Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]

[Sithara007]

Cameron Green is now nearing on his ton. He is at 96 n.o, which is his highest test score in the 20 matches that he has played so far. Usman Khawaja dug in at one end, Green has been more aggressive (especially against the pacers - Shami and Umesh). There is a good chance that Australia can get to a total of 500, or even more. In that case, India's strategy of preparing a flat track can backfire. Even to avoid follow on, they need to score 300 plus, and that maybe a tough task against the spin trio of Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy and Matthew Kuhnemann. 

[Vaskiy]

Sri Lanka vs New Zealand

End of Day 2, New Zealand trail by 193 runs. Latham and Conway gave good start, once their wickets fell players failed to stand wicket and now Mitchell and Bracewell on the crease. Even after the loss of 5 wickets, the winning probability of New Zealand is found to be 50% which is quite surprising. Medium Pacers Asitha Fernando and Lahiru Kumara have took two wickets each.

[Sithara007]

Sri Lanka vs New Zealand

End of Day 2, New Zealand trail by 193 runs. Latham and Conway gave good start, once their wickets fell players failed to stand wicket and now Mitchell and Bracewell on the crease. Even after the loss of 5 wickets, the winning probability of New Zealand is found to be 50% which is quite surprising. Medium Pacers Asitha Fernando and Lahiru Kumara have took two wickets each.

LOL.. I can see that New Zealand managed to avoid follow on. But half of their batsmen are back in the pavilion and they are trailing by 193 runs. They may make another 50-100 runs, but still I don't understand how the win probability can be greater for the Kiwis. Michael Bracewell and Daryl Mitchell are at the crease right now and this time they have a lengthy tail with Matt Henry, Neil Wagner and Blair Tickner to come at 9th to 11th positions.

BTW, Cameron Green just got out to Ravichandran Ashwin, after a spectacular innings of 114. Unfortunately for the Indians, Usman Khawaja is still out there and will be joined by the keeper Alex Carey. 

[cozytrade]

Sri Lanka vs New Zealand

Sri Lanka vs New Zealand I have almost enjoyed many games of these two teams but I like to watch New Zealand team players play more. New Zealand team is very strong but I love to enjoy the games of New Zealand team. The bowling line of New Zealand team is so good.  Shakti is not strong but plays very well in batting. There are some players in the Sri Lanka team whose games I don't like to watch.

[JSRAW]

Australians are still on top as they crossed the 400 mark but some relief for India that they didn't leak many runs in this session and picked 3 wickets.

Aussies are playing slowly and look like just waiting for a fair amount of explosion from the pitch, which is not available atm. Khawaja batting beautifully but he's in no rush at all and with 3 tailenders 500 looks tough now. For India, they need one inspiring spell from the fast bowlers so that they can wrap up Aus's tail cheaply. It would be very frustrating if the tail wags.


Edit

Finally, Khwaja is gone, it was a beautiful daddy hundred. 

[BALIK]

Cameron Green is now nearing on his ton. He is at 96 n.o, which is his highest test score in the 20 matches that he has played so far. Usman Khawaja dug in at one end, Green has been more aggressive (especially against the pacers - Shami and Umesh). There is a good chance that Australia can get to a total of 500, or even more. In that case, India's strategy of preparing a flat track can backfire. Even to avoid follow on, they need to score 300 plus, and that maybe a tough task against the spin trio of Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy and Matthew Kuhnemann. 

Cameroon Green was dismissed with 114 runs and Usman Khawaja is able to score 180 runs. Apart from these two batsmen, Smith scored 38 and Travis Head scored 32 runs. Besides, no other player could bat well. Australia's current total is 412/8. I think the team will declare their innings if they can reach 450. But it seems that they will lose the last two wickets to collect 15-20 more runs. Still a very good collection for a first innings. If Australia does not have a batting disaster in the second innings, then there is no possibility of them losing this match.

[LDL]

Edit

Finally, Khwaja is gone, it was a beautiful daddy hundred. 

In the fourth Test in Ahmedabad, the pitch may have helped the batting, so Australia's first innings was played for two days so far, but Australia was not all out. Usman Khawaja defended the ball for almost 70 overs and scored 180 runs. To say that Osman Khawaja has passed Australia's one-day innings. I think Australia won't declare their innings until they are all out today. Australia have so far accumulated 430 runs for the loss of eight wickets.
At the end of the day there is a bit of regret for Usman Khawaja as he missed his milestone 200 run record by just twenty runs. Yet his contribution to Australia's first innings is undeniable.

[YinShuiSiYuan]

Edit

Finally, Khwaja is gone, it was a beautiful daddy hundred. 

In the fourth Test in Ahmedabad, the pitch may have helped the batting, so Australia's first innings was played for two days so far, but Australia was not all out. Usman Khawaja defended the ball for almost 70 overs and scored 180 runs. To say that Osman Khawaja has passed Australia's one-day innings. I think Australia won't declare their innings until they are all out today. Australia have so far accumulated 430 runs for the loss of eight wickets.
At the end of the day there is a bit of regret for Usman Khawaja as he missed his milestone 200 run record by just twenty runs. Yet his contribution to Australia's first innings is undeniable.

Australia still going on and on 478 runs on loss of 8 wickets and almost end of day 2 and Australia haven't declared the innings.  A good performance by Australia on this pitch now let's see how Indians perform on this pitch as it seem to be batting friendly. 
Brilliant performance by usman khawaja for his 180 runs.

[Vaskiy]

Edit

Finally, Khwaja is gone, it was a beautiful daddy hundred.  

In the fourth Test in Ahmedabad, the pitch may have helped the batting, so Australia's first innings was played for two days so far, but Australia was not all out. Usman Khawaja defended the ball for almost 70 overs and scored 180 runs. To say that Osman Khawaja has passed Australia's one-day innings. I think Australia won't declare their innings until they are all out today. Australia have so far accumulated 430 runs for the loss of eight wickets.
At the end of the day there is a bit of regret for Usman Khawaja as he missed his milestone 200 run record by just twenty runs. Yet his contribution to Australia's first innings is undeniable.

Yeah, Khawaja missed his 200 runs. Till the tail end Australia team have batting line-up. I believed the innings would end within 450 runs, now innings ended at 480 runs. Murphy missed his half century walking to the pavilion on lbw at 41 runs. 9th and 10th wicket falls for Australia and it is a five wicket haul for Ashwin.

[JSRAW]

Uff 167.2 overs !!

There are surely lots of tired legs in the Indian camp atm and they have to face tricky 10 overs. 9th wicket partnership between Lyon and Todd Murphy is going to hurt us badly, never a good sight when pure tailenders put up 70 odd runs partnerships as it breaks your confidence.

[onecall123]

Edit

Finally, Khwaja is gone, it was a beautiful daddy hundred. 

In the fourth Test in Ahmedabad, the pitch may have helped the batting, so Australia's first innings was played for two days so far, but Australia was not all out. Usman Khawaja defended the ball for almost 70 overs and scored 180 runs. To say that Osman Khawaja has passed Australia's one-day innings. I think Australia won't declare their innings until they are all out today. Australia have so far accumulated 430 runs for the loss of eight wickets.
At the end of the day there is a bit of regret for Usman Khawaja as he missed his milestone 200 run record by just twenty runs. Yet his contribution to Australia's first innings is undeniable.

Osman Khawaja played a special innings that put his team in a commanding position. Although he missed out on scoring 200 runs, he produced one of the most impressive innings against world-class spinners on their home ground. Though even after two days of play, the total score is still below 500 runs. Summing up the batting display, Australian batters played a safe and slow innings, but their batting display still commendable.

[pakhitheboss]

In the end, again Ashwin came to rescue India. Still, a 480 run target is not that easy to chase as the pitch is now favoring spin. Usman Khawaja may have scored 180 runs but if you compare his performance with Green's and if Green was still on the pitch rather than Khawaja then I think Australia would have scored somewhere around 600+ runs. Umesh Yadav was one of the most expensive Indian bowlers today. BTW, Patt Cummins's mother passes away after a prolonged illness today. May her soul rest in peace.

[Sithara007]

Uff 167.2 overs !!

There are surely lots of tired legs in the Indian camp atm and they have to face tricky 10 overs. 9th wicket partnership between Lyon and Todd Murphy is going to hurt us badly, never a good sight when pure tailenders put up 70 odd runs partnerships as it breaks your confidence.

LOL... when we talk about tailenders scoring runs in Border–Gavaskar Trophy, the ones that come to my mind are Ravichandran Ashwin and Mohammed Shami. Never expected the Australian tail to put up such a tough fight. The 70 run partnership between Todd Murphy and Nathan Lyon destroyed the morale of the Indian team. And in the end it was Ashwin who got both these wickets. India needs another 245 runs to avoid follow on. So far the two openers looked comfortable out there, but we never know. One or two quick wickets can put them in trouble. 

[CryptoBuds]

South Africa V West Indies

Like the first test match, the South African team is likely to win the second match as well. South Africa batted well in the first innings. And their performance is good in the second innings too. South Africa collected 266 runs losing 6 wickets. And South Africa is now leading by 335 runs. And I think that is enough collection to win against West Indies.

West Indies bowler's performance is bad I would not say that. But the performance of West Indies batsmen is very bad. West Indies batsmen are not suitable for the Test format. Apart from Jason Holder, no other batsman on the team could collect up to 30 runs.

[KennyR]

South Africa V West Indies

Like the first test match, the South African team is likely to win the second match as well. South Africa batted well in the first innings. And their performance is good in the second innings too. South Africa collected 266 runs losing 6 wickets. And South Africa is now leading by 335 runs. And I think that is enough collection to win against West Indies.

West Indies bowler's performance is bad I would not say that. But the performance of West Indies batsmen is very bad. West Indies batsmen are not suitable for the Test format. Apart from Jason Holder, no other batsman on the team could collect up to 30 runs.

South Africa have lost wicket 7 at 277 runs. In the Australia vs India match Khawaja played an awesome innings. Bavuma had kept South Africa at the better position scoring 171* runs. At the end of day 3 South Africa were at 287-7, lead by 356 runs. The match is completely into the hands of South Africa. In the first innings West Indies players failed to score, with the scoring from Holder West Indies avoided the follow on. We don't know what happens in the second innings.

[Marvell1]

Ashwin was absolutely incredible for India. If he got a little more support from the others, Australia was going to be all out for a lot less. Picking up six wickets and bowling almost 50 overs and giving less than 100 runs is absolutely incredible. Of course, he was able to do that because he is a spin bowler. But let's not take any credit away from him.

Now the problem is it's already the end of day two. India just started their innings. And this match is heavily going towards a draw. Australia will have to show some good performance in the bowling department to keep the chances of them winning alive.

In the end, again Ashwin came to rescue India. Still, a 480 run target is not that easy to chase as the pitch is now favoring spin. Usman Khawaja may have scored 180 runs but if you compare his performance with Green's and if Green was still on the pitch rather than Khawaja then I think Australia would have scored somewhere around 600+ runs. Umesh Yadav was one of the most expensive Indian bowlers today. BTW, Patt Cummins's mother passes away after a prolonged illness today. May her soul rest in peace.

[noormcs5]

South Africa V West Indies

Like the first test match, the South African team is likely to win the second match as well. South Africa batted well in the first innings. And their performance is good in the second innings too. South Africa collected 266 runs losing 6 wickets. And South Africa is now leading by 335 runs. And I think that is enough collection to win against West Indies.

West Indies bowler's performance is bad I would not say that. But the performance of West Indies batsmen is very bad. West Indies batsmen are not suitable for the Test format. Apart from Jason Holder, no other batsman on the team could collect up to 30 runs.

South Africa now lead by 356 runs and they still have three wickets in hand. The important thing is that Temba Bavuma , the captain of south Africa, is playing at 171 runs and is still not out. Although this lead should be enough for the South African team but ideally they would like to post a lead of 400 runs and Temba can help to achieve this Psychological lead.

I would agree with your point that West Indies needs to improve their batting. Their bowling is reasonably ok but if the batting gets a bit improved they could give tough competition to the South African team.

[JSRAW]

Uff 167.2 overs !!

There are surely lots of tired legs in the Indian camp atm and they have to face tricky 10 overs. 9th wicket partnership between Lyon and Todd Murphy is going to hurt us badly, never a good sight when pure tailenders put up 70 odd runs partnerships as it breaks your confidence.

LOL... when we talk about tailenders scoring runs in Border–Gavaskar Trophy, the ones that come to my mind are Ravichandran Ashwin and Mohammed Shami. Never expected the Australian tail to put up such a tough fight. The 70 run partnership between Todd Murphy and Nathan Lyon destroyed the morale of the Indian team. And in the end it was Ashwin who got both these wickets. India needs another 245 runs to avoid follow on. So far the two openers looked comfortable out there, but we never know. One or two quick wickets can put them in trouble. 

Tail wagging is a nightmare for any team so agree haha

Well if the pitch stays the same then we can expect India to cross at least 300 runs at the end of day 3 (without losing many wickets) as guys like Gill, Rohit and Iyer won't take a conservative approach and will surely play attacking cricket. India also needs a couple of daddy hundred from their top 5 batsmen. If not then they are doomed.

[DanWalker]

Like the first test match, the South African team is likely to win the second match as well. South Africa batted well in the first innings. And their performance is good in the second innings too. South Africa collected 266 runs losing 6 wickets. And South Africa is now leading by 335 runs. And I think that is enough collection to win against West Indies.
West Indies bowler's performance is bad I would not say that. But the performance of West Indies batsmen is very bad. West Indies batsmen are not suitable for the Test format. Apart from Jason Holder, no other batsman on the team could collect up to 30 runs.

South Africa now lead by 356 runs and they still have three wickets in hand. The important thing is that Temba Bavuma , the captain of south Africa, is playing at 171 runs and is still not out. Although this lead should be enough for the South African team but ideally they would like to post a lead of 400 runs and Temba can help to achieve this Psychological lead.
I would agree with your point that West Indies needs to improve their batting. Their bowling is reasonably ok but if the batting gets a bit improved they could give tough competition to the South African team.

I think South Africa should just post a target of 400 for the West Indies and they will be very safe. I seriously do not want South Africa to play any more time than just the first session of the fourth day. Because the chance of South Africa winning the test match is going to reduce as time goes on.

I do not want South Africa to play any further than the first session, doesn't matter if they are able to post a target of 400 or not. Considering the fact that they only need 44 runs to post a target of 400 which if they are unable to get in, the first session is going to be very weird.

I think the best approach is going to be laying attacking cricket from the start of day four. They should get as much as they can and not worry about losing wickets. After that, they can get to work with bowling.

[ilovealtcoins]

Uff 167.2 overs !!
There are surely lots of tired legs in the Indian camp atm and they have to face tricky 10 overs. 9th wicket partnership between Lyon and Todd Murphy is going to hurt us badly, never a good sight when pure tailenders put up 70 odd runs partnerships as it breaks your confidence.

LOL... when we talk about tailenders scoring runs in Border–Gavaskar Trophy, the ones that come to my mind are Ravichandran Ashwin and Mohammed Shami. Never expected the Australian tail to put up such a tough fight. The 70 run partnership between Todd Murphy and Nathan Lyon destroyed the morale of the Indian team. And in the end it was Ashwin who got both these wickets. India needs another 245 runs to avoid follow on. So far the two openers looked comfortable out there, but we never know. One or two quick wickets can put them in trouble. 

Tail wagging is a nightmare for any team so agree haha
Well if the pitch stays the same then we can expect India to cross at least 300 runs at the end of day 3 (without losing many wickets) as guys like Gill, Rohit and Iyer won't take a conservative approach and will surely play attacking cricket. India also needs a couple of daddy hundred from their top 5 batsmen. If not then they are doomed.

It will be very difficult for India to score 500 runs in the first innings. I don't think the pitch is entirely conducive to batting. But if India manages to play well in the first session of the next day and not lose wickets, they will collect a big score. It is difficult to stay at the crease in the first session. To collect big, the top-order players must bat responsibly. But India's top-order players are not in good form. My guess is Australia will win this match.