Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]

[Juggy777]

The first test belongs to India and south african needs to focus on building some batting friendly wickets.

LOL.. this will be the last thing they need right now. If they prepare batting friendly wickets, then you can expect the Indians to build totals of 500 plus or 600 plus and on the other side the South Africans don't have quality batsmen who can get them to such high totals. The current strategy, IMO works better for them. Look at the margin of defeat. It may be in the range of 100-130 runs. If they prepare batting friendly tracks, then in all probability they are going to suffer from innings defeat.

Edit

7th down!!

Agreed with Sithara, you don't want to introduce batting friendly wickets in SA. This would be suicidal for current lot of Protea's bowlers and team. Nortje is already ruled out from the series so another reason to not introduce flat track.

I wasn't sure of Indian victory at Centurion but now its only 3 wickets away. Indian team has a long bad habit of losing every first game of the series so its good feeling.

Hope no rain, Plzzz


Well done Team India...

@Sithara007 I doubt that South Africa will even consider curating batting friendly pitches, and @JSRAW is correct too because their strength is their bowlers so why would they do something drastic like this?.

Also I feel entire credit goes to the Indian bowlers for sticking to their plan, and easily picking wickets and taking this match away from South Africa.

[Theones]

I thought South Africa will be able to bat for a long time, but their remaining 3 wickets fall so quickly after the lunch break. The pitch wasn't batting friendly at all. India had got the advantages on the first day of this game. They had scored 270+ runs by losing 3 wickets only. They couldn't play on the day two for the rain and wet outfield. India lost their remaining 7 wickets by adding 55 runs on day 3. Perhaps, the pitch had turned as good for the bowlers when it was covered for the rain. Anyway, South Africa had very low possibility to win the match from the beginning.

India got lead of 130 runs in first inning which proves to be the main factor for there win in this test. They were bowled out for 174 in the second Innings. South Africa bowlers tried best but its was there batting that fully failed in both innings. Seems like India will get there much awaited test series win this time.

[SirLancelot]

The first test belongs to India and south african needs to focus on building some batting friendly wickets.

LOL.. this will be the last thing they need right now. If they prepare batting friendly wickets, then you can expect the Indians to build totals of 500 plus or 600 plus and on the other side the South Africans don't have quality batsmen who can get them to such high totals. The current strategy, IMO works better for them. Look at the margin of defeat. It may be in the range of 100-130 runs. If they prepare batting friendly tracks, then in all probability they are going to suffer from innings defeat.

First test completely one-sided from day 1 even losing one complete day Indian bowlers done very good bowling effort for their win. South Africa is facing same issue like England lack of good and quality batsmen they completely fail in both innings and have no good chance for touching 200+ figure which is big dilemma for them at home against team like India. With this result I am feeling now India can earn their first test series win on South African soil under their great captain Kohli who is searching for his form in this format with have no 100+ in last 2 years.

South African selection committee need to do some quick work for having test batsmen because without this they will be down-and-out like West Indies which could be great lost for cricket community because recently they are facing some serious issues in many ways.

[Haunebu]

I have no idea why so many people actually thought that the current South African team could easily win against the current Indian team with their best bowler(Nortje) missing just because it's their turf. It's not always about the turf, toss etc people.

South Africa should simply try hard to avoid a whitewash or draw the series in my opinion.

[mm2543363580]

First test completely one-sided from day 1 even losing one complete day Indian bowlers done very good bowling effort for their win. South Africa is facing same issue like England lack of good and quality batsmen they completely fail in both innings and have no good chance for touching 200+ figure which is big dilemma for them at home against team like India. With this result I am feeling now India can earn their first test series win on South African soil under their great captain Kohli who is searching for his form in this format with have no 100+ in last 2 years.

South African selection committee need to do some quick work for having test batsmen because without this they will be down-and-out like West Indies which could be great lost for cricket community because recently they are facing some serious issues in many ways.

Its a historic day for India as they recorded there first ever test victory at Centurion. If performance of south Africa remain like that India will record more such wins here.
I don't think its justified to compare south africa performance with England. England is a complete failure so far in Ashes, while South africa at least fought to some extent.  

[teosanru]

I have no idea why so many people actually thought that the current South African team could easily win against the current Indian team with their best bowler(Nortje) missing just because it's their turf. It's not always about the turf, toss etc people.

South Africa should simply try hard to avoid a whitewash or draw the series in my opinion.

Exactly my point, the home ground advantages work only upto a certain extent, they generally work when there are equally leveled teams each of them have upper hand in a particular thing, in this situation the home team tried to make the pitches as per their preferences and their strength which makes many results inclined towards home team, this just can't magically increase the strength of your team. It was mostly the English and Aussies who thought such a thing would happen.

[BALIK]

The match would have been competitive if the South African batsmen could have played better. However, maybe no one expects a team like South Africa to win against India.

I thought South Africa will be able to bat for a long time, but their remaining 3 wickets fall so quickly after the lunch break. The pitch wasn't batting friendly at all. India had got the advantages on the first day of this game. They had scored 270+ runs by losing 3 wickets only. They couldn't play on the day two for the rain and wet outfield. India lost their remaining 7 wickets by adding 55 runs on day 3. Perhaps, the pitch had turned as good for the bowlers when it was covered for the rain. Anyway, South Africa had very low possibility to win the match from the beginning.

There is no batsman to rely on in the South Africa squad. They have been performing poorly for a long time. They played with a relatively weak squad but did not perform very well. Now they are playing against India who are very strong. South Africa's performance has been as expected. But if the batsmen were a little more patient, they could have collected more than 200 in each innings.

The second test match will be held on January 3. The first match of the new year. Hopefully South Africa will play well in the new year.

[eaLiTy]

I have no idea why so many people actually thought that the current South African team could easily win against the current Indian team with their best bowler(Nortje) missing just because it's their turf. It's not always about the turf, toss etc people.

I was never in doubt about the chances of India in the tour against South Africa as they are not having a really strong batting line up like we used to see in the past and the win depends upon how the Indian batsman is able to perform in wickets like these and if they score a decent total then India has the bowlers to trouble any team in the world.

South Africa should simply try hard to avoid a whitewash or draw the series in my opinion.

I am not expecting a white wash, but it is good to see that India is breaking all the fortress, first Gabba and now Centurion which is a huge feat and if the fast bowlers are healthy and weather will not intervene we will see a really competitive series.

[Sithara007]

@Sithara007 I doubt that South Africa will even consider curating batting friendly pitches, and @JSRAW is correct too because their strength is their bowlers so why would they do something drastic like this?.

Also I feel entire credit goes to the Indian bowlers for sticking to their plan, and easily picking wickets and taking this match away from South Africa.

Yeah.. that's why I have a feeling that the pitch at Johannesburg will be even more supportive towards pace bowling. BTW, you don't get pitches at are very helpful for pace bowlers anymore. Two decades ago we used to have grounds like WACA (Perth, Australia) and Kingsmead (Durban, South Africa) that used to be heaven for pace bowlers. But these sort of pitches were opposed by the TV broadcasters. If the match gets completed in two or three days, then the TV channels face huge losses. So even grounds like WACA are now having more neutral pitches.

[JSRAW]

-Australia farming points by beating broke English team. Australia would be strong candidate for finals if they whitewash this series, hope England win at least 1 match and 1 draw lol
-Lanka looks like a underdog.
-Already said many times that Pakistan has a excellent chance to qualify into finals. They are playing all tests -Home/away- at subcontinent.
-India is winning and leading series nowadays but still their berth is not fixed and looks tough despite winning every test series, don't forget its all depends on -winning % of matches not series win.

[Sithara007]

^^^^ LOL.. right now I am 99% assured that the Ashes will end up in a 5-0 whitewash for Australia. England can't just rely on Joe Root and James Anderson all the time. The remaining 9 players in the XI need to contribute. And for India, they are going to sweep the series against South Africa and their next series is going to be against Sri Lanka (which is going to be another cakewalk for them). Still, New Zealand is looking precarious out there. Hopefully they will be in a better position as soon as the series against Bangladesh is over.

[CryptoBuds]

^^^^ LOL.. right now I am 99% assured that the Ashes will end up in a 5-0 whitewash for Australia. England can't just rely on Joe Root and James Anderson all the time. The remaining 9 players in the XI need to contribute.

Australia will win 5 matches. England's bowlers are not playing badly. However, the batsmen are not in form. I have never seen an innings better than England's batsmen in two Tests, except for Joe Root. On the other hand, everyone in the Australian team is playing great.

And for India, they are going to sweep the series against South Africa and their next series is going to be against Sri Lanka (which is going to be another cakewalk for them). Still, New Zealand is looking precarious out there. Hopefully they will be in a better position as soon as the series against Bangladesh is over.

India will win all the matches of the Test series against South Africa. The South Africa Test squad is not good. They do not have a strong squad like the win against India. But I look forward to seeing a better innings from Kohli in this series.

[onecall123]

England has tried everything. However, more batters should be engaged.  That's their main concern, although I'm sure they'll overcome.

In the meantime, a positive case emerged in the men's Ashes series. Test results were positive for match referee Boon. I think we should cancel the rest of the series anyway due to the Covid issue. Now that possible results are coming, even postponed the BBL.

[teosanru]

England has tried everything. However, more batters should be engaged.  That's their main concern, although I'm sure they'll overcome.

In the meantime, a positive case emerged in the men's Ashes series. Test results were positive for match referee Boon. I think we should cancel the rest of the series anyway due to the Covid issue. Now that possible results are coming, even postponed the BBL.

England would obviously want some postponement for this series because the sort of form they are in it really looks too bad. Especially a team which was being considered the World's best team in ODI and T20 lately has been struggling badly in tests. Bowlers have still been somewhat okayish but batsman have struggled badly. stokes hasn't really been in best touch after coming back from the injury too.

[eaLiTy]

England would obviously want some postponement for this series because the sort of form they are in it really looks too bad. Especially a team which was being considered the World's best team in ODI and T20 lately has been struggling badly in tests. Bowlers have still been somewhat okayish but batsman have struggled badly. stokes hasn't really been in best touch after coming back from the injury too.

England was not having the best Test team for a long time and now their bowlers failed to perform like they used to do in the past especially James Anderson and Stuart Broad did not make any impact in this series and their batsman was a complete failure and postponing the series will not change anything unless they find new players.

Another surprising news from South Africa is the surprise retirement of Quinton de Kock and with South Africa struggling to find quality players this untimely retirement is another headache for them.

[doomloop]

England has tried everything. However, more batters should be engaged.  That's their main concern, although I'm sure they'll overcome.

In the meantime, a positive case emerged in the men's Ashes series. Test results were positive for match referee Boon. I think we should cancel the rest of the series anyway due to the Covid issue. Now that possible results are coming, even postponed the BBL.

Surely if now they want respectable end of these Ashes they need more Covid-19 cases in their camp because otherwise they have no option to avoid 5 - 0 result from this which is surely the worst case for them and their cricket currently.

Much good news for England camp as right now we have some good number of peoples positive for covid19 like England Coach, Match Referee and now Australian batsman Travis Head if these things not stopped then surely they will think about postponed or some other way to stop this all which is good for England.
 
Meanwhile, now Gary Kirsten is a strong candidate for next English Coach as current is going to lose his job after this humiliation defeat from the hands of Australia in Australia.

[Haunebu]

Another surprising news from South Africa is the surprise retirement of Quinton de Kock and with South Africa struggling to find quality players this untimely retirement is another headache for them.

This was a surprise to me too. He only retired from tests though at the moment which implies that he will still be available in the other formats of the game.

Much good news for England camp as right now we have some good number of peoples positive for covid19 like England Coach, Match Referee and now Australian batsman Travis Head if these things not stopped then surely they will think about postponed or some other way to stop this all which is good for England.

That is dark. Hoping for people to get infected just for the sake of sports is crazy. Their lives matter more than the games themselves which is why I completely disagree with you here.

[Sithara007]

That is dark. Hoping for people to get infected just for the sake of sports is crazy. Their lives matter more than the games themselves which is why I completely disagree with you here.

Once again, COVID is playing the spoilsport. Three important test series are ongoing right now - Ashes between Australia and England, Indian tour of South Africa, and Bangladeshi tour of New Zealand. If these series are called off, then the broadcasters will be left with crippling losses, and the international cricketing calendar maybe thrown into disarray once more. For the BCCI, the IPL will be a concern. They were initially planning to conduct the IPL 2022 from March-April this year. Omicron can force a change in their plans.

[pakhitheboss]

That is dark. Hoping for people to get infected just for the sake of sports is crazy. Their lives matter more than the games themselves which is why I completely disagree with you here.

Once again, COVID is playing the spoilsport. Three important test series are ongoing right now - Ashes between Australia and England, Indian tour of South Africa, and Bangladeshi tour of New Zealand. If these series are called off, then the broadcasters will be left with crippling losses, and the international cricketing calendar maybe thrown into disarray once more. For the BCCI, the IPL will be a concern. They were initially planning to conduct the IPL 2022 from March-April this year. Omicron can force a change in their plans.

They might get only cancelled if any of the players or the members of the squad becomes positive. For now, everything is going smooth and I hope it remains like this only. IPL would have to be postponed once again because the daily positivity rate has started rising in India and by February end it will peak according to a report. If that is the case then it would be hard for BCCI to conduct IPL between March till June.

[mm2543363580]

They might get only cancelled if any of the players or the members of the squad becomes positive. For now, everything is going smooth and I hope it remains like this only. IPL would have to be postponed once again because the daily positivity rate has started rising in India and by February end it will peak according to a report. If that is the case then it would be hard for BCCI to conduct IPL between March till June.

Cricket should learn how to live with covid. AFAIK covid is going no where and there is realization among boards that cricket should go on with precautionary measures. All three test series right now are in progress and there is no news of cancelation. Even if some player caught with covid, he must be replaced rather then canceling the series.