“Imagine what India will get”
(What’s going on here? Who switched the teams around before this test? It is as if we have entered a parallel universe where everything is the same but completely opposite.)
The best cricket in this test could be ahead of us, but be sure that if India save this test it will be a Herculean effort, surpassing Ryder’s 201 and Martin’s 3/89, in context if not necessarily in numbers.
I’m not prepared to write this test off as an NZ win yet – I don’t imagine anyone is. So it suprised me that so many commentators or betting-odds setters were earlier painting this test as a likely draw, right from the first day. The more the Black Caps scored, the more a draw was anticipated.
619 is a massive score, even on the best of batting pitches, and chasing it was going to be a hard ask, even for the Indian batting line up. More than that though, when faced with a target of 420, on the way to chasing 620, the pressure is going to be high, and pressure is not generally helpful in test cricket.
We know this Indian batting line up is good – awesome in fact. You only have to look back a week to find evidence of that. But not even an awesome team can rattle off 420 runs, under pressure, any day of the week.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:29 am
I think the poor Indian batting was due to complacence and arrogance rather than pressure. Well as NZ bowled, none of the dismissals were due to unplayable deliveries but due to poor shot selection. (I only exempt Sehwag since no normal rules apply to him. He mostly makes sub-25 and over-150 scores playing in exactly the same way).The ‘shock’ of being in a losing position is reflected in the stodgy but tough performance in the second innings.