Pune's pitch is kind of a flat pitch without much on it for bowler I think which is why India decided to go with 5 bowlers so there could be more bowlers searching for something out of the pitch as all of them have separate strengths. I consider Jadeja a full time batsmen so it's not 6 batsmen I think it's certainly 7 batsmen out of which one is all rounder and not to forget Ashwin can be a great night watchman at times. So India has a lot of batting strength and surely an extra bowler would improve their bowling stats.
I was watching the match on TV, and one of my friends who was sitting besides me commented that there seems to be a lot of grass on the pitch (which we normally don't expect on flat tracks). I am not that knowledgeable and therefore not sure whether he was right or not. But if that is the case, then India made the right decision by going ahead with 3 pacers.
But in case the pitch is offering support for the pacers, then we can expect both Nortje and Philander to perform well tomorrow. They looked dull today, as Kagiso Rabada was the only South African bowler who managed to trouble the Indian batsmen. And Keshav Maharaj had another poor outing. He is proving to be very expensive and the Indians looked very comfortable against him.
Actually yes it's not that flat of a pitch this time. There is some grass and help for bowlers. But bounce is pretty good something what we call the batsmen bounce. that is why India went with extra pacer and South Africa chose to keep things bouncy for india today.
South Africa is looking clueless out there and today only one of their players (Rabada) looked like he could compete against the Indians. I am not sure about their recent drop of form, but I still remember the time when South Africa was regarded as one of the heavyweights in cricket. When cricketers such as Shaun Pollock, Lance Klusener, Jacques Kallis.etc were playing, South Africa was almost invincible. And look at the current state of affairs. I feel bad for them.
Yes that is pretty correct i never expected spinner to rock on this pitch and that really did happen . However I thought Philander could give some troubles with his pace.
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India has a reputation of being weak against the short balls.
Indians did okay today, let's hope India doesn't lose any early wickets tomorrow.
Yeah I agree but this is the best thing south africa have in their pockets to beat India. Their spinning department isn't working while the extra pace has never hearted India.