England's tour of India - 2021

[Crassus]

There's a difference between a turner and this track which has been spitting and exploding from ball 1. The groundsman from the first test was sacked as India didn't win

The umpires have been that bad that there is a question of corruption for me. I can accept on-field umpires making mistakes as things happen quickly but for the third umpire to make so many 'mistakes' in his air conditioned office whilst having all the time in the world to look at replays is scandalous. Then to keep fobbing Root off on the field is outrageous, Root deserves a lot of credit for keeping his cool out there.

As it's India though nothing will be done. Let's hope the match ends quickly tomorrow and we can move on to Ahmedebad and hopefully have a fairer contest.

 

[CerealKiller]

Ben Foakes applied himself, and could’ve scored more runs if his fellow batsmen had played better. Just follow his example.

 

[CerealKiller]

There's a difference between a turner and this track which has been spitting and exploding from ball 1. The groundsman from the first test was sacked as India didn't win

The umpires have been that bad that there is a question of corruption for me. I can accept on-field umpires making mistakes as things happen quickly but for the third umpire to make so many 'mistakes' in his air conditioned office whilst having all the time in the world to look at replays is scandalous. Then to keep fobbing Root off on the field is outrageous, Root deserves a lot of credit for keeping his cool out there.

As it's India though nothing will be done. Let's hope the match ends quickly tomorrow and we can move on to Ahmedebad and hopefully have a fairer contest.

Why did India score 329 then, if it was a monstrosity from ball one?
I'm guessing umpires, just like people in other professions, want job security and want to progress to higher levels in their field of work. Why would an umpire intentionally jeopardise his career at the international level to favour his country’s team in one match?

 

[Crassus]

Why did India score 329 then, if it was a monstrosity from ball one?
I'm guessing umpires, just like people in other professions, want job security and want to progress to higher levels in their field of work. Why would an umpire intentionally jeopardise his career at the international level to favour his country’s team in one match?

Rohit in particular batted brilliantly and I have no issue in saying that India have batted and bowled better in this game so far and will obviously win.

For me though England were never winning this game. As soon as they turned up to the ground on day one and looked at the joke of a pitch they should've just conceded the result and saved us all the hassle of getting up at 4am to watch it.

In the past our experience with the pink ball is that it hoops round corners and is very suited to bowlers like Broad and Anderson. I'm looking forward to seeing the Indian version which probably does absolutely nothing conveniently...

 

[Crassus]

I suppose after they won in Australia I was expecting us to be blown away 4-0. Especially after last time over there.

It's just a bit disappointing the lengths that have been put in place to make it happen. I suppose it's a compliment to England as I think we were underestimated last week.

 

[Ed Smith]

Best thing coming out of this is there's no justification to bring Bairstow in to keep

 

[wasteyouryouth]

Best thing coming out of this is there's no justification to bring Bairstow in to keep

I discovered this stat. In five and a half test matches Ben Foakes has as many stampings (3) as Jos Buttler has in his entire first class career (115 matches).

Ben Foakes applied himself, and could’ve scored more runs if his fellow batsmen had played better. Just follow his example.

England lost five wickets while Ben Foakes was batting. That's far too many. - Ed Smith.

 

[Sherlock Holmes]

Read through the entire thread. Lots of arguements. Lots of ugly talks.

Well there might have been glitches on both sides. But reckon this,

Had the toss gone the other way round, and Eng would have been at an advantage here.

All the Englishmen would still have criticised the wicket. But there wouldn't have been this sort of resistance to it. Because Eng would have been advantage.

Instead, it would be the Indians who would rant on the pitch curators or on players. God knows.

The logic is simple. Fingers are point at anyone and anything, by the 'supporters' of the team who is losing. Period.

 

[wasteyouryouth]

Read through the entire thread. Lots of arguements. Lots of ugly talks.

Well there might have been glitches on both sides. But reckon this,

Had the toss gone the other way round, and Eng would have been at an advantage here.

All the Englishmen would still have criticised the wicket. But there wouldn't have been this sort of resistance to it. Because Eng would have been advantage.

Instead, it would be the Indians who would rant on the pitch curators or on players. God knows.

The logic is simple. Fingers are point at anyone and anything, by the 'supporters' of the team who is losing. Period.

If the roles were reversed the Indian fans would be blaming: 1. Kohli 2. Shastri 3. Kohli 4. Tim Paine 5. the inventor of coins 6. Kohli 7. the pitch curator

 

[Bevab]

Moeen Ali turned it a lot to bowl Kohli through the gate too. Too bad the English spinners aren’t good enough to do it as consistently as Ashwin does. Just like the Pakistani pacers weren’t good enough in England last summer. And the home team's batsmen knew how to handle the conditions better than the away team's batsmen, just like in this match.
The subtext to these rants seems to be that whatever the English consider to be a good pitch has to be prepared wherever they go. Whatever is considered a standard Test pitch in Asia is not good enough, because it’s too hard for visiting batsmen. No one complains about lush green seaming pitches when Asian teams go outside Asia, and rightly so. That’s the challenge of playing overseas.
There's the laughable argument that it doesn’t seam square on green pitches, but it spins square on turning pitches, so the latter are more unfair to the batsmen. That’s because a ball seaming a little bit is bowled at a much higher pace than a ball turning square. They’re equally hard to play.
Shane bloody Warne is making more sense than English pundits right now.

Couldn't agree more with this post.

Ashwin is just too good on a pitch offering any form of assistance especially at home. Barring a few good balls, Mo was absolutely dreadful, going at an economy of 4 on this pitch is scandalous. And it's a bit rich that the English pundits complain about today's pitch, your lot played on worse pitches in two consecutive tours to Sri Lanka who used a seamer per test to assist the spinners exclusively. Why not complain then?

I understand the argument that an Asian pitch can only get worse as time progresses while a green top can flatten out on day 2-3 before breaking down but what other type of pitch can an Asian country offer? The only other alternative are the batting paradises that we saw in the first test and the SA series and those make for very boring matches where the toss is an even bigger factor. I've always been in favour of reducing the importance of tosses to a test as it is a purely luck based decision which influences a game far too much but the English have only themselves to blame in this test. They utilized the sweep shot a lot in the first game and the Indian team countered that with Axar today.

Speaking of Axar, the bloke impressed me today with his darts. Bowled to his strengths smartly. Had it been Jadeja, I doubt the Poms would have complained this much but since it is a no name debutant turning the ball contrary to his reputation and skillset, we are hearing plenty of complaints.

It also shows the importance of Rohit's magnificient innings today, I noticed someone mentioning that a number of his home perfotmances have not been crucial and I tend to agree with that. Too often they were the type of performances that took India from an already commanding position to an unassailable one but this, this was a high quality innings. Pant's average is definitely going to suffer due to the complete absence of a reliable Indian lower order, bloke looks much better batting with a competent partner that he can trust. I believe India should do their best to ensure that Pujara and Pant bat as frequently together as possible in the future. Whether that means Pant playing as a specialist batsman or simply higher up the order in at least home conditions is up to the Indian management. Rahane did well today too, came in a tricky situation and played one of his trademark rescue innings.

 

[Sherlock Holmes]

If the roles were reversed the Indian fans would be blaming: 1. Kohli 2. Shastri 3. Kohli 4. Tim Paine 5. the inventor of coins 6. Kohli 7. the pitch curator

Couldn't agree more.

 

[Bevab]

And a note on the umpiring, it was bloody dreadful and shambolic. Simply describing it as 'Indian umpires are awful, we're used to it since IPL' is a cheap cop-out, the richest cricket board on the planet should do better. If we can have the stadium at half capacity without much of safety guidelines, surely it isn't impossible to bring in a couple of neutral umpires?!

The standard of umpiring at home should be improved too, I've seen too many dreadful decisions in domestic games and those can sometimes decide entire careers. Credit to the Poms for keeping their cool after that fiasco, our captain wouldn't have done that to Root's credit.

 

[Bevab]

If the roles were reversed the Indian fans would be blaming: 1. Kohli 2. Shastri 3. Kohli 4. Tim Paine 5. the inventor of coins 6. Kohli 7. the pitch curator

Missed out on Rohit Sharma and Pant there mate. And to make that new troll we've attracted feel welcome, should probably include Bumrah and Gill too.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

I always thought that why don't we have Indian umpires officiating a match other than in India and when I consider the decisions that have been given in this match I can very well make up that we just don't have a good number Umpires who are competent enough for an International matches tbh.

Also I really appreciate Root and other players the way they have been even after those decisions full of blunders. Also I am looking at Root as a much more improved and a dynamics leader which he was lacking so far. This is a relevation of Joe Root as the Captain. The guy has got a sharp Cricketing brain which wasn't visible thus far due to his confidence issues. The reviews, the bowling changes, the field placements they have been dead right!!! One day he would surely be right up there as one of those great Captains of English Cricket of all time.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

I always thought that why don't we have Indian umpires officiating a match other than in India and when I consider the decisions that have been given in this match I can very well make up that we just don't have a good number Umpires who are competent enough for an International matches tbh.

Also I really appreciate Root and other players the way they have been even after those decisions full of blunders. Also I am looking at Root as a much more improved and a dynamics leader which he was lacking so far. This is a relevation of Joe Root as the Captain. The guy has got a sharp Cricketing brain which wasn't visible thus far due to his confidence issues. The reviews, the bowling changes, the field placements they have been dead right!!! One day he would surely be right up there as one of those great Captains of English Cricket of all time.

This has nothing to do with the umpires being Indian or x y z. They're all neutral. The problem lies deeper and the ICC is to blame for this. We have made the umpires impotent. Ball goes for 4, 3rd umpires decide. Ball is 6 or not? 3rd umpire decides. LBW? 3rd umps please! No ball? 3rd umpire please! If you're Kohli even bowled the third umps decide. Catch taken clean or not is frankly not out now. And the umpires call which MSD opposed to a decade ago is finally being seen as a mess.

Each team should have 3 reviews which should include any mode of dismissal a fielding captain wants to refer for. If its hitting the wickets, it's out. Period. If you want to rely on umpires call then remove DRS and let the power be with him. You can't have your cake and eat it too and I have been saying this for a long long time now.