Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]

[pakhitheboss]

309/7 to 423/9 

Tail is wagging for New Zealand and doing enormous damage to Pakistan. They are adding crucial runs and it could be a match defining session, despite being too early in the game.

121 overs for Pak bowlers, indeed many tired legs.

I was expecting 400 or so runs but it seems just like Pakistani bowlers I also underestimated the Kiwi tail enders. Henry already scored his 50 and Patel might too. A score of 400+ would not be easy for Pakistan. They have a very inconsistent batting line up and if they want to win this match or draw it they would need a good partnership.

For now, Pakistani batters are playing village cricket. 

First 2 wickets were really soft dismissals and the run out of Babar was proper meme material and would make a great thumbnail for a youtube video. Imam screaming at Babar was a cherry on the cake, he first sold out his skipper and then started blabbing lol

The whole test series looks like a Meme cricket. First they had a highway pitch and now they are struggling on their own pitch. Just imagine if India had agreed on playing test cricket with them in Australia. This whole team would have collapsed on the first day itself if they had opted to bat first. Pathetic performance by batters, already 3 wickets gone for just 122 runs.

[BobK71]

No one expected this kind of batting from the Pakistani batsmen when Pakistan hardly tried to win the 2nd Test. The fall of two wickets early dealt a big blow but it was a small relief when Babar Azam was on the wicket. When his wicket fell there was no way to hope for this match. Pakistan may lose all their wickets early. New Zealand will not need much effort to win this match. It is noticed that highest runs of number 10 and 11 batsmen in Test matches inspired me. In 1902, Duff-Armstrong put on a 120-run partnership at the Melbourne venue in such a position. Today a partnership build at 104 by Matt Henry and Ajaz Patel that really deserves praise.

[onecall123]

The whole test series looks like a Meme cricket. First they had a highway pitch and now they are struggling on their own pitch. Just imagine if India had agreed on playing test cricket with them in Australia. This whole team would have collapsed on the first day itself if they had opted to bat first. Pathetic performance by batters, already 3 wickets gone for just 122 runs.

Babar Azam leaves after only 24 runs. Nonetheless, I did not get an answer to what making a highway pitch would be beneficial. As every team dominates in its home series, but Pakistan barely survived their 2nd test after losing 3 crucial wickets. Seeing a batsman like Babar get run out is sad, but we'll see how long Pakistan batters can last. Pakistan trail by 295 runs after losing 3 wickets on day 3.

[ZAINmalik75]

LOL... Matt Henry has got to his fifty and Pakistani bowlers are still struggling to break the 10th wicket partnership. Now Ajaz Patel has joined the party and he has hit some good boundaries. Pakistani bowlers looking completely clueless while the PCB guys probably want the curator to remove whatever support bowlers get from this track. I am actually baffled with the strategy from Pakistani captain. He should actually bring in his faster bowlers including Naseem and Hasan rather than sticking with the slower bowlers. Both the batsmen are looking quite confident against the spinners.

So far there is partnership of 99 runs between Henry and Patel. Henry already has got his 3rd test fifty, may be he can get his median test hundred today. NZ total score is 444 and that's quite reasonable total. It will be difficult for Pakistan now to win this test as chances of this match result seems very much  towards draw or NZ victory. 

Pakistan is under a lot of pressure after losing two wickets in the beginning. Both Matt Henry and Ajaz Patel have built a great partnership for the team and both of them have taken 1 wicket each by their bowling action. Undoubtedly, the batting and bowling of these two will keep New Zealand ahead in the 2nd test match. Pakistan will try their best to stay in the wicket. The current statistics of the match says that New Zealand deserves to win this match.

The way Newzealand is playing definitely they deserve to win this test their batting was on point and till now balling is also developing pressure on Pakistan. 
Pakistan need to settle on crease first and than start collecting runs to win this match.

Now match is totally out of hand from Pakistan because after first match against england A.Shafiq score a century and after that he failed and failed again and again and still in starting XI also S.Masood play a stupid innings in his previous match and today also. The runout of baber Azam look like they have no chemistry it's totally a fool play of imam. But now all responsibility is on the shoulder of Imam and Shakeel, hope they will safe Pakistan from defeat and will push him toward draw

[Haunebu]

Pakistan bowling has gone into the gutter these days in the test format. Their newbies aren't performing well at all and it's pretty evident that they require fast bowlers like Shaheen, Amir etc and spinners like Ajmal, Kaneria etc.

Am expecting a New Zealand win since Azam's run out was a big blow while Imam is holding down the fort for now.

[Naficopa]

Pakistan bowling has gone into the gutter these days in the test format. Their newbies aren't performing well at all and it's pretty evident that they require fast bowlers like Shaheen, Amir etc and spinners like Ajmal, Kaneria etc.

Am expecting a New Zealand win since Azam's run out was a big blow while Imam is holding down the fort for now.

Seriously what happened to Pakistan balling  which was known as world strongest balling side,  in recent test series they failed to perform in all aspects. Clearly fast bowlers arenot playing, haris Rauf is not playing may be the reason is that but this is really bad for Pakistans reputation which is getting affected by this continous defeats.

[BobK71]

Pakistan bowling has gone into the gutter these days in the test format. Their newbies aren't performing well at all and it's pretty evident that they require fast bowlers like Shaheen, Amir etc and spinners like Ajmal, Kaneria etc.

Am expecting a New Zealand win since Azam's run out was a big blow while Imam is holding down the fort for now.

From the start of the England Test series to the New Zealand Test, Pakistani bowlers have not been able to utilize their bowling skills anywhere. The reputation of Pakistani bowlers completely failed in these series. Their number of defeats is increasing with every test match. Pakistan have been fallen in bad condition going into the 2nd Test against New Zealand. Their loss in this test match is almost 90 percent. I would agree with you that some old bowlers should be brought back to the team to improve this condition.

[WatChe]

Pakistan bowling has gone into the gutter these days in the test format. Their newbies aren't performing well at all and it's pretty evident that they require fast bowlers like Shaheen, Amir etc and spinners like Ajmal, Kaneria etc.

Am expecting a New Zealand win since Azam's run out was a big blow while Imam is holding down the fort for now.

Pakistan is focusing more on T20 than on tests, and that's the main reason why their test performance is going down and out. One worrying thing for Pakistan is that their skipper stats are going well while the team stats are going down. Babar is focusing more on his personal stats then on team performance.

[wiss19]

The whole test series looks like a Meme cricket. First they had a highway pitch and now they are struggling on their own pitch. Just imagine if India had agreed on playing test cricket with them in Australia. This whole team would have collapsed on the first day itself if they had opted to bat first. Pathetic performance by batters, already 3 wickets gone for just 122 runs.

Three back to back big series and poor management from PCB give all ideal how things going in Pakistan right now with sudden change of management and having now Shahid Afridi as Chief Selector brining more problems because he is brining players without any consultation with specially players those are banned for their fixing actions are also coming mean things could be more than worst for them in near future because no one was expecting things like these.

In this second test match, I have feeling tomorrow first session could be important because if New Zealand able to have few quick wickets then surely they can win this match and series as well which will be more disgraceful for the all cricketing system in Pakistan which is joke right now under the worst management and policymakers.

[Sithara007]

LOL... no interest in the third test between Australia and South Africa? It is surprising because there is a good chance of this match ending in a win for either of the two teams, dissimilar to all the drama that is going on at Karachi. David Warner got out early, but Marnus Labuschagne and Usman Khawaja are now steadying the innings. The surprise from South Africa is that they included Simon Harmer in the playing XI. So they are going in to this test with 3 pacers (Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje and Marco Jansen), and two spinners (Keshav Maharaj & Simon Harmer).

[ThemePen]

Pakistan bowling has gone into the gutter these days in the test format. Their newbies aren't performing well at all and it's pretty evident that they require fast bowlers like Shaheen, Amir etc and spinners like Ajmal, Kaneria etc.

Am expecting a New Zealand win since Azam's run out was a big blow while Imam is holding down the fort for now.

Pakistan is focusing more on T20 than on tests, and that's the main reason why their test performance is going down and out. One worrying thing for Pakistan is that their skipper stats are going well while the team stats are going down. Babar is focusing more on his personal stats then on team performance.

I think this is not the issue. T20 or Test match. The players are almost same. And I think if a player is practicing good so he can perform well. I think they have lack of practice or others issues can matter. Or there can be mis management too. And Babar should focus on the team and not only on his personal stats.
By the way let see what let see?

[BobK71]

Team Southee's Bowling forced Imam-ul-Haq to come back very close to a century. After falling the wicket they did not get any more wickets. Currently Pakistan have scored a total of 224 runs with the loss of 4 wickets. Saud Shakeel and Sarfaraz Ahmed are on the pitch and they are both batting very well. By their partnership at the moment collected 42 runs. But it remains to be seen how the performance is after Lunch Break.

[rojan]

Team Southee's Bowling forced Imam-ul-Haq to come back very close to a century. After falling the wicket they did not get any more wickets. Currently Pakistan have scored a total of 224 runs with the loss of 4 wickets. Saud Shakeel and Sarfaraz Ahmed are on the pitch and they are both batting very well. By their partnership at the moment collected 42 runs. But it remains to be seen how the performance is after Lunch Break.

These two batsmen Sarfaraz Ahmed and Saud Shakeel started the performance very well. Saud Shakeel scored 59 runs from 184 balls. And Sarfaraz Ahmed scored 44 runs from 49 balls. If these two batsmen can play more overs then they can score more runs. But it seems  Any one of these two batsmen may score 100 runs today.

[TheGreatPython]

Pakistan bowling has gone into the gutter these days in the test format. Their newbies aren't performing well at all and it's pretty evident that they require fast bowlers like Shaheen, Amir etc and spinners like Ajmal, Kaneria etc.

Am expecting a New Zealand win since Azam's run out was a big blow while Imam is holding down the fort for now.

It's not all about bowling this all happening due to flat pitches which are not helpful for these young bowlers, and they are clueless which is surely just because of poor management which is killing the beauty of Pakistan cricket just because of own interest which mean they were happy to have draw series against these SENA Countries but sadly their batting were also not helpful in these all series, and they face defeats after defeats.

Shaheen Afridi is injured with Haris Rauf and now Naseem Shah is also back but these all needs good assistant with good supporting pitches as well which were not available but hopefully these defeats and things which happen give good lesson to them, and they will be able to have better things in future for the cricketers and fans as well.


The 5th wicket partnership is taking Pakistan into a comfort zone. Right now, Pakistan is trailing by 180+ runs with 6 wickets in hand. Another draw in sight?

[WatChe]

I think this is not the issue. T20 or Test match. The players are almost same. And I think if a player is practicing good so he can perform well. I think they have lack of practice or others issues can matter. Or there can be mis management too. And Babar should focus on the team and not only on his personal stats.
By the way let see what let see?

Test format is not entertaining in current era of T20 but we have to admit that Test cricket will continue to exist for coming years. So its not a good idea to ignore test format since it produces quality players for ODI and T20.
Meanwhile Pakistan recovering nicely as they are now 271/4 and Sarfraz has once again scored a fifty and that too in crucial time. 177 still more required, Pakistan need to be careful as they are in habbit of losing quick wickets.

[pakhitheboss]

Pakistan still trailing by 158 runs and the good news is that they have only lost 4 wickets. I hoping for a result in this test match. If both the batters Shakeel & Ahmed maintain this partnership towards the end of day 3 then they will be able to give a lead to the NZ side. There are two more days left so hopefully we can expect a result in this test match.

[JSRAW]

Simon Doull: Who is responsible for these pitches? Babar Azam? So that he can stat pad on these decks?

Awkward silence in com box

Bazid Khan: Umm... Ramiz... Bla bla, management Bla bla, nullify opposition attack bla bla, domestic pitch good bla bla

Simon Doull: Pakistan is going through an identity crisis in Test cricket.

The surprise from South Africa is that they included Simon Harmer in the playing XI. So they are going in to this test with 3 pacers (Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje and Marco Jansen), and two spinners (Keshav Maharaj & Simon Harmer).

SCG is considered a spin venue, not too much but a fair amount of assistance for spinners in comparison to SENA standards.

[BobK71]

I think this is not the issue. T20 or Test match. The players are almost same. And I think if a player is practicing good so he can perform well. I think they have lack of practice or others issues can matter. Or there can be mis management too. And Babar should focus on the team and not only on his personal stats.
By the way let see what let see?

Test format is not entertaining in current era of T20 but we have to admit that Test cricket will continue to exist for coming years. So its not a good idea to ignore test format since it produces quality players for ODI and T20.
Meanwhile Pakistan recovering nicely as they are now 271/4 and Sarfraz has once again scored a fifty and that too in crucial time. 177 still more required, Pakistan need to be careful as they are in habbit of losing quick wickets.

Pakistan is moving a little bit towards their expectation. Another wicket fall after the lunch break. Sarfaraz Ahmed has returned with 78 runs. If he could stay, Pakistan would have been stay in reliable position. I hope that the disappointment of Babar Azam and Sarfaraz Ahmed's wicket  fall in the match will be able to fulfill it through Saud Shakeel. In the meantime he has been able to complete the century. If Pakistan won't lose wicket until the end of day then Pakistan can get something good in this test series.

[Juggy777]

I think this is not the issue. T20 or Test match. The players are almost same. And I think if a player is practicing good so he can perform well. I think they have lack of practice or others issues can matter. Or there can be mis management too. And Babar should focus on the team and not only on his personal stats.
By the way let see what let see?

Test format is not entertaining in current era of T20 but we have to admit that Test cricket will continue to exist for coming years. So its not a good idea to ignore test format since it produces quality players for ODI and T20.
Meanwhile Pakistan recovering nicely as they are now 271/4 and Sarfraz has once again scored a fifty and that too in crucial time. 177 still more required, Pakistan need to be careful as they are in habbit of losing quick wickets.

Pakistan is moving a little bit towards their expectation. Another wicket fall after the lunch break. Sarfaraz Ahmed has returned with 78 runs. If he could stay, Pakistan would have been stay in reliable position. I hope that the disappointment of Babar Azam and Sarfaraz Ahmed's wicket  fall in the match will be able to fulfill it through Saud Shakeel. In the meantime he has been able to complete the century. If Pakistan won't lose wicket until the end of day then Pakistan can get something good in this test series.

@WatChe how can a test specialist perform in a T20 format?, for example Pujara is great in tests however he’s no good in a T20 format and thus I don’t believe that Test matches can help team’s find player’s for the T20 format. Furthermore when Sehwag used to play he used to make test matches fun, because he used to smash bowlers left and right but now there’s barely any batsmen like him that can constantly entertain the crowd who’re so addicted to instant entertainment that’s provided by the T20 matches.

[YinShuiSiYuan]

I think this is not the issue. T20 or Test match. The players are almost same. And I think if a player is practicing good so he can perform well. I think they have lack of practice or others issues can matter. Or there can be mis management too. And Babar should focus on the team and not only on his personal stats.
By the way let see what let see?

Test format is not entertaining in current era of T20 but we have to admit that Test cricket will continue to exist for coming years. So its not a good idea to ignore test format since it produces quality players for ODI and T20.
Meanwhile Pakistan recovering nicely as they are now 271/4 and Sarfraz has once again scored a fifty and that too in crucial time. 177 still more required, Pakistan need to be careful as they are in habbit of losing quick wickets.

Pakistan is moving a little bit towards their expectation. Another wicket fall after the lunch break. Sarfaraz Ahmed has returned with 78 runs. If he could stay, Pakistan would have been stay in reliable position. I hope that the disappointment of Babar Azam and Sarfaraz Ahmed's wicket  fall in the match will be able to fulfill it through Saud Shakeel. In the meantime he has been able to complete the century. If Pakistan won't lose wicket until the end of day then Pakistan can get something good in this test series.

Pakistan somehow managed to control their position after wickets of Babar azam yesterday and sarfaraz today, the responsibility now fell on saud shakeel and Agha Salman they are on crease right now . Saud Shakeel has made his century and is bringing scores to lead. If these two batsman stays on crease Pakistan can end this test on a good note.