India tour of South Africa

This pitch has to be rated poor, surely. The bounce seems really dangerous

Extremely dangerous! Match should be called off!

Holding comparing this pitch to the one in Jamaica vs England in the 90s, that match was abandoned first morning. From my info this one seems worse than Sabina!

Its shameful having players continue on this pitch!
 
His poor form against sri lanka. If he cant perform on flat pitches against the weak lankans how will he perform against proteas
Uhm, he doesnt perform on flat pitches, but yeah he does on pitches like these.[DOUBLEPOST=1516969027][/DOUBLEPOST]Also, Elgar has done nothing but dropped catches this series, IMO.
 
I don't want to jinx him, but Jinxs (Rahane) is batting so really well on a treacherous pitch. And credit where its due, Kohli has batted superbly well in this test match. As someone said here, you don't dislodge the batting order (Vijay, Pujara, Kohli and Rahane) and you should see success overseas. I would stick with Rahul and give him a fair shot. And you have Ashwin and Bhuvi who are really solid lower order batsmen when it comes to overseas batting. If you make the right selection, you can definitely taste success outside India. We have seen many times that some players defy the normal scenario and perform better outside India than they do inside India. Dravid was one example. Rahane is the current example. Their game becomes way more sharper and tough when they face up to challenging conditions. They somehow lower guard in easy conditions, but they turn on their best here.
 
Rahane might win this one for India
 
Bhuvi has out all roundered Pandya throughout the series. Pandya's last four innings have been abysmal. His shuffling to settled fast bowlers makes me cringe
 
No matter how much you dislike Kohli as a person or as a captain, he is an absolute genius with the bat in hand. Scoring those runs on this pitch against this bowling attack is absolute class.

Don't even get me started on Rahane. If Virat has shwon bravery by batting like that on this surface, this guy has gone one up with his inning. He is batting with a strike rate of 80 on this pitch. Still mind boggling that he was dropped and didn't start the series. How about we make him captain of the test side so o one can at least drop him from the test side.

Also going to mention Bhuvi and Vijay here. Vijay has been absolutely horrible outside that off stump throughout this series. However, he did show enough grit today to remind us of the old Vijay. Yes, he didn't get as many runs as he would have liked but did show glimpses of him getting back to some form. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has batted better than a number of frontline batsmen in this series. Another reason why he should be playing every game that India plays overseas.

Also coming to the pitch now, will be interesting to see what kind of rating it gets from ICC. This is a bit like doctored pitch gone wrong.
 
To set 240 on this track has been a mighty fine effort. However, there is a certain ABD in the opposition. Lets see how it pans out.
Kudos to India for the courage they have shown. Very few modern teams do that overseas.

The performance today has won a lot of respect from me. Credit where its due. Its time we realize who are our matchwinners in test cricket in challenging conditions. Vijay and Pujara are the absorbers while Kohli and Rajane are the guys who punch back. This lineup must not be changed for the sake of some T20-like rotation policy. I hope we have seen thr last of Rohit in whites. It is worth persisting with Karun Nair as the 6th batsman. Also, Pandya as a regular test match option is still doubtful. He needs to be bankable in one of the two skills in order to be useful. At the moment, he is a bit hit and miss in both. He may have long term potential but not enough to justify being selected abover someone like Ashwin or a genuine batsman.

If only the right choices were made at the very start of yhe series!
 
Chasing 240 needs to be approached cleverly. There is no way you can play out a draw hence SA need to approach the chase in one of two ways:

(1) - Either preserve against the new ball using the likes of Rabada to hold the more important wickets for the middle overs where scoring beings a little easier. An approach similar to what Vijay and Pujara did in the 2nd and 1st innings respectively.
(2) - Go all out attack and aim to complete this chase in 60-70 overs.

The longer you hang around, the higher the chances you will lose you wicket with such a volatile pitch.
 

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