All purpose cricket thread (3 Viewers)

[SkyBlueSoul]

What is this madness

 

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[Sky Blue Pete]

Double oh dear.

EDIT. Wow wasn't expecting that to get overturned!

EDIT EDIT. FFS!

0 for 1 or 2? What was overturned

 

[chiefdave]

This is a shambles.

 

[chiefdave]

I’ve done absolutely zero work so far today

 

[SkyBlueSoul]

I’ve done absolutely zero work so far today

I’m sorting out someone’s home cinema, it’s been terrible

 

[Ian1779]

Still a chance of an Indian win by an innings and.....

 

[superskyblue]

0 for 1 or 2? What was overturned

Crawley went first ball
Bairstow given out lbw second ball (reviewed and overturned)
Bairstow bowled third ball

 

[SBAndy]

This is rather ridiculous. To be fair, I don’t even think the pitch is bad, the batting is all over the shop.

 

[MusicDating]

This is rather ridiculous. To be fair, I don’t even think the pitch is bad, the batting is all over the shop.

No, the pitch is awful. I really don't know how you can play when 3 balls an over are skidding straight and 3 are ragging. Plus a load have exploded and Pant has taken them head high!

No Test match should last less than two days.

I know every country curates their pitches to suit their own team, but I hope this is a watershed moment where they do something about it. Maybe no toss and letting the tourists chose would help.

 

[SBAndy]

No, the pitch is awful. I really don't know how you can play when 3 balls an over are skidding straight and 3 are ragging. Plus a load have exploded and Pant has taken them head high!

No Test match should last less than two days.

I know every country curates their pitches to suit their own team, but I hope this is a watershed moment where they do something about it. Maybe no toss and letting the tourists chose would help.

In fairness, I only have it on in the background and having watched a bit more of it, you are absolutely right. It is a shit pitch.

 

[Sky Blue Pete]

Embarrassing

 

[tisza]

No, the pitch is awful. I really don't know how you can play when 3 balls an over are skidding straight and 3 are ragging. Plus a load have exploded and Pant has taken them head high!

No Test match should last less than two days.

I know every country curates their pitches to suit their own team, but I hope this is a watershed moment where they do something about it. Maybe no toss and letting the tourists chose would help.

Agree that no Test match should basically have wickets where the top score will be 145.
Not sure on the tourists having the option would help - probably lead to flat wickets like before and a lot of drawn tests. Plus English Tests as much about weather conditions as the wickets themselves.
Problem is with the profile of cricket in India their fans don't care if games are over in 2 days if India are winning. It's down to the broadcasters to take a stand - maybe pay per day's cricket rather than for a match.
Channel 4 gets cricket back on mainstream TV but end up with little value for it - or maybe Sky and BT had an idea of what might happen and didn't chase so hard for the rights

 

[Mcbean]

embarrassing as it was the first match with a crowd ! lucky dip with the Indian sinners spinners on where they hit the ground - root must ahve been furious with Bairstow until he got in

 

[SBAndy]

Interesting point made about the pink ball and the additional lacquer on the exterior making it skid on. Needs looking at.

 

[Terry Gibson's perm]

Channel 4 must be delighted

 

[chiefdave]

Agree that no Test match should basically have wickets where the top score will be 145.

Surely it has to be looked at by the ICC. 30 wickets for 387 runs in 5 sessions isn't on. Yes England were poor but there's still a problem with the pitch to address.

India started the day on 99-3 in their 1st innings and the match is over shortly into the 3rd session of the day.

 

[CCFCSteve]

Terrible pitch and some poor batting. Rootys 5 for 8 was fun at least !

Ps we picked a team for day/night ball movement...Indians prepped a pitch and picked a team for spin...we shouldn’t be surprised even if it was a totally unacceptable test match pitch

 

[Grendel]

Surely it has to be looked at by the ICC. 30 wickets for 387 runs in 5 sessions isn't on. Yes England were poor but there's still a problem with the pitch to address.

India started the day on 99-3 in their 1st innings and the match is over shortly into the 3rd session of the day.

you’d normally have an independent referee but you can’t at the minute due to the virus. Otherwise there would be some sanctions.

England despite that got themselves into a muddle. They knew they were going to be in strife second innings anyway and should have took a gamble approach.

Open with Stokes as a left hander and try and smash the ball out the park for 10 overs. Playing orthodox was never going tl
Work

 

[Mcbean]

you’d normally have an independent referee but you can’t at the minute due to the virus. Otherwise there would be some sanctions.

England despite that got themselves into a muddle. They knew they were going to be in strife second innings anyway and should have took a gamble approach.

Open with Stokes as a left hander and try and smash the ball out the park for 10 overs. Playing orthodox was never going tl
Work

Yes they should treated it like a one day

 

[MusicDating]

you’d normally have an independent referee but you can’t at the minute due to the virus. Otherwise there would be some sanctions.

England despite that got themselves into a muddle. They knew they were going to be in strife second innings anyway and should have took a gamble approach.

Open with Stokes as a left hander and try and smash the ball out the park for 10 overs. Playing orthodox was never going tl
Work

They'd only get demerit points and no WTC points deducted according to cricinfo -

'In case the Ahmedabad pitch is rated poor by the ICC, it will lead to the ground being given three demerit points but India won't be docked any points on the World Test Championship table.

India are in a race for the second finalist spot in the WTC final along with Australia. In 2019 the ICC had cautioned member boards from doctoring pitches to the home team's advantage in the WTC, saying points could be at stake.

However ESPNcricinfo has confirmed that India would not be docked any points even if the Ahmedabad pitch were to be rated poor. Only if the pitch or the outfield is rated unfit does the host team get penalised as per the WTC playing conditions, which state: "If a match is abandoned and the pitch and/or outfield is ultimately rated as 'Unfit' under the ICC Pitch and Outfield Monitoring Process, points for that match shall be distributed on the basis that the visiting team won the match and the home team lost the match. Any abandoned match will be classified as a drawn match for statistical purposes."'

So you lose WTC points for slow over rates, but not for producing a 5 session Test pitch

 

[Sky_Blue_Dreamer]

Makes the decision to play the extra seamer instead of two spinners look unbelievably stupid. In India for me the default should be the extra spinner playing. There's a reason India are renowned for their spin bowlers more than their seamers.

 

[Sky_Blue_Dreamer]

So you lose WTC points for slow over rates, but not for producing a 5 session Test pitch

I also don't understand this. of course a team can bowl slowly, but just as often a batter will get replacement gloves, wander around, remark his crease etc while the bowler is stood waiting to bowl. Yet it's a bowling team that will get penalised

The rule is that if the bowler is ready the batsman should be ready. yet if a player ran up and just bowled straight away you know full well who'd be the one the umpires would be having a word with.

 

[Terry Gibson's perm]

Another splendid day England win toss and 205 all out

 

[CCFCSteve]

Another splendid day England win toss and 205 all out

A couple of poor shots in there as well. What a waste of a decent toss to win

 

[Terry Gibson's perm]

Anderson strikes, I couldn’t believe the third umpire said the ball was near the bat it missed by inches

 

[chiefdave]

As the saying goes don't judge a pitch until both sides have batted on it but that definitely looked like a strip you should be getting more than 200 on.

Best part of today's coverage was Stephen Fry casually dropping out that he's going to be in the Netflix's Sandman adaptation.

 

[chiefdave]

This session is losing England the match. 100 partnership for the 7th wicket. No idea why Root is persisting with a clearly shattered Stokes.

 

[SBAndy]

Again not really watched any but this feels a bit more like we’ve just been obliterated by the better team. What will it take to get a spinner of the quality of Graeme Swann again?

 

[Sky Blue Pete]

There’s the odd reasonable performance like Lawrence today but so many just aren’t good enough in this environment

 

[Terry Gibson's perm]

I haven’t been able to get into this series at all, possibly that it was always going to be one sided. Channel 4 will think twice about bidding for tests again they must have lost a fortune.

 

[tisza]

I haven’t been able to get into this series at all, possibly that it was always going to be one sided. Channel 4 will think twice about bidding for tests again they must have lost a fortune.

feel sorry for C4.
But pretty inept from England this series. Losing 1 thing but not being competitive is another. COVID may be a reason but this team looked hopelessly prepared for this series.
Bairstow was being heralded as England's best player of spin 12 months ago

 

[CCFCSteve]

feel sorry for C4.
But pretty inept from England this series. Losing 1 thing but not being competitive is another. COVID may be a reason but this team looked hopelessly prepared for this series.
Bairstow was being heralded as England's best player of spin 12 months ago

Poor ! minds appeared scrambled on and off the pitch. Bad team selections in last two games and some awful shots over the two innings. A couple of bad pitches (not this one), the bubble and the necessary rotation does provide some level of excuse but still really disappointing

ps having said that, wonder what would’ve happened if Bess had got Pant just before tea yesterday...umpires call but must’ve been by a millimetre ! They go in seven down and still 50-60 runs behind (from memory) and it could’ve been a different game. Ifs and buts though...as always !

 

[Terry Gibson's perm]

The summer will be an improvement back on English wickets where there is something in it for the all the players, hopefully Chris Woakes will get a decent run in the side and Sibley can find some form.

 

[chiefdave]

Very poor from England. To have gone from it being pretty much 50/50 at tea yesterday to game over isn't good whatever way you look at it. Has to be questions of the squad rotation system. They keep defending it using the example of the Premier League but that only works if you're a club like Man City with world class players to rotate in or you're playing against teams considerably worse. Not the same as playing a clearly unfit Stokes and woefully out of form Bess because you've left yourself with no other options.

I haven’t been able to get into this series at all, possibly that it was always going to be one sided. Channel 4 will think twice about bidding for tests again they must have lost a fortune.

To be fair Channel 4 are reported to have paid £2m when the original asking price put to Sky and BT was £20m so they haven't done too badly. Not a lot in production costs for them either as they took the international feed so didn't even have to pay out for commentators. Just the 3 people on a pretty cheap set back in the UK.

The bigger concern is the value of TV rights. Sky and BT seem to be increasingly aware that a lot of the rights they have paid out for in the past don't drive subscriptions. Saw a report that a decent chunk of the content on Sky and BT is actually provided to them free of charge as the sports rights market has collapsed, the theory being that having TV coverage is essential to attracting sponsorship so its better to produce your own coverage and give it away than not be on TV.

Doubt that will impact the EFL too much but might not be good news for our stripy friends who are looking for a new deal.

 

[Sky_Blue_Dreamer]

Very poor from England. To have gone from it being pretty much 50/50 at tea yesterday to game over isn't good whatever way you look at it. Has to be questions of the squad rotation system. They keep defending it using the example of the Premier League but that only works if you're a club like Man City with world class players to rotate in or you're playing against teams considerably worse. Not the same as playing a clearly unfit Stokes and woefully out of form Bess because you've left yourself with no other options.

To be fair Channel 4 are reported to have paid £2m when the original asking price put to Sky and BT was £20m so they haven't done too badly. Not a lot in production costs for them either as they took the international feed so didn't even have to pay out for commentators. Just the 3 people on a pretty cheap set back in the UK.

The bigger concern is the value of TV rights. Sky and BT seem to be increasingly aware that a lot of the rights they have paid out for in the past don't drive subscriptions. Saw a report that a decent chunk of the content on Sky and BT is actually provided to them free of charge as the sports rights market has collapsed, the theory being that having TV coverage is essential to attracting sponsorship so its better to produce your own coverage and give it away than not be on TV.

Doubt that will impact the EFL too much but might not be good news for our stripy friends who are looking for a new deal.

Plus it's not just England fans that will have been watching - plenty of Indian fans in the Uk that will have switched on too. Viewing figures probably affected due to the start time but still sufficient interest I'd have thought.