Cricket

India won the toss and are batting against Australia - currently 7-0. New Zealand struggling against Sri Lanka - currently 43-4, Lakmal 4-11 off 11 overs.
 
The MCG's attempts to end their test nightmare of dead and docile wickets killing entertainment don't appear to be having too much success. India came out on top in the one highlight of the day, the toss, and having predictably elected to bat ground their way to 215-2 at the close, with all but Vihari cashing in.

The bowlers toiled long and hard in intense heat but without any noticeable encouragement save for the all too short periods with the new kookaburra, but without any real help from conditions that ball soon gets soft and the cricket dull. Some balls barely carried through to Paine and Nathan Lyon was on as soon as the eighth over.

So while proper judgement should be reserved and can wait until later, the precedents aren't encouraging, last winter's bore draw in the Ashes is still fresh in most people's memories and attendance's could be set to plummet new depths in the next day or two.
 
Toast said:
Greenest track ever in NZ here surely ?
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Was at Hagley Oval for day two today. Definitely a seamer on day one, but the pitch browned off considerably today. Trent Boult was superb this morning under overcast skies; fortunately for New Zealand the sun came out when it was their turn to bat again.

Generally in NZ pitches look quite green on the first couple of days; doesn't necessarily mean the ball will go round corners all the time though. Pitches here surprisingly flatten out very quickly.

Great sporting day for me today; Everton win this morning followed by watching NZ live at the cricket doing very well.
 
India 443-7 declared, Australia 8 without loss

Very much a repeat of yesterday with nothing at all in the pitch and the bat continuing to dominate a boring test match. India will hope this pitch deteriorates rapidly as there are only instances of the odd one keeping low at the moment and twenty wickets in three days looks a tall order unless it does so.

This Australian side has got a collapse or two in it though and India can crowd the batsmen and hope for mistakes. So there is a chance Australia could yet grab defeat from the jaws of..... not exactly victory but a likely draw

This is a return to the bad old days of test cricket, these sort of pitches nearly killed this format of the game and the problems all remain for the MCG and the sooner it's all dug up and the new system in place the better.

The bookmakers may be accurate once again
India 5/4, Draw 4/5 favourite
 
While there was some deterioration of this batting surface on day two giving occasional variable bounce there really were no tangible signs that could predict the absolute mayhem that followed on day three, fifteen wickets for less than half the runs and an incredible eight in the last session. India will be thankful to have won the big moment of this match, the toss, and batted the first 170 overs on a docile and flat track with no sideways movement at all.

This Australian team hasn't turned into a solid batting lineup overnight and still lacks their batsmen of real quality, it always has a collapse or two in it. The fragile nature of their new found confidence allied to unexpectedly more helpful conditions with the variable bounce and some reverse swing on offer still had to be exploited properly. Jasprit Bumrah was brilliant, turning in a career best 6 for 33 before Pat Cummings replied for Australia with India's first innings heroes all having been dismissed cheaply second time around.

Winning the toss has undoubtedly been the biggest moment in this match and the first two days being the only time to bat on it, there is rain forecast over the next day or two and Tim Paine can only hope his luck is better with the weather than it was when most needed.
 
These so called two test series are a modern day blight on the game imo, a test series should properly test each sides skills and abilities over four or five test matches, or at least a minimum of three, it should be possible to lose a test and recover within a series. Not all countries can sell test cricket and long series aren't always financially viable everywhere so i understand fully the reasons for in effect just having two consecutive one-off tests, but to then call it a series is a real misnomer.

Tests have been relegated from the exalted status they once occupied, home advantage is increasing in importance as sides prepare pitches to suit their strengths, away tours operate with scant preparation and farcical red ball warm-up matches. Ludicrous so called two test match test series, which aren't proper test series at all, are being played as a cursory nod to test cricket while the main event is the white ball ODI and T20 stuff, some countries just can't sell test cricket and will play as little of it as possible, finance as much as anything dictates.

The international schedule for top cricketers is now just so packed. The schedule now has to include the huge T20 franchise tournaments such as the IPL and Big Bash as well as numerous and often clashing test series, that sides now step off the plane and play a non first class fifteen a side testimonial laugh a minute fun day before being launched straight into a level or seventeen higher. That upgrade in competition and importance, namely the first test, is usually in a very different climate to their norm and on a wicket tailored exactly to suit the home sides strengths.

England whitewashed Sri Lanka by being better at bowling spin and batting against spin in a humid sauna not a green Chelmsford seamer on a cold early spring day

New Zealand's spinners came to the fore in the heat of the UAE on flat seamer graveyards.

Both victories were away from home in conditions that suit a type of bowling that neither side has in the past particularly excelled even if in Graeme Swann and Daniel Vetorri each has produced the occasional world class spinner.
 
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If there was ever even the smallest scintilla of doubt that David Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft would not be welcomed back into the fold of the Australian test team with open arms, then Australia's MCG meltdown yesterday has finally removed it.

England fans had somewhat optimistically hoped that at least David Warner, the black sheep and one most identified as the primary instigator of all the humiliation and disgrace, would continue to be ostracised and left out in the cold, but Aaron Finch led calls for their return from the dressing room while without them the team once again badly misfired on the field.

They have remained a presence via the news pages and the scheduling of interviews, press conferences and a commercial campaign by Smith around this Test match, the most visible of the Australian calendar. So it seems entirely fitting, if galling for Australia, that on one of the most critical days of the series, their absence as batsmen was felt more keenly than any PR campaign or commercial could achieve.

Aside from the last test Australia have done losing exceptionally well since the ban, they've almost done nothing else, 3 losses in South Africa followed by defeat in the Pakistan series and almost certainly two from three here, it's an extraordinary run of losses, why wouldn't they crave the return of even the darkest of criminals if he can help stop such a catastrophe? Cricket is important to the Australian psyche and winning at it absolutely vital.

As a sporting nation they've usually put winning first and i expect they're counting the days until this ban expires, the trio return and a far stronger batting lineup takes to field in next summer's Ashes.
 
Chris O'Connor said:
If there was ever even the smallest scintilla of doubt that David Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft would not be welcomed back into the fold of the Australian test team with open arms, then Australia's MCG meltdown yesterday has finally removed it.

England fans had somewhat optimistically hoped that at least David Warner, the black sheep and one most identified as the primary instigator of all the humiliation and disgrace, would continue to be ostracised and left out in the cold, but Aaron Finch led calls for their return from the dressing room while without them the team once again badly misfired on the field.

They have remained a presence via the news pages and the scheduling of interviews, press conferences and a commercial campaign by Smith around this Test match, the most visible of the Australian calendar. So it seems entirely fitting, if galling for Australia, that on one of the most critical days of the series, their absence as batsmen was felt more keenly than any PR campaign or commercial could achieve.

Aside from the last test Australia have done losing exceptionally well since the ban, they've almost done nothing else, 3 losses in South Africa followed by defeat in the Pakistan series and almost certainly two from three here, it's an extraordinary run of losses, why wouldn't they crave the return of even the darkest of criminals if he can help stop such a catastrophe? Cricket is important to the Australian psyche and winning at it absolutely vital.

As a sporting nation they've usually put winning first and i expect they're counting the days until this ban expires, the trio return and a far stronger batting lineup takes to field in next summer's Ashes.
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A land fit for criminals.
 

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