Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]

[7788bitcoin]

My money on England but I would really like to see the South African batsmen are fighting untill the end. So far they done really good and honestly speaking I did not expect this far them to come.
It's pretty clear that SA is fighting for a draw and England is giving there best to pick up the last 5 wickets. England needed Archer and Anderson seems to having physical issue.

They tried their level best to draw the match but without any major contribution from middle order it is hard to play this long and it is a matter of three tail end batsman that England could win the match, when South Africa failed to take a lead in the first innings the fate was on the sealing and surprising for England Sibley their new openers played a wonderful innings if not England would have been in trouble.

[JSRAW]

Wow, What a game... Ben stokes joins the party and bags 2 wickets in consecutive deliveries. South Africa is at 245/9 and 10.5 overs to go, last 40-45 mins to go. Tension in Proteas camp and shoulders are down
9 overs left  
And England wins.. I hope with this match ICC take some note and reconsider their decision on 4 days test.

[Vishnu.Reang]

Amazing bowling by Ben Stokes in the end. He was consistently bowling at 140-145 kmph, and his pace was too much for the South African tailend batsmen. The England players were under a lot of pressure, due to the injury of James Anderson. But the remaining bowlers kept the pressure on the opponents and in the end they won with just 8 overs remaining.

[Avirunes]

Amazing bowling by Ben Stokes in the end.

Good knocks in both innings and some crucial wickets in the end by Stokes- that's what was needed and he delivered so well. South Africa on the other hand needs some consistent Test players to hold them strong in batting area. Bowlers did it in the 1st Test but batsman were not well then and same thing was continued here in 2nd test. Atleast I would say that they got a little better from last year after how drastic they were after the World Cup.

[Vishnu.Reang]

Amazing bowling by Ben Stokes in the end.

Good knocks in both innings and some crucial wickets in the end by Stokes- that's what was needed and he delivered so well. South Africa on the other hand needs some consistent Test players to hold them strong in batting area. Bowlers did it in the 1st Test but batsman were not well then and same thing was continued here in 2nd test. Atleast I would say that they got a little better from last year after how drastic they were after the World Cup.

They were horrible during the CWC 2019 and I never expected them to give such a strong fight to England. But at the same time, the core issues remain. South Africa continues to lose players to Kolpak. The latest in the list is Vernon Philander, who will be representing Somerset instead of South Africa from this year onward. There can be no recovery, unless this issue is properly addressed.

[SaShiRaJaVu]

Test cricket = Real cricket 
Finally they are going to the 3rd and final session. Good show of resistance in era of Hit and Miss , that's a beauty of the Test cricket fellas. this 4th inning reminds me of golden years of Test cricket.

Just consider if it was a 4 day Test as proposed by the ICC recently, it would have been a boring draw as the players could very well defend the match and when you see matches like these it is quite clear i do not want to see any changes in the format what so ever and if South Africa could have drawn the match that would have been a classic encounter even if it is a draw as it is impossible to bat throughout the day especially when you do not have good Test caliber players.

[Haunebu]

Wow, What a game... Ben stokes joins the party and bags 2 wickets in consecutive deliveries.

This man continues to help England out of sticky situations. He deserves way more credit in my opinion. Imagine England without Ben Stokes. He is basically the Smith or Kohli of England at the moment in my opinion.

Just consider if it was a 4 day Test as proposed by the ICC recently, it would have been a boring draw as the players could very well defend the match and when you see matches like these it is quite clear i do not want to see any changes in the format what so ever and if South Africa could have drawn the match that would have been a classic encounter even if it is a draw as it is impossible to bat throughout the day especially when you do not have good Test caliber players.

Makes sense. I don't really care whether they change the rule or not, but this instance proves that 5 day tests still have viability. It all comes down to endurance and scheduling at the end of the day.

[ene1980]

This man continues to help England out of sticky situations. He deserves way more credit in my opinion. Imagine England without Ben Stokes. He is basically the Smith or Kohli of England at the moment in my opinion.

Ben Stokes deserves all the accolades as he is the sole reason for their World Cup win and he single handily made some wins possible and he is a solid all rounder than Smith or Kohli and his quick runs was a turning point in the match as England was able to score quickly and put the South African batsman on pressure and they crumbled as expected.

Makes sense. I don't really care whether they change the rule or not, but this instance proves that 5 day tests still have viability. It all comes down to endurance and scheduling at the end of the day.

Change in the days should be for smaller nations and not against good nations who can challenge each other and shortening will make it worse.

[Sithara007]

This man continues to help England out of sticky situations. He deserves way more credit in my opinion. Imagine England without Ben Stokes. He is basically the Smith or Kohli of England at the moment in my opinion.

Stokes set up the victory. England were under pressure because James Anderson was injured and he could bowl only a few overs in the fourth innings. On top of that, they lacked a full-time spin bowler (the spin bowling responsibilities were given to part timers such as Dominic Bess and Joe Denly). Normally 146 overs in the fourth innings is more than enough time to bowl out the opposition, But these two factors made it a challenging task for England. Still Stokes made it possible.

[Avirunes]

Ben Stokes deserves all the accolades as he is the sole reason for their World Cup win and he single handily made some wins possible and he is a solid all rounder than Smith or Kohli and his quick runs was a turning point in the match as England was able to score quickly and put the South African batsman on pressure and they crumbled as expected.

Kohli and Smith can bowl but they are not that good to be categorized as all-rounders yet. They are good with bat but not that equally good with ball while on other hand Stokes can bat and bowl and is good at both. There is a difference between capability to bat and bowl both and being an all-rounder.

[JSRAW]

Test cricket = Real cricket  
Finally they are going to the 3rd and final session. Good show of resistance in era of Hit and Miss , that's a beauty of the Test cricket fellas. this 4th inning reminds me of golden years of Test cricket.

Just consider if it was a 4 day Test as proposed by the ICC recently, it would have been a boring draw as the players could very well defend the match and when you see matches like these it is quite clear i do not want to see any changes in the format what so ever and if South Africa could have drawn the match that would have been a classic encounter even if it is a draw as it is impossible to bat throughout the day especially when you do not have good Test caliber players.

True Sir, in recent time we have seen fair amount of one-sided games, Ind vs WI, SA, BAN (many games ended in 4 days) and Aus vs Pak, even frigging New Zealand bend the knee. So timing of this test result or this series is very important, hopefully now ICC might want to put their thinking cap again.

For Test Cricket i am in favor of Groups according to ranking.

Wow, What a game... Ben stokes joins the party and bags 2 wickets in consecutive deliveries.

This man continues to help England out of sticky situations. He deserves way more credit in my opinion. Imagine England without Ben Stokes. He is basically the Smith or Kohli of England at the moment in my opinion.

Yeah, that's why he was nominated by NewZealand (Home country) ; Ben Stokes: England cricketer nominated for New Zealander of the Year Award

~snip~
Kohli and Smith can bowl but they are not that good to be categorized as all-rounders yet.

Black day in the cricketing world if fans trying to paint Kohli as an allrounder according to virat, he's one of the worst - bad looking bowler and 99.99% agrees, except his wifey Anushka. May be? 

[Avirunes]

Black day in the cricketing world if fans trying to paint Kohli as an allrounder according to virat, he's one of the worst - bad looking bowler and 99.99% agrees, except his wifey Anushka. May be? 

I bet that opponent will be giving a tough target if they were to bowl  . Tendulkar also have some good bowling records but they never got recognized as all-rounder themselves while he have some good records under bowling. Maybe it depends on being a regular bowler and batsman as well. Its kinda easy if you were a bowler and then give some good batting display out of nowhere.

Well yeah Virat is really not good with the ball and he kinda agrees in some corner of his mind as well otherwise we could have seen some regular bowling displays from him as well.

[onrise]

Yesterday’s match was delighted to watch where England was batting for a win and SA was playing for a draw and did well but just in the end England was little better than SA and finally got the win which would be a moral boosted for the upcoming matches .

[Haunebu]

Yeah, that's why he was nominated by NewZealand (Home country) ; Ben Stokes: England cricketer nominated for New Zealander of the Year Award

That is awesome. Inspite of losing against England, they still choose to honor a player from their country. Great move by New Zealand. On the other hand, bushfires are raging on and the authorities are planning to take out 10K camels in Australia( ).

Well yeah Virat is really not good with the ball and he kinda agrees in some corner of his mind as well otherwise we could have seen some regular bowling displays from him as well.

This is a good thing since he is focusing on what is important which is his batting skills and that is all that matters. Kohli and Smith are in another league in terms of batting when compared to Stokes, but Stokes is basically a jack of all trades player.

[JSRAW]

Black day in the cricketing world if fans trying to paint Kohli as an allrounder according to virat, he's one of the worst - bad looking bowler and 99.99% agrees, except his wifey Anushka. May be?  

I bet that opponent will be giving a tough target if they were to bowl   . Tendulkar also have some good bowling records but they never got recognized as all-rounder themselves while he have some good records under bowling. Maybe it depends on being a regular bowler and batsman as well. Its kinda easy if you were a bowler and then give some good batting display out of nowhere.

Well yeah Virat is really not good with the ball and he kinda agrees in some corner of his mind as well otherwise we could have seen some regular bowling displays from him as well.

May be because Sachin was a part timer and didn't bawl consistently in the international stage, but as part-time bowler he has good record and 200+ wickets under his belt (Test +ODI + 1T-20). I would say he was very handy bowler along with Sehwag, Yuvraj, Ganguly, Raina and current Indian team (top order batsmen) lack this skill.

Yeah, that's why he was nominated by NewZealand (Home country) ; Ben Stokes: England cricketer nominated for New Zealander of the Year Award

That is awesome. Inspite of losing against England, they still choose to honor a player from their country. Great move by New Zealand.

Well after all he's NewZealander first, At least kiwis thinks he's one of them  

[Vishnu.Reang]

Well after all he's NewZealander first, At least kiwis thinks he's one of them  

It's a bit complicated in the case of Ben Stokes. He moved to England when he was just 12 years old. He grew up in England and if he became a good cricketer, the credit should go to the ECB. On the other hand, players such as Jofra Archer and Eoin Morgan moved to England after representing their own nations (West Indies and Ireland respectively). England literally stole those players from their original homeland.

[SaShiRaJaVu]

Well after all he's NewZealander first, At least kiwis thinks he's one of them  

Did he really won the New Zealander of the year award, he played some good innings for England and he was the main player to take them to victory.

England literally stole those players from their original homeland.

How can they literally steal the players, if the players gets better salary and package they will move to a different country and it is nothing wrong and this is happening in other sports as well for decades.

[7788bitcoin]

Kohli and Smith can bowl but they are not that good to be categorized as all-rounders yet. They are good with bat but not that equally good with ball while on other hand Stokes can bat and bowl and is good at both. There is a difference between capability to bat and bowl both and being an all-rounder.

On the contrary here Steve Smith came into the Australian team as a leg spinner against Pakistan in 2010 in a T20 International and if you all remember he was selected in the team for the bowling and was the second highest wicket taker in T20 World Cup in 2010 and he was batting way down the order and this is recent history and he made his ODI and Test debut and then the selectors identified his batting prowess and now he is one of the best batsman in the world.

[Vishnu.Reang]

How can they literally steal the players, if the players gets better salary and package they will move to a different country and it is nothing wrong and this is happening in other sports as well for decades.

Nope. It is not happening in the other sports. Let me explain.

ICC changed the rules almost two decades ago, to allow non-citizens to play for a country. Earlier, there was a limit for such players (3 players in the playing XI, if I am not wrong). This has enabled teams such as UAE and Oman fielding playing XI in which not a single citizen is present.

Jofra Archer is a citizen of Barbados and Eoin Morgan is a citizen of the Republic of Ireland. Both these players don't have British passports. Sports bodies such as FIFA and FIVB allow players to represent a country only if they hold the citizenship of that particular country. The rules for FIBA is even stricter. They allow only one naturalized player in the squad, even if they have the citizenship.

[SaShiRaJaVu]

Nope. It is not happening in the other sports. Let me explain.

I was talking about Athletics and how they are recruited, the promoters used to visit African countries to recruit players to represent United States and Canada and if you look at all their 100 m and long distant champions they are all recruited from Jamaica and other neighboring countries and Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell are the athletes that showed that they can be successful without moving to other countries and hence they were topping the medal list in Olympics and world levels.

Sports bodies such as FIFA and FIVB allow players to represent a country only if they hold the citizenship of that particular country. The rules for FIBA is even stricter. They allow only one naturalized player in the squad, even if they have the citizenship.

In football there is a five year residency requirement to play for that nation and i am expecting a change in that rule in the future as there are more migrations world wide right now you cannot restrict people like that. If someone has the skills then they can play for the clubs and hence international matches will not be a big hurdle.