India pulling it off
So what happened in the cricket today? A mere 205 runs scored, at a glacial SR of 38. In the 3rd innings there have been only 122 scoring shots played off 644 balls bowled. India merely occupying the crease, doing everything in their power to avoid getting out, to the complete and utter neglect of other considerations. I swear, so focussed was he on precisely raising a willow wall to every delivery, Dravid even shut down his facial muscles, until he got out. The fielding team, the spectators, the scorers were ground to sand by boredom. Basically test cricket at its most glorious.
If the previous three days have been some of the best days of cricket I have ever seen a New Zealand team play, today’s effort by India is one of the great stonewalling efforts.
It would be fair now to predict a draw in this test.
March 29th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
After today’s minor success, what would be scarier is if India had the balls (and miraculous ability) to have NZ chase a target.
March 29th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
After today’s minor success, what would be scarier is if India had the balls (and miraculous ability) to have NZ chase a target.
Hi Amy. Thanks for passing your opera glasses over this way.
I’m trying not to think of the terrifying possibility of 18 wickets (8 Indian, 10 kiwi) falling tomorrow.
It is hard to imagine though. At their current rate, they won’t wipe out the deficit until the end of the first session. A session and a half to set a target of three figures, then one hour to knock over our exhausted, sun-struck batsmen. Shudder.
March 29th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
It would certainly involve some voodoo magic on Bhaji’s part.
March 29th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
Left to me, I would bat the entire day. The Blogger has a side strain, McCullum looks like he is carrying a finger injury, the Kiwi bowlers have been on the field since the last session of Day 2.
Given that there is only a 3 day gap between the Tests,it will be interesting to see what effect being on the field for 3 days and a bit has on the nature of the wicket and the decision at the toss ( if the Kiwia were to win it)
Such Fun
Cheers,
March 29th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
Left to me, I would bat the entire day.
I don’t doubt they will. There is no way India can force a win, so there is no tangible reason to declare.
However, I think there would be a psychological advantage in India pointlessly forcing NZ to bat again, just to demonstrate that they have taken control of the test.
I love this about tests, that though the match is now destined for a draw, there is still great interest in following it.
March 29th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Ben,
Rightly said so. In fact i was so embarrassed by India’s batting in the 1st innings that i couldn’t muster the courage to make a visit here.
though, today gauti, rd, and sachin have got me some of pride back, and yeah, test cricket at its glorious!
March 30th, 2009 at 4:42 am
India still needs to make good a deficit of 67 runs and then needs to bat long enough to put the lead beyond the purview of a II innings chase on a track which seemingly remains good for batting.
I am too tensed to go to sleep. I suspect though, I will be fall asleep just before play commences at 3.30 AM
March 30th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
A disgrace of a pitch.
March 30th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
A disgrace of a pitch.
Feeling a bit frustrated Legs?
The pitch was fine. Any test where one team follows on over 300 behind was determined more by relative performance than the conditions. Also, I don’t think the game was far away from a result. Another wicket yesterday, another one earlier today and things could have been quite different this afternoon.
Credit where credit’s due. NZ deserves kudos for ruling this match and India credit for saving it against the odds.
March 30th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
I agree with LB. Pitches like this make for boring drawn test matches. The only reason this test wasn’t a boring run-fest is because india imploded in their first innings.
The Mclean park curator will probably be patting himself on the back… when he should really be giving himself an upper-cut.
India can pat themselves on the back though, batting for nearly 10 sessions… a good effort on any pitch.
March 30th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Well said SLA,
Think back to 2002 when the Hamilton curator got bagged for preparing a pitch whch was slanted too much in favour of the bowlers.
Yet that was an even and tight test.
The only thing that stopped this from beng an utter joke was the bad batting of India on Fri / Sat.
This is no way to play test cricket.
March 31st, 2009 at 12:48 am
Personally I found this test to be enthralling. No draw is boring if one team is battling for their lives for the better part of two days. The last couple of days may have been uneventful, but you tell me that you weren’t checking in constantly to see if a wicket had fallen.
I think you may be jumping to conclusions about the Indian first innings being the odd one out. I think it was their second innings that was the exceptional one. They may have scored nearly 500 runs for bugger all wickets, but remember that they did that at about 2 runs an over for the most part. The Indians weren’t riding the quality of the pitch, they were riding their extreme caution.