him has helped the team to be more strong and collapse the middle order. India has its opening partnership good, and this has made the team score reach 600. As in the statement South Africa's innings is much much depending on the Middle order as the performance of openers is not to the necessity of the team to fight back for a win.

[Sithara007]

After their pathetic performance in the first test, I was hoping that South Africa would perform well at least in the second test. But now it looks like that is not going to happen. There is too much gap between the bigger nations such as India, England and Australia on the one side and the smaller nations such as South Africa, Sri Lanka.etc on the other side. The only solution is to have two divisions of test cricket.

My suggestion is to include India, Australia, England, New Zealand, and Pakistan in the top division and to include the other 7 teams in the second division. 80% of the test matches should be played between teams within the same division, while the remaining 20% should be matches between first division and second division teams. And this will help in reducing the incidents of one sided matches.

[onrise]

South Africa is in big trouble once again, exactly similar situation as Last Test Match. Where they were 3 down at 2nd day stump, it would be interesting to see if their middle order is ready to face the challenge or not?

Anyways, Sharing something, it might cheer couple of Proteas's fans here.....So turns out Temba Bavuma can see the future 


https://twitter.com/tbavuma10/status/784682892706324480

Same as the first test match things were happening. In the thread discussion came across a statement Umesh Yadav's addition to the team will help India big. The initial wickets taken by him has helped the team to be more strong and collapse the middle order. India has its opening partnership good, and this has made the team score reach 600. As in the statement South Africa's innings is much much depending on the Middle order as the performance of openers is not to the necessity of the team to fight back for a win.

Indian batsman and bowlers are ruling the test match with the all round performance of the team in every department is helping them to take the control of the match right from the beginning and thus due to pressure SA is losing quick wickets .

[teosanru]

After their pathetic performance in the first test, I was hoping that South Africa would perform well at least in the second test. But now it looks like that is not going to happen. There is too much gap between the bigger nations such as India, England and Australia on the one side and the smaller nations such as South Africa, Sri Lanka.etc on the other side. The only solution is to have two divisions of test cricket.

My suggestion is to include India, Australia, England, New Zealand, and Pakistan in the top division and to include the other 7 teams in the second division. 80% of the test matches should be played between teams within the same division, while the remaining 20% should be matches between first division and second division teams. And this will help in reducing the incidents of one sided matches.

Well last time I saw encounter of Ind vs SA no one actually said that South Africa is a smaller cricketing nation. I think South Africa is a good team but they are still not mature enough to play on the foreign pitches and play with their strengths and the weaknesses of their opponents. I think you better decide to remove even Pakistan from your selection of top division after their recent performance against Sri Lanka. Many would say t20 and test are different but still this type of performance is really weird in any format of the game and that also when you are number 1 in the world.

[ene1980]

My suggestion is to include India, Australia, England, New Zealand, and Pakistan in the top division and to include the other 7 teams in the second division. 80% of the test matches should be played between teams within the same division, while the remaining 20% should be matches between first division and second division teams. And this will help in reducing the incidents of one sided matches.

These kind of differentiation will not help cricket simply because only a few nations play international cricket, if Pakistan is included then South Africa should be definitely included as they are a strong team in their home country and not every team can beat them in their home series. There was a time when India was only perform in their home series and now they have improved a lot, competition in domestic cricket can develop good players and India has done that and hence we are seeing the improvements and with the introduction of IPL there is a bigger pool of players for selection.

[Sithara007]

My suggestion is to include India, Australia, England, New Zealand, and Pakistan in the top division and to include the other 7 teams in the second division. 80% of the test matches should be played between teams within the same division, while the remaining 20% should be matches between first division and second division teams. And this will help in reducing the incidents of one sided matches.

These kind of differentiation will not help cricket simply because only a few nations play international cricket, if Pakistan is included then South Africa should be definitely included as they are a strong team in their home country and not every team can beat them in their home series. There was a time when India was only perform in their home series and now they have improved a lot, competition in domestic cricket can develop good players and India has done that and hence we are seeing the improvements and with the introduction of IPL there is a bigger pool of players for selection.

According to the current system, the test status is permanent. So even if the performance of a team drops to very appalling levels, their test status is not taken away. In the worst case scenario, the test status is suspended, like what happened with Zimbabwe. If we divide the test playing nations to two divisions, then the better performing second division teams can be promoted to Div 1 and the worse performing first division teams can be relegated to Div 2.

IMO, test cricket badly needs this promotion/relegation system. It will give an opportunity for new teams such as Afghanistan to move up the ladder if they perform well and it will be a warning bell to some of the old test playing nations such as West Indies, South Africa and Bangladesh. The current system actually incentivizes bad performance.

[eaLiTy]

According to the current system, the test status is permanent. So even if the performance of a team drops to very appalling levels, their test status is not taken away. In the worst case scenario, the test status is suspended, like what happened with Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe got suspended because of political reason and not because they were performing badly, yes they are not good enough to play Test cricket but the suspension is because of the political interference and it is against the ICC code of conduct as it is an independent body and can make decisions like that.

If we divide the test playing nations to two divisions, then the better performing second division teams can be promoted to Div 1 and the worse performing first division teams can be relegated to Div 2.

If four teams are playing each other for the rest of the calendar year how much interest they can have. It is impossible to have divisions as ICC have a strict rule to tour all the nations in a specific period.

IMO, test cricket badly needs this promotion/relegation system. It will give an opportunity for new teams such as Afghanistan to move up the ladder if they perform well and it will be a warning bell to some of the old test playing nations such as West Indies, South Africa and Bangladesh. The current system actually incentivizes bad performance.

If you were following cricket you should know that South Africa white washed Pakistan 3-0 in their last tour and if you are making judgement because India is dominating you should understand that India will do the same with the rest of the teams too including England and Australia .

[bryant.coleman]

Well... I am also in favor of having two divisions in test cricket. But rather than 5-7, I would like to have 6 teams in each division.

According to the latest ranking from the ICC, here is what it would look like:

Division 1:
1. India
2. New Zealand
3. South Africa
4. England
5. Australia
6. Sri Lanka

Division 2:
1. Pakistan
2. West Indies
3. Bangladesh
4. Afghanistan
5. Zimbabwe
6. Ireland

But the problem is that right now we are having a very one sided series between India and South Africa (two of the teams that would have figured in the division 1). So a lot of gap exists even within these divisions as well.