Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]

[JSRAW]

Zimbabwe is just a shadow of their former self two decades ago. Rarely they may become competitive in the ODI or T20 format, but it is too much to expect from them to perform well in the test format. I still don't understand why teams such as Pakistan agrees to play test matches against Zimbabwe. No one really gains from such one sided matches. Apart from Brendan Taylor and Blessing Muzarabani, there are no other players capable of playing in the test format within the Zimbabwe squad.

This is like a warm up test series for Pakistan. They are playing with a week team but it will help them to gain some experience. Pakistani batsman and bowler can increase their skill from this series. Unexpected thing may also happens at this kind of match. But the situation is out of control for Zimbabwe now. After the end of second session of day 2, Pakistani batsman have scored 505 runs till now. Abid Ali scored 215 runs and Nauman Ali is only 7 run away from his first test century. They are trying to make some quick runs now. There would be nothing to surprise if Pakistan win this test by an innings like the previous one.

Was going to reply exactly same thing to @Maheshkumar_Hrangkhawl.

First they smacked em all over the ground all day long and now bullying the Zimbabwe batsmen with the swing-seam-reverse. Should be fun for Pak's seamers.

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[fullhdpixel]

Pakistan is in a very strong position now 353/7 is a good score against Zimbabwe.

505/7 at the end of tea on the 2nd day and don't forget Abid Ali still playing at 215. I am sure some records for the 7th wicket partnership in test matches may have shattered today. Pakistan will easily this match but point of interest now is whether Abid Ali make a triple century ?

But it seems Babar Azam was thinking something different, instead of looking for Abid Ali to score triple century, he might be looking for victory from this test match; that must be a reason why he had declared when Nauman Ali got out for 97 runs. Abid Ali really showed his character; yes batting all through the innings definitely needs lots of patience in test cricket. He definitely deserves a triple century but I will not blame the decision of a skipper for teams' victory sake.

Abid Ali's striking rate might has been a concern here; he was batting around 52 strike rate; even it is a good one in test cricket, he needs to move toward at least 60 after completing 100 or 150 runs so that he might have got better chances to go for triple century before the tea of second day.

[ene1980]

But it seems Babar Azam was thinking something different, instead of looking for Abid Ali to score triple century, he might be looking for victory from this test match; that must be a reason why he had declared when Nauman Ali got out for 97 runs. Abid Ali really showed his character; yes batting all through the innings definitely needs lots of patience in test cricket. He definitely deserves a triple century but I will not blame the decision of a skipper for teams' victory sake.

You already had the answer for the reason why Babar Azam declared the innings rather than allowing Abid Ali to score a triple century, the strike rate is really low and it will take more than two session even if he reaches his triple century and they need to send Zimbabwe now and try to pick wickets so that they can give a small break for the bowlers before sending Zimbabwe for the second time.

[Sithara007]

First of all, Zimbabwe should thank Abid Ali. If not for his slow batting, the match would have got finished in two days. Now they have extended it to the third day. I don't know what happened to Brendan Taylor, but recently he looks out of form. I am saddened by this, because when he made his debut (17 years ago?) he was being talked about as the future of Zimbabwean cricket. If not for the political turbulence in Zimbabwe, he had the potential to become one of the legends in Zimbabwean cricket. Now he will end his career in the same manner as Steve Tikolo, John Davison or Gerrie Snyman.

[pakhitheboss]

Zimbabwe is just a shadow of their former self two decades ago. Rarely they may become competitive in the ODI or T20 format, but it is too much to expect from them to perform well in the test format. I still don't understand why teams such as Pakistan agrees to play test matches against Zimbabwe. No one really gains from such one sided matches. Apart from Brendan Taylor and Blessing Muzarabani, there are no other players capable of playing in the test format within the Zimbabwe squad.

This is like a warm up test series for Pakistan. They are playing with a week team but it will help them to gain some experience. Pakistani batsman and bowler can increase their skill from this series. Unexpected thing may also happens at this kind of match. But the situation is out of control for Zimbabwe now. After the end of second session of day 2, Pakistani batsman have scored 505 runs till now. Abid Ali scored 215 runs and Nauman Ali is only 7 run away from his first test century. They are trying to make some quick runs now. There would be nothing to surprise if Pakistan win this test by an innings like the previous one.

Was going to reply exactly same thing to @Maheshkumar_Hrangkhawl.

First they smacked em all over the ground all day long and now bullying the Zimbabwe batsmen with the swing-seam-reverse. Should be fun for Pak's seamers.

Just another practices session for Pakistan bowlers. There is nothing left in the match, they are only passing the time it seems for god knows what reason. The match could have been over in just two days but it seems Pakistan players are interested in dragging the match. Since we do not have any other option left we are have to watch this match but it is kind of frustrating.

[JSRAW]

Was going to reply exactly same thing to @Maheshkumar_Hrangkhawl.

First they smacked em all over the ground all day long and now bullying the Zimbabwe batsmen with the swing-seam-reverse. Should be fun for Pak's seamers.

Just another practices session for Pakistan bowlers. There is nothing left in the match, they are only passing the time it seems for god knows what reason. The match could have been over in just two days but it seems Pakistan players are interested in dragging the match. Since we do not have any other option left we are have to watch this match but it is kind of frustrating.

Uff 86/7 poor Zimbabwe. For Pak every bowler chipped in and got the wicket, Hasan Ali loving the momentum as well. Follow on should be near now, its been a while i witnessed follow on the test cricket so won't mind if Pakistan force the follow on today.  

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Edit
5fer for Hasan and here comes the follow on..

[JohnBitCo]

First of all, Zimbabwe should thank Abid Ali. If not for his slow batting, the match would have got finished in two days. Now they have extended it to the third day. I don't know what happened to Brendan Taylor, but recently he looks out of form. I am saddened by this, because when he made his debut (17 years ago?) he was being talked about as the future of Zimbabwean cricket. If not for the political turbulence in Zimbabwe, he had the potential to become one of the legends in Zimbabwean cricket. Now he will end his career in the same manner as Steve Tikolo, John Davison or Gerrie Snyman.

Does not matter if the match is finished in two days or three days. What matter is that Zimbabwe will lose the match and lose the series. This will further create problem from the Zimbabwe team and board as they fail to make any considerable performance in the whole series. ICC won't be happy organizing such one sided series.

[Vishnu.Reang]

Does not matter if the match is finished in two days or three days. What matter is that Zimbabwe will lose the match and lose the series. This will further create problem from the Zimbabwe team and board as they fail to make any considerable performance in the whole series. ICC won't be happy organizing such one sided series.

The ICC will be least bothered about this. What have they done to improve the situation in Zimbabwe? For the last 10-15 years, it is clear that at least 90% of the ICC annual funding to Zimbabwe is getting stolen by the corrupt officials. This is the reason why many of the promising players quit Zimbabwe and migrated to other countries such as England and New Zealand. ICC just want to maintain the status quo and they don't want to take any concrete action.

[JSRAW]

Does not matter if the match is finished in two days or three days. What matter is that Zimbabwe will lose the match and lose the series. This will further create problem from the Zimbabwe team and board as they fail to make any considerable performance in the whole series. ICC won't be happy organizing such one sided series.

The ICC will be least bothered about this. What have they done to improve the situation in Zimbabwe? For the last 10-15 years, it is clear that at least 90% of the ICC annual funding to Zimbabwe is getting stolen by the corrupt officials. This is the reason why many of the promising players quit Zimbabwe and migrated to other countries such as England and New Zealand. ICC just want to maintain the status quo and they don't want to take any concrete action.

Don't know what could possibly ICC do in this situation. Zimbabwe cricket is receiving their fair share of amount every year so its on them, additionally ICC could provide some guidance which i'm sure they already do. Cutting off their share and removing test status is out of the equation so Status quo seems okay decision.

[bryant.coleman]

Don't know what could possibly ICC do in this situation. Zimbabwe cricket is receiving their fair share of amount every year so its on them, additionally ICC could provide some guidance which i'm sure they already do. Cutting off their share and removing test status is out of the equation so Status quo seems okay decision.

Why cutting their share is out of the equation? Also, they are no longer placed in the first division of test cricket and not a part of the World Test Championship (WTC). So why should they receive around $12 million every year in the form of ICC funding? As far as I know, only a very small portion of this amount reaches the players. The remainder is siphoned away by the corrupt administration. It is very unfair on the part of the ICC to provide funds to Zimabwe, at a level which is 20x or 40x when compared to promising countries such as Nepal and Papua New Guinea. Even Ireland and Afghanistan receive only around $5 million per year as ICC funding.

[7788bitcoin]

Does not matter if the match is finished in two days or three days. What matter is that Zimbabwe will lose the match and lose the series. This will further create problem from the Zimbabwe team and board as they fail to make any considerable performance in the whole series. ICC won't be happy organizing such one sided series.

Does it really matter and do you think the ICC will be really surprised by the performance of Zimbabwe, Pakistan made this series possible because there were no other teams available and they need some sort of momentum going on for their players and so is the reason they are playing against Zimbabwe as far i understand. They should have included more T20 matches so that it would be competitive as they even defeated Pakistan in one match but Test matches was one sided beatings.

[Vishnu.Reang]

Does it really matter and do you think the ICC will be really surprised by the performance of Zimbabwe, Pakistan made this series possible because there were no other teams available and they need some sort of momentum going on for their players and so is the reason they are playing against Zimbabwe as far i understand. They should have included more T20 matches so that it would be competitive as they even defeated Pakistan in one match but Test matches was one sided beatings.

Why it always has to be a test-playing nation? If other test playing nations were not available, then Pakistan could have played against Afghanistan or Ireland. And I am sure that these two teams could have performed much better than Zimbabwe. And there are associate nations, who deserve a chance of playing against a test nation. I am talking about teams such as Nepal, Netherlands, Kenya and Scotland. Given the pathetic performance put up by Zimbabwe, I don't think that these teams could have performed any worse.

[7788bitcoin]

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Why it always has to be a test-playing nation? If other test playing nations were not available, then Pakistan could have played against Afghanistan or Ireland. And I am sure that these two teams could have performed much better than Zimbabwe. And there are associate nations, who deserve a chance of playing against a test nation. I am talking about teams such as Nepal, Netherlands, Kenya and Scotland. Given the pathetic performance put up by Zimbabwe, I don't think that these teams could have performed any worse.

Zimbabwe was the team available as far as i know and so is the reason they are playing a series right now and even though it is a one sided affair we can only speculate that other associate teams will perform better, Afghanistan will not get the service of Rashid Khan because he was busy with the IPL and so does a couple of other players and you cannot imagine the collapse they will be in without players like Rashid Khan and cannot expect anything different from any other associate team as well.

[Vaskiy]

Right now this helps Pakistan to rank up on the table. ICC knows well about the performance level of Zimbabwe team. It should have organised the series against other teams like Nepal, Scotland, etc. As in a quote the Zimbabwe Cricket board is into corrupt hands. Once Zimbabwe team is much popular, now everything has turned completely upside down.

[Sithara007]

Right now this helps Pakistan to rank up on the table. ICC knows well about the performance level of Zimbabwe team. It should have organised the series against other teams like Nepal, Scotland, etc. As in a quote the Zimbabwe Cricket board is into corrupt hands. Once Zimbabwe team is much popular, now everything has turned completely upside down.

They should remove the disparity in funding as well. Why Zimbabwe continues to receive ICC funding at a level which is three times of what is given to Ireland and Afghanistan? Since all these three teams are placed in the second division of the test cricket, the funding should be equal. The ICC seriously need to revisit the funding plan for the next cycle (2023-31). But I don't have much hope, since after the resignation of Shashank Manohar the businessmen cabal has regained their control of the ICC.

[UmerIdrees]

But it seems Babar Azam was thinking something different, instead of looking for Abid Ali to score triple century, he might be looking for victory from this test match; that must be a reason why he had declared when Nauman Ali got out for 97 runs. Abid Ali really showed his character; yes batting all through the innings definitely needs lots of patience in test cricket. He definitely deserves a triple century but I will not blame the decision of a skipper for teams' victory sake.

That's a bad decision by the skipper. They would have still won the match because there was so much time left in the match. When a player is playing at above 200 runs , you should let him play until he is bowled out. Who knows he would have make 300 - 400 runs. Don't think if a player score more runs, it would be for his own records, but it will also help in breaking individual batting records.
I think it was a selfish decision of baber Azam for not allowing Abid Ali to play further.

[bryant.coleman]

That's a bad decision by the skipper. They would have still won the match because there was so much time left in the match. When a player is playing at above 200 runs , you should let him play until he is bowled out. Who knows he would have make 300 - 400 runs. Don't think if a player score more runs, it would be for his own records, but it will also help in breaking individual batting records.
I think it was a selfish decision of baber Azam for not allowing Abid Ali to play further.

If Abid Ali wanted to score a triple ton, then he should have scored runs quickly. Team always come before the individual records. Anyway, what is the point in scoring a test triple against Zimbabwe? Their bowling is actually worse than many of the associate teams. And how can you say that someone who is batting at 215 is close to a triple century? This is ridiculous. Will you say that Sajid Khan narrowly missed a century by 80 runs, since he got out for 20? If Abid had scored 280 or 290, then I would have agreed with you. But this just doesn't make any sense.

[UmerIdrees]

If Abid Ali wanted to score a triple ton, then he should have scored runs quickly. Team always come before the individual records.

I failed to understand your vague arguments. We are only in the 3rd day of the match. Even if he plays slowly that does not hurt anyone.

Anyway, what is the point in scoring a test triple against Zimbabwe? Their bowling is actually worse than many of the associate teams.

So you are saying that when Matthew Hayden scored 380 against Zimbabwe, it was useless as this score was not against one of the better teams ?

[Vishnu.Reang]

Abid Ali was on 215. He was almost hundred runs away from scoring a triple century. I don't understand the argument here. How can you guys say that he was denied of a triple century? Are you 100% sure that he could have scored another 85 runs without getting dismissed? Pakistan had just two wickets remaining and the Zimbabwe bowlers could have taken those two within a couple of overs. The declaration came after Nauman Ali was dismissed. The no.10 and no.11 batsmen were Shaheen Shah Afridi and Tabish Khan, who are genuine tail enders. I fully agree with Babar Azam's decision to declare the innings. Abid had zero chance of getting a triple century. 

[UmerIdrees]

Abid Ali was on 215. He was almost hundred runs away from scoring a triple century. I don't understand the argument here. How can you guys say that he was denied of a triple century? Are you 100% sure that he could have scored another 85 runs without getting dismissed? Pakistan had just two wickets remaining and the Zimbabwe bowlers could have taken those two within a couple of overs. The declaration came after Nauman Ali was dismissed. The no.10 and no.11 batsmen were Shaheen Shah Afridi and Tabish Khan, who are genuine tail enders. I fully agree with Babar Azam's decision to declare the innings. Abid had zero chance of getting a triple century. 

No one is saying that he would have made triple century but only that he should have been given a chance when there was too much time left in the match.

Pakistan finally won the match and the series.