Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Arthur one thing that frustrate me is the catching.
Took take Nasser point I will take the donkey all day long in test, catching is a very underrated aspect in test matches or cricket in general.
Anyone calling Dravid, laxman, tendulkar poor fielder clearly don’t know anything about cricket.
Saving one or two runs in the outfield makes no difference to the game catching does.
Pretty certain most teams at the moment are struggling with catching as well, it seems catching hasn’t been improve as much as ground fielding if anything slip catching skills going down.
In test I would take the donkey fielders any day and the current one in the white ball stuff.

Yeah suspect in the next innings shami and bumrah might be bowling for the last spot.
On current form I would have ishant higher than shami.
The ball coming out nicely out of ishant sharma hands he will get far more wickets and lesser runs conceded than shami at the moment.

mikesiva wrote:

Dr Cricket wrote:Picking ishant wasn’t a bad decision it was actually smart and very good logic to it they just dropped the wrong man for bhuvi not that it would have made any difference on this deck, if anything because of the deck it is a marginal call between shami and bhuvi.
Although I think the pro of kumar outweighs the cons of shami.
Either way India fans should be please that one quality pace man can’t get in the team.

Maybe Shami should be the one to make way for the return of Bhuvi for the final Test.

Having said that, Bumrah and Pandya have been fast, but not really that successful.

Then again, it depends what kind of wicket the Wanderers offers.

South Africa 335 all out.

Ashwin 4-113
Ishant 3-46

Mike, Bhuvi and Shami are No. 1 and 2 pacers for us. No way they can be dropped unless unfit.

Shami not bowling well at the moment though, you can’t just pick players on past reputation.
You can’t always afford a bowler in the team that takes 18-20 overs to get into rhythm and then you add in his fitness record as well.
Yeah if shami is bowling well all the time then yeah he will be a guaranteed pick but not sure he is at the moment specially if the other pacers are bowling better than him or the other bowlers give something else it shouldn’t be a given that he get in the team.

Although saying that shami probably gets in ahead of bumrah anyway although that is a 50-50 call In my eyes with shami edging it at the moment.

Keshav opened the bowling. Maybe because it was just one over before lunch. Think Rabada should get the new ball this test match.

This is what Greyblazer wrote on Ishant Sharma.
"Plenty of opinions about Ishant being selected in front of Bhuvi. Ever since the start of the Ranji 2017-18 season, Ishant has been regularly hitting the seam and has looked in good form. Now said this numerous times on Twitter.

He can also ram it on a back of a length and bowl with discipline when the KK ball goes soft. Yesterday, he certainly did that.

It is Shami who is a bit of a liability. The pacer seems to take 10-15 overs or even one full innings to get into his rhythm. Yes, Bhuvneshwar should have played with Shami being left out."

think india best bowling attack for the 3rd test would be
Bhuvi, Shami, Ishant and Pandya.
that allows Shami to attack and not worry about his consistency plus you can get away with it if he has an off day which is quite regular with him.
Bhuvi can bowl with the new ball and then contain with the old ball.
ishant does what he does with the old ball and be the donkey of the pace attack.
pandya bowls to allow the other men to rest and try his variations a bit.
Ashwin sole spinner.
TBH india got lucky yesterday not sure they will be lucky again if Shami and bumrah in the same game how SA failed in the batting when two fast bowlers were bowling *modded* yesterday is beyond me.
Saying that bumrah bowled a good spell today, same with shami so they both can do it when they put the ball in the right place but very risky to play both of them in the same team considering they are both likely to lose it at times.

anyway like I said earlier it should be seen as a good thing that Shami or bumrah not getting in the team is a good thing shows the pace attack is strong and got very strong competition.

Also I wonder if that strong competition actually allowed Ishant to improve and actually get better rather stroll through test matches before.
before when he was heads and shoulders the best india had in the test team, he hardly ever took wickets or actually give any sort of performance.
he hardly ever improved in that 8 yrs career either.

Morkel opens the bowling.

Flicked in air by Rahul. 4 .

So Philly likely as other opener.

Philly it is.

Vijay gets a couple. Hope out opener see off the new ball atleast. One hour of batting without any wicket will be good imo.

Excellent fielding by Aiden .

No early wickets for SA.

This wicket has normal bounce which our batsman are used too.Also now slightly better adapted to these conditions. Should look to post 450.

Adi wrote:

mikesiva wrote:

Dr Cricket wrote:Picking ishant wasn’t a bad decision it was actually smart and very good logic to it they just dropped the wrong man for bhuvi not that it would have made any difference on this deck, if anything because of the deck it is a marginal call between shami and bhuvi.
Although I think the pro of kumar outweighs the cons of shami.
Either way India fans should be please that one quality pace man can’t get in the team.

Maybe Shami should be the one to make way for the return of Bhuvi for the final Test.

Having said that, Bumrah and Pandya have been fast, but not really that successful.

Then again, it depends what kind of wicket the Wanderers offers.

South Africa 335 all out.

Ashwin 4-113
Ishant 3-46

Mike, Bhuvi and Shami are No. 1 and 2 pacers for us. No way they can be dropped unless unfit.

I have changed my mind. Bumrah to make way for kumar.

Morkel gets Rahul for 10!

Pujara run out for a duck!

Ngidi!