Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]

[Vishnu.Reang]

All things aside India still not winning the WTC at any cost even if they reach the finals easily. England/Australia/Newzealand are very strong in comparison of India when playing in the English condition ( lords)

Indian pace bowlers are nowadays performing well in the overseas conditions. The problem is with the spin bowlers and the batsmen. From what I have seen, Virat Kohli is perhaps the only Indian batsmen who has performed consistently under English conditions. Things may improve if some of the Indian batsmen participate in the county championship. But it looks as if they are not interested in this low-paying highly effort intensive stint.

[JSRAW]

All things aside India still not winning the WTC at any cost even if they reach the finals easily. England/Australia/Newzealand are very strong in comparison of India when playing in the English condition ( lords)

Indian pace bowlers are nowadays performing well in the overseas conditions. The problem is with the spin bowlers and the batsmen. From what I have seen, Virat Kohli is perhaps the only Indian batsmen who has performed consistently under English conditions. Things may improve if some of the Indian batsmen participate in the county championship. But it looks as if they are not interested in this low-paying highly effort intensive stint.

Indian batsmen are pretty much lost cause in English condition, one of the main reason indians failed to win series there after 2007 and not expecting any change in status quo anytime soon.

Not playing enough warm up games before any series is another reason along with not many batters participating in counties, some batsmen trying but clearly it's not enough.

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Pakistan lost the toss and possibly series as well.

[BitSat19]

England won the toss and decided to bat. Not the ideal start by England as lost Root quickly on 6 runs when team score was 12. Sibley & Crawley are building on the partnership and England have reached 48/1. they will require to score big in this innings and make at least 400+ runs in first innings and hopefully today there would not be any interruption in the match.

You done some mistake as first batsman lost his wicket is Burns not Root now next pair is doing good job as Crawly is on fire 55/1 in 15 overs look like they are going with some good target as keeping in mind if rains disturb them then they must have some good back up plan like first inning big score can help them very good.

[JSRAW]

Scorecard is not looking too bad for English team after first session. Run rate is healthy as well which means bowlers are not getting much help from the pitch, more problems for Pakistan as they have seam bowlers who don't rely or focus on reverse swing much, at least that's what we have seen in this series so far.

ENG : 91/2 , 28 overs

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Edit 1

Oops 127/4 now

[BitSat19]

Scorecard is not looking too bad for English team after first session. Run rate is healthy as well which means bowlers are not getting much help from the pitch, more problems for Pakistan as they have seam bowlers who don't rely or focus on reverse swing much, at least that's what we have seen in this series so far.

ENG : 91/2 , 28 overs

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Edit 1

Oops 127/4 now

For me first two sessions completely belong to England as they are doing very good batting right now 350+ is very good for them and they can bring Pakistan under pressure in batting so if weather could be ok then they will be able to win this match easily

Tea 184/4   56 overs

[FIFA worldcup]

Scorecard is not looking too bad for English team after first session. Run rate is healthy as well which means bowlers are not getting much help from the pitch, more problems for Pakistan as they have seam bowlers who don't rely or focus on reverse swing much, at least that's what we have seen in this series so far.

ENG : 91/2 , 28 overs

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Edit 1

Oops 127/4 now

For me first two sessions completely belong to England as they are doing very good batting right now 350+ is very good for them and they can bring Pakistan under pressure in batting so if weather could be ok then they will be able to win this match easily

Tea 184/4   56 overs

Crawley impressive century has helped England to post a good total in first innings and have reached 206/4 and 26 overs remaining for the day. They would like to reach atleast 300 runs and not try to lose much wickets in the remaining overs. England should be targeting getting 400+ runs from this point.

England can easily reach 400+ in this innings because they are 232-4 and Zak Crawley is playing very comfortably at 125. The only thing which will be on the minds of the England players will be the weather. They would desperately want weather not to disturb this test match.

[JSRAW]

Not a good day for Pakistan overall.. their last hope is new ball which is due soon. They should get at least some breakthrough. this partnership already done enough damage but couple of wickets could do some damage control and might give some breathing space which is very much necessary for Pak's cause.

289/4 80 overs
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And 300 up for England

[Indymoney]

Not a good day for Pakistan overall.. their last hope is new ball which is due soon. They should get at least some breakthrough. this partnership already done enough damage but couple of wickets could do some damage control and might give some breathing space which is very much necessary for Pak's cause.

289/4 80 overs
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And 300 up for England

First over with new ball cost 17 runs mean now Pakistan is out of business and its all on England and rain how they response 180 runs partnership is really worth for any team England easly can cross 450+ and then give Pakistan batting they already struggling so most chances they will lost by an inning or rain with give them salvage from here.

[SaShiRaJaVu]

Zak Crawley made a good come back and took advantage of the opportunity he got in this series and scored his maiden ton and he is poised to score a double century and along with Jos Buttler who is short of century took the game away from Pakistan, the worrying factor for England is that the top order is not performing consistently and if not for the fifth wicket partnership things could have been different.

[akhjob]

Zak Crawley made a good come back and took advantage of the opportunity he got in this series and scored his maiden ton and he is poised to score a double century and along with Jos Buttler who is short of century took the game away from Pakistan, the worrying factor for England is that the top order is not performing consistently and if not for the fifth wicket partnership things could have been different.

True. Although there is a slight chance for Pakistan to come back hard and make a draw out of this match, I don't see a chance available for levelling the series. ENG has a clear upper hand in this match and I don't think that Pakistan could sack ENG in their second innings thereby winning this match and levelling the series. They had a chance at toppling the English innings when they managed to grab some quick wickets, but the partnership between Crawley and Butler costs them badly.   

[Indymoney]

Zak Crawley made a good come back and took advantage of the opportunity he got in this series and scored his maiden ton and he is poised to score a double century and along with Jos Buttler who is short of century took the game away from Pakistan, the worrying factor for England is that the top order is not performing consistently and if not for the fifth wicket partnership things could have been different.

True. Although there is a slight chance for Pakistan to come back hard and make a draw out of this match, I don't see a chance available for levelling the series. ENG has a clear upper hand in this match and I don't think that Pakistan could sack ENG in their second innings thereby winning this match and levelling the series. They had a chance at toppling the English innings when they managed to grab some quick wickets, but the partnership between Crawley and Butler costs them badly.   

Pakistani management not taking any lesson from mistakes and doing again and again just because of this now they are on verge of losing this second test match and series so badly today England was really on top from start of match and they outclass all bowlers just Muhammad Abbas done some good bowling others was really poor Yasir was also some good in start but after this big partnership he also lost his rythum now England in all control lets see how they do tomorrow.

[JSRAW]

~snip~
Pakistani management not taking any lesson from mistakes and doing again and again just because of this now they are on verge of losing this second test match and series so badly today England was really on top from start of match and they outclass all bowlers just Muhammad Abbas done some good bowling others was really poor Yasir was also some good in start but after this big partnership he also lost his rythum now England in all control lets see how they do tomorrow.

Not sure if blaming management or selectors is going to solve any problem right now. Pakistan went there with more than 20 plus players and best fast bowlers playing in the match, Afridi and Naseem are young players and lack experience so they will learn with the experience as the time goes but i am sure no one really want to see old Wahab Riaz replacing them in the Whites.

[Juggy777]

Zak Crawley made a good come back and took advantage of the opportunity he got in this series and scored his maiden ton and he is poised to score a double century and along with Jos Buttler who is short of century took the game away from Pakistan, the worrying factor for England is that the top order is not performing consistently and if not for the fifth wicket partnership things could have been different.

True. Although there is a slight chance for Pakistan to come back hard and make a draw out of this match, I don't see a chance available for levelling the series. ENG has a clear upper hand in this match and I don't think that Pakistan could sack ENG in their second innings thereby winning this match and levelling the series. They had a chance at toppling the English innings when they managed to grab some quick wickets, but the partnership between Crawley and Butler costs them badly.   

Pakistani management not taking any lesson from mistakes and doing again and again just because of this now they are on verge of losing this second test match and series so badly today England was really on top from start of match and they outclass all bowlers just Muhammad Abbas done some good bowling others was really poor Yasir was also some good in start but after this big partnership he also lost his rythum now England in all control lets see how they do tomorrow.

Not sure if blaming management or selectors is going to solve any problem right now. Pakistan went there with more than 20 plus players and best fast bowlers playing in the match, Afridi and Naseem are young players and lack experience so they will learn with the experience as the time goes but i am sure no one really want to see old Wahab Riaz replacing them in the Whites.

I think that this match is already out of Pakistan’s hand, and if England manage to score 500+ runs, and also manage take some early wickets, then I believe that Pakistan innings will crumble and eventually they’ll loose the match.

Also @JSRAW has a fair point at this stage those player’s are young, and they need to get experiences like this to get better, and hence instead of being critical of the selectors we should instead appreciate them for taking such risks, and giving these player’s the required experience that will help them become better player’s in the long run.

[SaShiRaJaVu]

Although there is a slight chance for Pakistan to come back hard and make a draw out of this match, I don't see a chance available for levelling the series. ENG has a clear upper hand in this match and I don't think that Pakistan could sack ENG in their second innings thereby winning this match and levelling the series. They had a chance at toppling the English innings when they managed to grab some quick wickets, but the partnership between Crawley and Butler costs them badly. 

England could score over 500 runs and they are in as strong position and Pakistan will struggle against the pace and swing bowlers and Babar Azam could score some runs as he is the only consistent player in the team and if anyone could give him a good partnership we might see the match going to the last day, the worst situation would be Pakistan struggling to avoid follow on as it is hard to predict how are going to play.

[JohnBitCo]

Rain could be part of today's play and match begin and it started raining and covers were called on. Now after inspection it is confirmed that it will resume at 12:40 PM and lunch has been postponed to 2PM instead of 1 scheduled time. At times it can act as a distraction as well since again the batsman has to start to re-focus themself on the pitch and can be an issue. On other hand Pakistan would like to pick couple of quick wickets so that they do not score a very big total in 1st innings.

England have already scored a big total and even if they lose quick wickets they can easily make 450+ runs which is impressive. Considering Pakistani batsmen previous performances, i don't think they will be able to compete in this match and might lose this match by an innings.

[akhjob]

^Yeah rain could come into play in this match. But if England manages to score around 550 runs by the end of the day, I'm afraid Pakistan will lose this match even if we have rain interruptions. Although, Pakistan bowling seemed a bit better compared to yesterday, Butler has safely completed his century and Crawley is only 14 runs short of his double century. Only way for Pakistan to get back into the game is by breaking the partnership at the earliest then continue the momentum and pick up some quick wickets.

[JSRAW]

^^ England don't want to bat again in this match and everything seems to going on their way so far. If they succeed to put big total then Pakistan need some monumental performances from their premiere batsmen. Tough criticisms are on the way for skipper Azhar Ali if he fails as batsman here again.

[pakhitheboss]

I am sure Pakistani batsmen will not be able to chase any score above 350. England is still going strong and they will easily surpass 400 on the board. Crawley is only 3 runs short to get a double hundred. Butler is on 166 and most of the Pakistan bowlers have failed to stop these two guys.

[eaLiTy]

^Yeah rain could come into play in this match. But if England manages to score around 550 runs by the end of the day, I'm afraid Pakistan will lose this match even if we have rain interruptions. Although, Pakistan bowling seemed a bit better compared to yesterday, Butler has safely completed his century and Crawley is only 14 runs short of his double century. Only way for Pakistan to get back into the game is by breaking the partnership at the earliest then continue the momentum and pick up some quick wickets.

I thought the entire day will be lost due the rain but happy to see that the match was able to resume and England is piling up runs especially Zak Crawley who is 33 runs short of his triple century and he is able to reach that milestone then it would be awesome as this is his first century and then going on to score a triple century would be a record meanwhile Jos Buttler is playing the second fiddle and he is playing defensively which i did not expect considering his strike rate of above hundred in ODI. 

[akhjob]

I thought the entire day will be lost due the rain but happy to see that the match was able to resume and England is piling up runs especially Zak Crawley who is 33 runs short of his triple century and he is able to reach that milestone then it would be awesome as this is his first century and then going on to score a triple century would be a record meanwhile Jos Buttler is playing the second fiddle and he is playing defensively which i did not expect considering his strike rate of above hundred in ODI.  

You got crawley out   I was expecting a triple ton from him, but he got out just when you made the above post