Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]

[7788bitcoin]

The match starts in a couple of hours and Neil Wagner is back in the team and New Zealand will be playing with their fast bowling trio of Trent Boult, Tim Southee and Neil Wagner which will trouble the already fragile batting line up and India will have a completely different team than the first Test because of injury concerns and it is interesting to see the line up they are planning to put together in this match.

[eaLiTy]

There is no sign of Ishant in the net sessions so it seems he will be replaced with Yadav or Navdeep Saini and I wanted saha to replace Pant to give some stability in the middle order which can boost some confidence to tailenders to bring partnerships if there is in need of it.And Prithvi Shaw might be playing since he practicing on the nets so probable playing XI for team India can be predicted by now.

Umesh Yadav should replace the injured Ishant Sharma because he could clock above 145 which could trouble if he is able to bowl a good line and length and i want to see Wriddhiman Saha back in the team but it all depends upon the team management what combination they want.

The match starts in a couple of hours and Neil Wagner is back in the team

The weather is not promising as the groundsman are trying to dry the ground as it is soaking wet due to rain and if they are able to clear the water then we will see the match on time but i am expecting a delay on that and toss will be an important factor. New Zealand always have a strong bowling line up in their territory and if New Zealand wins the toss then it will be a huge battle for Indian players.

[JSRAW]

Jeez, kohli lost the toss again and kiwis playing with the 5 seamers, no spinner in their team. Seems no time to breathe for Indian batsmen in first 2 session lol

Edit :

Boult strikes and Mayank gone, Prithvi looking excellent so far.

~Snip~
Now I am feeling ICC need to think about this toss because in past few captains already have problems with this so giving visitors option for fielding or batting is not bad at all because most of time its very vital for any match New Zealand with Wagner and India with two changes as Jadeja and Yadav in for Ashwin and Sharma.

So much possibility on this "Taking toss out of equation" I remember posting some data regarding this. will try to dig in.

[Indymoney]

Jeez, kohli lost the toss again and kiwis playing with the 5 seamers, no spinner in their team. Seems no time to breathe for Indian batsmen in first 2 session lol

Now I am feeling ICC need to think about this toss because in past few captains already have problems with this so giving visitors option for fielding or batting is not bad at all because most of time its very vital for any match New Zealand with Wagner and India with two changes as Jadeja and Yadav in for Ashwin and Sharma.

Edit: Agarwal gone with one review as happen in first test 

[JSRAW]

Entertaining inning of Shaw came to end. He knocked out every kiwis in his short 54 runs inning, Hitting six on bouncer against Wagner was treat to watch, finally it was worth waking up early today.

Now stage is set for Kohli, 80+ runs on board and ball is 20+ overs old. Perfect timing for him to get his hands dirty, even Pujara rotating strikes better.

Lunch Break---Green pitch, 5 seamers and score is 85/2. i would take that as a win.


Edit : Shiiiit pressure back on lol, kohli gone.

Edit : 4th wicket down (Rahane) losing a track now...


"What a difference the colour of the ball makes! White is the batsman's friend, red the bowler's ally and Southee has shown his class after the break. Outstanding test match bowling." Harsha Bhogle

https://twitter.com/bhogleharsha/status/1233578845506240513

[pakhitheboss]

Entertaining inning of Shaw came to end. He knocked out every kiwis in his short 54 runs inning, Hitting six on bouncer against Wagner was treat to watch, finally it was worth waking up early today.

Now stage is set for Kohli, 80+ runs on board and ball is 20+ overs old. Perfect timing for him to get his hands dirty, even Pujara rotating strikes better.

Lunch Break---Green pitch, 5 seamers and score is 85/2. i would take that as a win.


Edit : Shiiiit pressure back on lol, kohli gone.

Edit : 4th wicket down (Rahane) losing a track now...


"What a difference the colour of the ball makes! White is the batsman's friend, red the bowler's ally and Southee has shown his class after the break. Outstanding test match bowling." Harsha Bhogle

https://twitter.com/bhogleharsha/status/1233578845506240513

What's happening to Kohli? He has been consistently scoring single number in this test series. All hopes are now with Pujara, he should stick to the wicket and play till the end.

[mersal]

Bad form again continues for team India,they only scored 242 and lost all of their wickets.Prithvi Shaw played better in this innings along with Pujara and Vihari in the middle order made some runs but no one give resistance to NZ bowling attack and most of the Indian batsmen fell for single digit scores.I don't know why saha has not been given chance on this match.

[Vishnu.Reang]

What's happening to Kohli? He has been consistently scoring single number in this test series. All hopes are now with Pujara, he should stick to the wicket and play till the end.

I was also wondering... Virat Kohli used to be the backbone of Indian batting, especially in tracks that are supportive of pace bowling. But for the last few months, he has been performing quite poorly in such conditions. India made a respectable total today, but Virat just made 3 runs out of that. Three of the players got in to 50s, but none of them could convert the start to 100.

[onrise]

Bad form again continues for team India,they only scored 242 and lost all of their wickets.Prithvi Shaw played better in this innings along with Pujara and Vihari in the middle order made some runs but no one give resistance to NZ bowling attack and most of the Indian batsmen fell for single digit scores.I don't know why saha has not been given chance on this match.

Really what has happened to team India the way they had started this T20 series with whitewash thought India is going to have the good form continue in the rest of the series. But from ODI they have lost the complete track and and in test match they are not even able to score a decent run on the board. This is the real test of a batsman to stay on the pitch for longer time which will help them to adjust on the pitch and start making runs. But all credit goes to NZ bowlers for making them play some loose shots. NZ have started well in reply to India 242 runs and are 48/0.

[Alaric05]

Another fall of men in blue,  just 242 runs on board. Kiwis are rocking in this series first in bowling and now with batting. With world class batsman and bowler India is seriously lacking the world class game.

[erikalui]

Atleast a score above 200 else was not expecting them to even reach it. Kohli's repeated failure should give him a rest now and bring in a new player who is willing to perform. Three batsmen reaching 50+ is another wonder. Bringing in Jadeja instead of Ashwin was a wrong decision as he also did not help today.

[onrise]

Atleast a score above 200 else was not expecting them to even reach it. Kohli's repeated failure should give him a rest now and bring in a new player who is willing to perform. Three batsmen reaching 50+ is another wonder. Bringing in Jadeja instead of Ashwin was a wrong decision as he also did not help today.

3 batsmen reaching 50+ and still team could not capitalize their runs as they got all out for just 242 questions the other batsman and their form or may be their short selection. On the first day itself India have gone in the backfoot and NZ dominated and are 63/0 and now trailing by just 179 runs. Seems nothing much has changed from losing the 1st test and may be this series would also be a whitewash one.

[mersal]

Atleast a score above 200 else was not expecting them to even reach it. Kohli's repeated failure should give him a rest now and bring in a new player who is willing to perform. Three batsmen reaching 50+ is another wonder. Bringing in Jadeja instead of Ashwin was a wrong decision as he also did not help today.

3 batsmen reaching 50+ and still team could not capitalize their runs as they got all out for just 242 questions the other batsman and their form or may be their short selection. On the first day itself India have gone in the backfoot and NZ dominated and are 63/0 and now trailing by just 179 runs. Seems nothing much has changed from losing the 1st test and may be this series would also be a whitewash one.

NZ batsmen really playing well and to be honest Indian bowlers are bowling better than NZ but still they can't find any wickets because NZ players leaving the ball pretty well which thing is lacking in Indian squad.Most players turns out into T20 and ODI players so leaving balls becomes too hard for Indians and getting paid for it.

[eaLiTy]

What's happening to Kohli? He has been consistently scoring single number in this test series. All hopes are now with Pujara, he should stick to the wicket and play till the end.

Virat Kohli is struggling in this series and the challenge is how he is going to break the situation and return back to form identifying his weakness but what i see is the way in which the bowlers are planning to pick his wicket before getting set, in this match Southee was bowling out swingers outside off stump line and then he bowled the exact same line but then the ball swinged in and he was trapped in front.
When India was batting it was a bowling pitch and now it looks like a batting pitch as the New Zealand players are playing well and reached 63 runs without loosing a wicket .

[pakhitheboss]

What's happening to Kohli? He has been consistently scoring single number in this test series. All hopes are now with Pujara, he should stick to the wicket and play till the end.

Virat Kohli is struggling in this series and the challenge is how he is going to break the situation and return back to form identifying his weakness but what i see is the way in which the bowlers are planning to pick his wicket before getting set, in this match Southee was bowling out swingers outside off stump line and then he bowled the exact same line but then the ball swinged in and he was trapped in front.
When India was batting it was a bowling pitch and now it looks like a batting pitch as the New Zealand players are playing well and reached 63 runs without loosing a wicket .

I have zero expectations from the Indian team now. They are struggling in all sides of the game. Niether they are batting well nor balling. If this continues then Indian team will be in big trouble.

After this IPL starts, expecting the stugglers to perfom there. I hope Kohli works on his issues fast.

[erikalui]

3 batsmen reaching 50+ and still team could not capitalize their runs as they got all out for just 242 questions the other batsman and their form or may be their short selection. On the first day itself India have gone in the backfoot and NZ dominated and are 63/0 and now trailing by just 179 runs. Seems nothing much has changed from losing the 1st test and may be this series would also be a whitewash one.

It's the captains fault for not performing for his team and believing that it's not a big thing if they lose. 242 was still decent looking at their miserable performance last time. The bowlers also aren't able to take NZ's wickets and we are missing Ashwin too now. NZ have been the best since ODI and now they seem strong in Test matches too after having lost earlier matches. If NZ score 300, still India would be having to chase less runs but 400+ runs means a loss again with an innings win too.

[mersal]

When India was batting it was a bowling pitch and now it looks like a batting pitch as the New Zealand players are playing well and reached 63 runs without loosing a wicket .

Pitch behaves in the same way for the whole day but the players have different approach which made the difference on the wicket column.Indian bowlers didn't find their length yet and green pitch seems much slower than expected so there is no furious pace on the balls.Jadeja got only one over to bowl and he bowled it extremely tight,maybe he have been given few more overs earlier to see any magical movement on the match.

[JSRAW]

Atleast a score above 200 else was not expecting them to even reach it. Kohli's repeated failure should give him a rest now and bring in a new player who is willing to perform. Three batsmen reaching 50+ is another wonder. Bringing in Jadeja instead of Ashwin was a wrong decision as he also did not help today.

Yeah that was the case for first inning score. But the way Prithvi shaw started his inning, he changed the all equation and India was in very good position. 2 quick wicket (kohli-Rahane) didn't helped their cause but even then Pujara-Vihari were batting wonderfully and many times kiwis were looking at backfoot. At one time Indians were standing strong at 193/4 and they were looking at 300+ score but vihari got reckless just before tea, similar to Prithvi shaw (just before lunch break) and then came the batting collapse. how are you supposed to put runs on scoreboard when last 6 wickets going down with in just 45 runs?

Virat and his Comrade can't make Toss and Condition excuse in this match as they started the inning with the bang but failed to capitalize. Its home condition for Kiwis so they knew they just need to be patience enough to get back in the game and it worked for them during bowling and more importantly  when they were batting.

[mersal]

how are you supposed to put runs on scoreboard when last 6 wickets going down with in just 45 runs?

Even commentators mentioned this while NZ batting.

NZ tail enders scoring some important runs but in India even from the middle orders they are not scoring anything other than very few exceptions.

Excited to see how Indian bowlers will tackle this on Day 2,hope they won't dissapoint their fans again.

[pakhitheboss]

Atleast a score above 200 else was not expecting them to even reach it. Kohli's repeated failure should give him a rest now and bring in a new player who is willing to perform. Three batsmen reaching 50+ is another wonder. Bringing in Jadeja instead of Ashwin was a wrong decision as he also did not help today.

Yeah that was the case for first inning score. But the way Prithvi shaw started his inning, he changed the all equation and India was in very good position. 2 quick wicket (kohli-Rahane) didn't helped their cause but even then Pujara-Vihari were batting wonderfully and many times kiwis were looking at backfoot. At one time Indians were standing strong at 193/4 and they were looking at 300+ score but vihari got reckless just before tea, similar to Prithvi shaw (just before lunch break) and then came the batting collapse. how are you supposed to put runs on scoreboard when last 6 wickets going down with in just 45 runs?

Virat and his Comrade can't make Toss and Condition excuse in this match as they started the inning with the bang but failed to capitalize. Its home condition for Kiwis so they knew they just need to be patience enough to get back in the game and it worked for them during bowling and more importantly  when they were batting.

It was good to see New Kid On the Block performing, I mean Prithvi Shaw. This guy has got enormous potential but, his performance in NZ has been disappointing.

I think all newcomers want to come on the field and become a superstar without even realizing the format they are playing into.

When money is at stake shit happens and their performance proves it.