Topic: Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod] - page 1057. (Read 151966 times)

South Africa had no chance after losing early wickets, they couldn't put any partnerships together to even try and play for the draw. Ashwin has had an amazing career so far as in this match he tied with Muralitharan for the fastest to 350 wickets which took just 66 test matches. Could we see Ashwin overtake Muralitharan in the next 10 years? With the way he is bowling it wouldn't surprise me to see this happen.

Well yeah, I am happy for the double selection I made and I am not sure if anyone else picked on it too. I think tomorrow I will do some gambling too depending on the mood. :-P

What was it with Sasirajavu ? I really missed the fun of all these cricketing topics.

Mayank Aggarwal I don't think is also someone whom we can judge as consistent yet. One innings with double hundred isn't enough. You have to test the player against different sides as well.

Anyway we have a lot of openers and the selectors have lot of options to pick is someone goes inconsistent. It's working and should be that way to give everyone equal opportunities to develop.

Moreover we have already seen selectors replacing normal lineup with some new faces and handing over older players some chance and time to time resting the normal players as well so it's not like everyone is not getting opportunities.

Looks like India winning this match has made a few members happy 
Royse because of winning his bet  and Sasirajavu because he doesn't have to shave to shave his head 

Well I won and good to see the India won the test with huge margin. This was very expected. And guess what these days my less activity in the forum caused me 4 pages lagging behind in this topic LOL


Well finally I am back again. I have not much to do for the next few weeks.

If you look at the statistics in world cricket in Test matches, none of the team have a consistent openers for the past two years, not sure the reason why none of the team have consistent openers, the quality of players are not that great in the opening slot when you compare with the old generation of players. When i saw a good opening partnership with Rohit Sharma and Mayank Agarwal that almost broke many records you will understand that they could perform for a long time. Rohit has already proved his worth as an opener in the shorter format and he can translate that to Test level too.

I think Rahul has a big problem with his consistency he performs for a day or two but in long term hasn't provided a permanent solution to India for the opener slot. I think mayank aggarwal and rohit sharma have had a similar sort of performance. Once again what we want from them is consistency. More importantly on foreign pitches India wants a solid starting duo which slot is pretty empty too. So it's a long way before we declare both these players as permanent openers of this team.

Rohit Sharma is an established opener in ODI and T20 and now he has performed well in Test too, if he is able to perform in green pitches as an opener then he will be a permanent fixture as a Test opener, Mayank Agarwal is a fixture in the opener slot as he has performed well in the past series too. If they are performing consistently then there will be no spot for Rahul or Dhawan in the team as the middle order is full of talents and then the tail which comprises of Ashwin and Jadeja has a really good average.

I disagree. Sharma did perform well, but 2 matches are not enough to judge whether he is fit for that position. Vijay might find it tough, but Rahul and Dhawan especially will still probably be given a lot more chances in my opinion.

Rohit needs to continue performing well in that spot for many matches in order to be given a higher preference. Mayank Agarwal still has a long way to go and they are still experimenting with him. I would prefer Rahul over Agarwal any day currently.

The quota is for "colored players" and it includes black players. Actually it is not a quota in favor of the black people. It is a quota against the inclusion of the white players (since everyone else is being considered as "colored").  My calculation is that they have lost more than 50 players, mostly to county cricket in England, but also to countries such as New Zealand, Australia, and even to smaller teams such as Netherlands (Roelof van der Merwe, Colin Ackermann.etc) and Scotland.

Also we have players such as AB de Villiers, who stopped playing international cricket after the 2015 world cup semi-final scandal (for the semi final match against NZ, de Villiers wanted to pick Kyle Abbott, who had performed well in the earlier match. But Abbott was replaced with Philander by the selectors to have 6 colored players in the side. Philander went wicketless in that match).   

It was OK, if the quota was limited at one or two players (as the case during the 1990s). Now all the domestic teams are required to field 6 colored players in their playing XI (a minority of only 5 can be on merit), and 3 of them needs to be black Africans. This is how players like Temba Bavuma and Andile Phehlukwayo have found a place in the playing XI, when white players such as Hardus Viljoen and Chris Morris miss out on selection.

Rohit Sharma was experimented as a Test opener for the first time and he scored centuries in both the innings and now he will be fixed in this position along side Mayank Agarwal and if Rohit Sharma is able to perform the same in away series in bouncing pitches then it would be a great opening combination, now KL Rahul, Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan will have a difficult time to get back into the team.

India is a dominating force even if they play in South Africa as they have the players to beat any team outside the sub continent, some of their bowlers are injured for the series and yet they could defeat South Africa with ease. India will white wash the series and they will be preparing spinner friendly wickets and from the next match they might add another extra spinner. Shami bowled really well in the second innings and Rohit Sharma performed well for the first time as an opener.

South Africa lost the match, by one run Senurian has missed the fifty on his very first international appearance. Though he is not out the other end made Rabada losing his wicket made the match come to an end. Today's win will give more confidence to India on the upcoming matches.

Well someone just saved his head from being shaved As expected when it came to chasing 395 in the fourth innings in just one day South Africa once again choked pretty Badly. As I said previously the 5th day pressure is damn too much for any team to take the match on their side. Not to mention that the Pitch also behave pretty unevenly until day 5 due to which Ball doesn't quite comes onto the bat. So it was a really wise decision by India to declare yesterday so that South Africa could fight for their win. Just one wicket to go and I hope Rain or bad light doesn't becomes any problem. Even though Umpires would stress at getting a result soon.

They have the local rules one of which is to include the quota of black players in their team to represent whole of the South Africa. If you see the recent world cup they took only 3 black player with them and none of them was a batsmen. They do not give priority to the black people and therefore we did not see world class bowlers like Makhaya Ntini and Kagiso Rabada to excel in the team.

Jadeja and Shami finished the team. I really thought SA would manage to get the runs but never expected such a poor result and batting from them, a team who managed 400+ in the first innings. My prediction went wrong this time but so glad India are going to win this first test.

9th wicket gone and just 1 left. They won't reach even 200 now.

Yes the South Africans are fighting for the 9th wicket and they are reaching a 100 run partnership and are fighting hard to extend the win for India, not sure how long they can wait their inevitable defeat .
Shami bowled well in this pitch and he was landing the ball in all the humps in the pitch and was taking wickets but now Kohli is not giving the ball to fast bowlers to take the wickets of the tail, not sure why Kohli wants to extend this match.

I knew my hair was always safe as i knew the South Africans will survive the Indian pitch  . Two more wickets to wrap the match.

No need to shave your head anymore. Your hair is safe. Betting on South Africa was always a losing bet and England turning it around against Australia was a rare occurrence. As expected, India is going in for the kill.

Just read an article related to this earlier and was happy to know that Ashwin achieved this feat. A true legend in the spin bowling department and I hope he continues taking more and more wickets in the long term just like Murali.

I think Virat Kohli needs to give Mohammed Shami another 4-5 overs. He is in top form right now and he should be able to clean up the remaining two wickets. The 9th wicket partnership is nearing 50 runs and the captain needs to act quickly. Jadeja needs a break (he has put in 12 consecutive overs) and Ashwin can be given a chance to get to 10 wicket haul (in the match), along with Shami.

Yes, there was bit of expectation over South Africa to give a fight back as both the team are almost equal based on the player statistics and were on the top of the table. Players on the last were trying to make the score reach 150. As Muthusamy is playing his debut match he is very slow with his performance.