Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]

[JSRAW]

Boxing Day Test...

1. Aus vs Nz
2. SA vs Eng

Both are good contest but i am more interested in SA vs Eng. it would be interesting to see how Proteas performs at home conditions and under completely new management.

[7788bitcoin]

Boxing Day Test...
1. Aus vs Nz
2. SA vs Eng
Both are good contest but i am more interested in SA vs Eng. it would be interesting to see how Proteas performs at home conditions and under completely new management.

Australia and New Zealand is an interesting match and we all know what happened in the first match and i am not expecting anything different and i am going with Australia to win the match but i am confused what to think about South Africa and England, earlier South Africa was a formidable opponent at home but recently they lost against Sri Lanka and England is a much better team than SL and hence i will decide on seeing the first innings.

[mersal]

Boxing Day Test...

1. Aus vs Nz
2. SA vs Eng

Both are good contest but i am more interested in SA vs Eng. it would be interesting to see how Proteas performs at home conditions and under completely new management.

I am also looking forward to see how RSA will perform in this tour because their recent form is not good as how they were been in the past so they need something big to show the international teams about their ability to win matches and home ground could be a little advantage for them.Both squads looks same but only their form differs to be honest.

[SaShiRaJaVu]

I am also looking forward to see how RSA will perform in this tour because their recent form is not good as how they were been in the past so they need something big to show the international teams about their ability to win matches and home ground could be a little advantage for them.Both squads looks same but only their form differs to be honest.

What is the situation of Ben Stokes, will he be playing in the match because there is no clarity regarding whether he will be playing in the match and if he is not in the team then it will be difficult for England too as he is the main player for England and in the warm up match the batsman were scoring runs from both sides and it all depends upon the pitch and for South Africa Bavuma is out due to injury and they have some uncapped players and some may make their debut too, so it is an interesting match.

[mersal]

I am also looking forward to see how RSA will perform in this tour because their recent form is not good as how they were been in the past so they need something big to show the international teams about their ability to win matches and home ground could be a little advantage for them.Both squads looks same but only their form differs to be honest.

What is the situation of Ben Stokes, will he be playing in the match because there is no clarity regarding whether he will be playing in the match and if he is not in the team then it will be difficult for England too as he is the main player for England and in the warm up match the batsman were scoring runs from both sides and it all depends upon the pitch and for South Africa Bavuma is out due to injury and they have some uncapped players and some may make their debut too, so it is an interesting match.

Ben Stokes is in the squad for the tomorrow's match so I guess he will be playing.

He is much needed All rounder for ENG because he can bat as complete batsman and also bowl any number of overs if needed but RSA lacking that kind of player will be a blow.

[ene1980]

~snip
According to updates, it seems like BCB will ultimately make a decision of going to Pakistan for the test series:
...the interesting part is, PCB seems to have stuck to their idea of "either come & play or forfeit the series".

If BCB makes a decision that they do not have a problem sending their players to Pakistan then it is great and if the players are also willing to travel then the tour will go on, PCB have no other choice now, they can move the series to UAE and if they listen to Bangladesh then there is no way the rest of the teams will travel to Pakistan and hence it is a political struggle as well.

This is like the pot calling the kettle black. Bangladesh has witnessed its fair share of terrorist attacks during the past few years and the ISIS has managed to build a local chapter in that country. The July 2016 Dhaka attack (Holey Artisan Bakery) left dozens of people dead. On the other hand, Pakistan has been largely free of major terror attacks during the past few years.

All the countries are prone to terrorism but the problem is with the security in Pakistan, if your cricket team is attacked by terrorist in Pakistan then it will be a different issue, in the past 10 years there are terrorist attacks in cricket playing nations like Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan but when you have an attack against a sports team then anyone will think twice on sending their national team where they are not safe.

[Sithara007]

Marnus Labuschagne just got out, after hitting a half century. New Zealand looking very competitive here, and they have taken three wickets so far. The return of Trent Boult seems to have helped the Kiwis (he got a wicket in his very first over). Steve Smith is at crease with Matthew Wade, and the fall of one more wicket would put the Australians under a lot of pressure. BTW, there were indications that Mitchell Swepson may make his debut, but for now the selectors have stuck with Nathan Lyon.

[mersal]

Marnus Labuschagne just got out, after hitting a half century. New Zealand looking very competitive here, and they have taken three wickets so far. The return of Trent Boult seems to have helped the Kiwis (he got a wicket in his very first over). Steve Smith is at crease with Matthew Wade, and the fall of one more wicket would put the Australians under a lot of pressure. BTW, there were indications that Mitchell Swepson may make his debut, but for now the selectors have stuck with Nathan Lyon.

So far so good for both teams,175 for 3 in 60 overs and smith got his 50 and still digging the crease more of much longer innings.Wade also taking his time looks AUS get preparing them for big scores.

[JSRAW]

Australia looking okay after stumps, i suppose. As usual Labuschagne and Smith are back to business.

In other match, Eng opt to field first and it turns out it was sweet decision, Anderson already got the wicket of Elgar - First Ball of the series- 

[BitSat19]

Australia looking okay after stumps, i suppose. As usual Labuschagne and Smith are back to business.

In other match, Eng opt to field first and it turns out it was sweet decision, Anderson already got the wicket of Elgar - First Ball of the series- 

England is in command from first ball now 12 overs 36 runs and 2 out both openers back now Zubayr and Du Plessis on for South Africa survival.

[SaShiRaJaVu]

Australia looking okay after stumps, i suppose. As usual Labuschagne and Smith are back to business.

Labuschagne was playing really well but it was an unfortunate dismisal as the ball hit his hands while leaving the ball and hit the stumps if not we would have seen another century from him and Steve Smith is closing into another century as he looks really settled for a long innings.

In other match, Eng opt to field first and it turns out it was sweet decision, Anderson already got the wicket of Elgar - First Ball of the series-  

Both the South African openers are back in the pavilion and du Plessis is in the crease and he needs to bat for a long time for South Africa to have a decent score on the board.

[JSRAW]

Australia looking okay after stumps, i suppose. As usual Labuschagne and Smith are back to business.

Labuschagne was playing really well but it was an unfortunate dismisal as the ball hit his hands while leaving the ball and hit the stumps if not we would have seen another century from him and Steve Smith is closing into another century as he looks really settled for a long innings.

Yeah, but Australia is in balanced position so Labuschagne can make peace with it. Smith is ridiculously good batsman, hope he get to touch his next ton tomorrow. Kohli vs Smith fight is keep getting interesting in ICC ranking.

In other match, Eng opt to field first and it turns out it was sweet decision, Anderson already got the wicket of Elgar - First Ball of the series-  

Both the South African openers are back in the pavilion and du Plessis is the crease and he needs to bat for a long time for South Africa to have a decent score on the board.

England is in command from first ball now 12 overs 36 runs and 2 out both openers back now Zubayr and Du Plessis on for South Africa survival.

SA pitch did what it supposed to do. they are 3 down but Faf and debutant van der Dussen are good batsmen so expecting some resistance from them.

Edit : Bloody hell they are 5 down now

[onrise]

England after winning the toss seems to be taken the right decision of bowling as they have taken 4 wickets of SA for score of 111. England would like to get them all out quickly so that they can take good lead in first innings itself .

[SaShiRaJaVu]

England after winning the toss seems to be taken the right decision of bowling as they have taken 4 wickets of SA for score of 111. England would like to get them all out quickly so that they can take good lead in first innings itself .

South Africa is struggling as they lost 5 wickets for just 116 runs and Quinton de Kock is the only player who can rescue them from this position and i am not expecting South Africa to make a score above 250 runs as England is bowling really well and by the way things are going it will be an easy win for England but for that we need to see how the South African bowlers can trouble the English players.

[akhjob]

SA pitch did what it supposed to do. they are 3 down but Faf and debutant van der Dussen are good batsmen so expecting some resistance from them.

Edit : Bloody hell they are 5 down now

Yeah, SA are really in a pitiable situation without the likes of Amla and ABD I think this match is going to be an easy win for ENG.

[Vishnu.Reang]

It was heartening to watch Steve Smith batting against a bowling attack comprised of world class bowlers such as Trent Boult at Melbourne. After a few below par scores against Pakistan, he seems to have regained form. On the other hand, New Zealand wasted such a great start. They got Joe Burns out in the first over, but then allowed the middle order batsmen to score runs freely.

[SaShiRaJaVu]

Yeah, SA are really in a pitiable situation without the likes of Amla and ABD I think this match is going to be an easy win for ENG.

They are retired for good and South Africa need to find the right balance, i saw some performance in the warm up game but that did not happen in this match and Quinton de Kock is still in the crease and they are trying to build a partnership now along with Pretorius and hope they can bat for a longer period of time.

It was heartening to watch Steve Smith batting against a bowling attack comprised of world class bowlers such as Trent Boult at Melbourne. After a few below par scores against Pakistan, he seems to have regained form. On the other hand, New Zealand wasted such a great start. They got Joe Burns out in the first over, but then allowed the middle order batsmen to score runs freely.

Steve Smith always perform better when the team needs him and during the Pakistan series the openers were giving them a healthy start and Warner was in prime form throughout the series and Smith did not have a role to play and in this match the team needed him to perform and he did that exactly and i am really impressed with his subtle shuffles and finding the gaps easily and it was brilliant to watch.

[JSRAW]

SA pitch did what it supposed to do. they are 3 down but Faf and debutant van der Dussen are good batsmen so expecting some resistance from them.

Edit : Bloody hell they are 5 down now

Yeah, SA are really in a pitiable situation without the likes of Amla and ABD I think this match is going to be an easy win for ENG.

Its early to say "easy win for Eng". this game is wide open and English batting line up is not great as well when ball moves. lets wait for their inning, only benefit for English batsmen is 2 new test bowlers of SA ( Dwaine Pretorius and Anrich Nortje).

[Vishnu.Reang]

They are retired for good and South Africa need to find the right balance, i saw some performance in the warm up game but that did not happen in this match and Quinton de Kock is still in the crease and they are trying to build a partnership now along with Pretorius and hope they can bat for a longer period of time.

They are inching closer to 200, with 5 wickets in hand. On his test debut, Dwaine Pretorius is giving good support to Quinton de Kock (the latter is having a strike rate of 93 now). Jofra Archer has gone for almost 5 runs per over and has failed to take any wickets. He had a really bad series against New Zealand (in two tests, he took 2 wickets after conceding 209 runs) and it looks like his bad form is continuing.

[7788bitcoin]

Jofra Archer has gone for almost 5 runs per over and has failed to take any wickets. He had a really bad series against New Zealand (in two tests, he took 2 wickets after conceding 209 runs) and it looks like his bad form is continuing.

The South African players have attacked Jofra Archer the moment he came into the attack and he was leaking runs in his first spell too, England is still in a dominating position and if they are able to pick a wicket here then they can expose the tail and they could finish the innings early, South Africa too have a good pace attack and considering this is the last series for Vernon Philander i think he will be bowling really well and hopefully it will be a closely contested match.