Team-BHP - The Cricket Thread

As expected our walking wicket(KL Rahul) is down rl:

Hope atleast now he is given a break :Frustrati

Edit: Damn, Lyon is breathing fire now. India 3 down already and still 200+ behind. Pujara went for a duck in 100th test 1st innings, not something he would have wanted.

KL Rahul! What to say about him? India will win this match courtesy Jaddu, Ash and Axar and Shreyas. But this man will continue to play his next test like boss. He should be ashamed for being in the team. Manjrekar commenting and this man playing are worst times in Indian cricket.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rx100 (Post 5497526)

The way England playing the test cricket is really mesmerizing. Their attacking approach so far working for them very much.

Against NZ, they scored 320 odd runs with 2 sessions and declared with a wicket remaining. And on second innings, they are on more than run a ball even though wickets fell early on.

England are playing very strategically as well, which is a smart thing to do.

The declaration in the first innings was a bit of intentional strategy. Playing under lights is the trickiest session of the pink ball test. So they wanted to get NZ to bat under lights as much as possible. Their strategy did work as they got 3 NZ wickets for 30 odd runs in the session.

In the second innings though they promoted Foakes ahead of Stokes and he relatively slowed down the rate of scoring a bit to stretch the innings longer, to ensure that NZ would have to bat under lights again. This strategy seems to be working again with NZ 4 wickets down for 27 runs, including the key wicket of Williamson.

The tradition of Virat getting out to debutants continues. Although, Kuhnemann was incredibly incredibly lucky to get that LBW. It's really frustrating that two marginal calls from the on field and third umpire went against Kohli and the fact he had played so well before that :Frustrati

With the score reading 139-7, it's going to take something brilliant from Axar and Ashwin with the bat to even get close to Australia's total.

Feroz Shah Kotla has to be the ugliest cricket ground anywhere in the world. The stands are just ugghh, and draped in those stupid Pan Bahar hoardings which is kind of a perfect metaphor. The viewing experience is further marred by the haze and smog, which is omnipresent in the most polluted capital city anywhere in the world. Seriously, this ground in the middle of Delhi and adjacent to one of its busiest roads is just not fit to host international fixtures.

Amazing longevity of Stuart Broad and Anderson as a bowling partnership - set a new record.

So Broad took 4 wickets in the NZ 2nd innings, all bowled.

Broad and James Anderson, now at the top of the partnership pile - 1005 wickets in 15 years as a Test-match pairing, surpassed Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shumi_21 (Post 5497664)

With the score reading 139-7, it's going to take something brilliant from Axar and Ashwin with the bat to even get close to Australia's total.

Gripping test cricket - 114 runs worth it's weight in gold was the partnership between Axar and Ashwin for the eighth wicket to pull India out of trouble and keep them afloat in this test. Even Stevens at this point with India conceding a 1 run lead. A nice bonus will be if we can get a wicket or two by close of play today.

**Kohli unlucky yet again!

From where India were in the first half of the day, the recovery has been excellent. However, the one run lead means unless Aussies absolutely capitulate, chasing any reasonable total above say 150-175 will be very very tough in the 4th innings.

Yet another recovery from Axar-Ashwin to keep us afloat. But the Aussies have shown good intent to score 61 in just 12 overs for the loss of Khawaja. Maybe our spinners bowled too many boundary balls too.

If things remain the same, then this is going to a game that the Indian batters, especially the top order will have to win for a change.

P.S: The highlight of the day for me apart from the Axar-Ashwin partnership was seeing Sanjay Manjrekar getting "brrrrrilliantly" embarrassed on live TV.

There was a segment during the lunch break where Mayanti was talking about how cool it was for a player (Pujara) to play 100 test matches. Sanju-Manju being the ever condescending twit he is, interrupted Mayanti with a forceful "The thing about playing 100 test matches is......."

Before he could compete his rambling, Sunil Gavaskar (who has actually played 100 test matches unlike Sanjay) cleared his throat standing beside a sheepishly smiling Mark Waugh. Sanju Manju had to eat the humble pie and let Sunny do the talking. rl:

And Australia almost going bazzball way here. Scored at more than 5 R.P.O in those 12 overs. They will surely want to continue the momentum and get as close to 200 as possible.

And if they get there, it will be very tough for India specially when our top and middle order are mostly watching the proceedings from stands rather than perform on field. :Frustrati

Pujara would sure want to make a mark on his 100th test. 1st innings he was pathetic, hope he makes up in 2nd innings. :)

If Australia get 200+, I don't think it will be an easy chase for India, fingers crossed. The fact that Australia are trying to score quickly means India has a good chance to get wickets, but that potential needs to be converted to reality on Day 3.

Aussies schooling us on how to bat on this wicket. Or maybe they themselves were inspired by Axar.

What a test!

PS: Bharat will have to step up with the bat. He keeps well, but that alone is not sufficient in this day and age.