Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]

[vella85]

Its a shame that Will Pucovski will miss the final test match as his career is just getting started. He makes way for Marcus Harris which I think is a good selection as Burns is in poor form and might not ever play test match cricket again. Its been a long while since it has come down to the final test match for a team to win the series in Australia as normally the series is wrapped up by now with Australia mostly winning in Australia so its going to be a great match to watch.

[7788bitcoin]

It looks like T Natarajan and Washington Sundar will make their debut for India and the full squad is still unknown. The last match was a blessing in disguise for India and in the first innings the focus was on the dropped catches of Pant and i did not notice that they replaced the wicket keeper with Saha until i read an article recently and that changed a lot of factors in favor of India who took three great catches and i was not aware of the rule change of substituting a wicket keeper which helped India.
Coming into this match the team winning the toss will choose batting.

[eaLiTy]

Coming into this match the team winning the toss will choose batting.

Australia won the toss and elected to bat as expected. Rishabh Pant is back to drop some catches as a wicket keeper and the surprising change is the inclusion of Washington Sundar and Australia is also having a change as Marcus Harris is replacing the injured Will Pucovski.

The match depends upon how Natarajan, Saini, Siraj, Shardul Thakur and Washington Sundar bowls as they are completely new faces and i am curious how they will perform.

[Sithara007]

Excited to see Thangarasu Natarajan making his test debut. Always thought that he has the potential to become a permanent member of the national squad. And the openers failed once again for Australia. Both David Warner and Marcus Harris failed to get to double digits. And as usual, it is left to the pair of Marnus Labuschagne and Steven Smith to rescue the team. The 3rd wicket partnership has made 48 runs till now.

[mersal]

Excited to see Thangarasu Natarajan making his test debut. Always thought that he has the potential to become a permanent member of the national squad. And the openers failed once again for Australia. Both David Warner and Marcus Harris failed to get to double digits. And as usual, it is left to the pair of Marnus Labuschagne and Steven Smith to rescue the team. The 3rd wicket partnership has made 48 runs till now.

Once again this pair is saving team AUS from the fall and successfully doing it now, each bowler is new face but still performed well until now.I think India would be happy about their first innings bowling performance but their real task is to break the partnership between Labuschagne and Smith to get them into low total as possible. The match is about to resume in the next few minutes so let's see how the pacers are going to make a strategy.

[JSRAW]

So basically India came up with the India A bowlers against the mighty Aussie. Siraj is senior bowler (3rd match) in this bowling line up, it tells you complete story. 2 bowlers were net bowler (Sundar +Natarajan).. What a turnaround in this squad.

Rishabh Pant is back to drop some catches as a wicket keeper

Oh boy! Did he drop something again?

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Holy shit Sundar got the big fish... Smudge gone!!!

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Labuschagne dropped by Rahane. 

[bryant.coleman]

Breaking the partnership between Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith was the big task for the Indian bowlers, and they managed to do that. Now the Aussies are in backfoot. Labuschagne is still there, but there is a chance that he will soon run out of support. Middle order batsmen like Matthew Wade and Tim Paine are in very poor form right now. I would have rather asked Cameron Green to bat ahead of Wade.

[mersal]

Breaking the partnership between Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith was the big task for the Indian bowlers, and they managed to do that. Now the Aussies are in backfoot. Labuschagne is still there, but there is a chance that he will soon run out of support. Middle order batsmen like Matthew Wade and Tim Paine are in very poor form right now. I would have rather asked Cameron Green to bat ahead of Wade.

Even though they are in bad form they can able to manage to build a partnership there.OZ trying to face more balls as much as possible so the bowlers can get exhausted then it is possible for them to go for runs at the later of this session.

Good effort from Indian bowlers though even when everyone is inexperienced and almost everyone debuted on this series.

[JSRAW]

 98 runs on 163 balls, this partnership between Marnus- Wade is hurting now. Shardul thakur leaking runs and going 4.50 per over, Rahane need to be careful with the run rate Aussie scoring right now, almost 5 runs per over in last 10 overs. Its seems Marnus is set for big 100 this time.

[bryant.coleman]

98 runs on 163 balls, this partnership between Marnus- Wade is hurting now. Shardul thakur leaking runs and going 4.50 per over, Rahane need to be careful with the run rate Aussie scoring right now, almost 5 runs per over in last 10 overs. Its seems Marnus is set for big 100 this time.

Wade is gone, with Natarajan getting his first wicket. But Labuschagne got his century before that. He got out for 91 in Sydney, but managed to get in to three digits this time. Now it is up to Cameron Green, to provide support for Labuschagne. After Green the tail will start, with Paine in such pathetic form. Australians must thank the quota policy of South Africa. Without the South African import, India could have whitewashed Australia in this series.

[JSRAW]

98 runs on 163 balls, this partnership between Marnus- Wade is hurting now. Shardul thakur leaking runs and going 4.50 per over, Rahane need to be careful with the run rate Aussie scoring right now, almost 5 runs per over in last 10 overs. Its seems Marnus is set for big 100 this time.

Wade is gone, with Natarajan getting his first wicket. But Labuschagne got his century before that. He got out for 91 in Sydney, but managed to get in to three digits this time. Now it is up to Cameron Green, to provide support for Labuschagne. After Green the tail will start, with Paine in such pathetic form. Australians must thank the quota policy of South Africa. Without the South African import, India could have whitewashed Australia in this series.

Labuschagne  got out but damn this guy is really talented and really loves to make runs against every freaking team.

Natarajan baba got the both wicket (Labuschagne and Wade) Nice debut for Nattu.

India is back in the game again.

Aus : 213/5

[Indymoney]

Labuschagne  got out but damn this guy is really talented and really loves to make runs against every freaking team.

Natarajan baba got the both wicket (Labuschagne and Wade) Nice debut for Nattu.

India is back in the game again.

Aus : 213/5

Mark my words. Labuschagne is going to be the next Steve Smith for Australia. He is extremely consistent and performs against top teams. BTW, I am happy for Natarajan. He made his international debut for India in all the three formats during this series. And that was despite the fact that he wasn't originally named in the ODI/test squads. It turns out that the injury woes are beneficial for at least some of the players.

Too many injuries and again drop catches but I am feeling still India done some good in first day of final test of this series but still visitors have to go very long way if they want to do some more good in end just some better thngs from batsmen can bring historical end of this series now they need some quickly end of this partnership because these also can done some good damage.

[Timelord2067]

Well... At least David Warner got ONE run before he took the long walk back to the pub.

The BBL games this past week have been a lot more interesting to watch (even if the players fielding do all kinds of cart-wheels while trying to catch the ball...) 🙄

[mersal]

98 runs on 163 balls, this partnership between Marnus- Wade is hurting now. Shardul thakur leaking runs and going 4.50 per over, Rahane need to be careful with the run rate Aussie scoring right now, almost 5 runs per over in last 10 overs. Its seems Marnus is set for big 100 this time.

Wade is gone, with Natarajan getting his first wicket. But Labuschagne got his century before that. He got out for 91 in Sydney, but managed to get in to three digits this time. Now it is up to Cameron Green, to provide support for Labuschagne. After Green the tail will start, with Paine in such pathetic form. Australians must thank the quota policy of South Africa. Without the South African import, India could have whitewashed Australia in this series.

Labuschagne  got out but damn this guy is really talented and really loves to make runs against every freaking team.

Natarajan baba got the both wicket (Labuschagne and Wade) Nice debut for Nattu.

India is back in the game again.

Aus : 213/5

At this point, India looks like they back into the game but again another big partnership hurting the inexperienced bowling lineup of India for sure. In my opinion, OZ will be happy with their 274 for the loss of only five wickets even when they lost both the openers very early in this match.Indian Fielding again showing pathetic performances which is one of the reasons for leaking too many runs and let them build a partnership.

[JSRAW]

Labuschagne  got out but damn this guy is really talented and really loves to make runs against every freaking team.

Natarajan baba got the both wicket (Labuschagne and Wade) Nice debut for Nattu.

India is back in the game again.

Aus : 213/5

Mark my words. Labuschagne is going to be the next Steve Smith for Australia. He is extremely consistent and performs against top teams. BTW, I am happy for Natarajan. He made his international debut for India in all the three formats during this series. And that was despite the fact that he wasn't originally named in the ODI/test squads. It turns out that the injury woes are beneficial for at least some of the players.

True... This decade belongs to Labuschangne and Babar, then may be couple of other young guys like Gill, Green, Daniel Lawrence etc

Well... At least David Warner got ONE run before he took the long walk back to the pub.

The BBL games this past week have been a lot more interesting to watch (even if the players fielding do all kinds of cart-wheels while trying to catch the ball...) 🙄

New rules such as The Power Surge, X-Factor etc coming out nicely with in the game?
Meanwhile its seems that England breached the Lankan's fortress.

[Timelord2067]

New rules such as The Power Surge, X-Factor etc coming out nicely with in the game?

I'd be happy if they just played "hit the bloody ball ya mug!" Every once in a while.

All joking aside, Australia's players need to stop preening themselves in the mirror and get back to basics starting with practing in the nets.

[onrise]

At this point, India looks like they back into the game but again another big partnership hurting the inexperienced bowling lineup of India for sure. In my opinion, OZ will be happy with their 274 for the loss of only five wickets even when they lost both the openers very early in this match.Indian Fielding again showing pathetic performances which is one of the reasons for leaking too many runs and let them build a partnership.

If they had held the catches, then India would have been in a much better position. Labuschagne was initially dropped by Ajinkya Rahane and then he was again dropped by Cheteshwar Pujara, and he went on to make a century. Misfields also resulted in additional runs for the Australians. The bowlers did well, irrespective of their inexperience, but the Indian fielders let them down.

This dropped catches could cause them match as well. Firstly, getting Warner out early itself was a big achievement and if Labuschagne was out early today OZ would have been nearly all out. But now they could end up making easily 325+ runs and for India now among top 4 batsman 1 must make century to reach near OZ total or take a lead. Bowlers were remarkable and you rightly pointed they are inexperienced as no bowler has till now even played 5 test matches.

[Swordsoffreedom]

Srilanka 135/10 and Joe root 168 (not out)  . It seems that Joe Root alone defeated Sri Lanka  . However, Sri Lanka is having a very bad time. The Test series is completely one-sided. Sri Lanka is not able to fight at all. At least I didn't expect it to be a bad performance. Although I did not think Sri Lanka would win, I thought they would fight at least a little bit. But they broke my hopes. They will lose by an innings and huge runs.

[Haunebu]

I feel like this match might end in a draw too(Wild prediction). Australia were in a great position just like this in the previous matches, but messed up towards the end and I feel the same will happen here too.

It is very bad to drop a catch in a Test match. It is not pleasant to drop a catch of a good batsman like Labuschange twice.

He was dropped twice? Didn't know this. India messed up royally here especially when so many of their players are injured. I feel sad for the bowlers who could claimed such a valuable wicket.

[vella85]

I would put Australia slightly ahead right now even though they have lost 5 wickets. I think anything over 300 will be a good total on this pitch and as I have said many times before, Australia are very tough to beat on this ground with not losing a test match since 1988 so they will have all the confidence in winning the match but I still don't count India out just yet as they have the momentum from the previous test match and I think that they would feel they are right in this match taking 5 wickets on the first day so its going to be an exciting match to watch. The morning session is vital for both teams as which ever teams does well in the morning session could go on to winning the match.