T4; Sydney

First topic message reminder :

well there is hope now and life back in test cricket.
We drew T3 because of one act of postiivity on D5 of T1....by Kohli wanting to and nearly chasing down.
and that is what delayed Smith's declaration yesterday.

and Shastri said I don't care whether we go down 2-0 or 3-0........we will try to win....as defiant as one can get to Dhoni's ways......in the BCCI culture of gagged mouths.

India may ( and should) play 2 spinners.....throw Patel in, now that he has arrived and both spinners can bat a bit.

added cushion can come in the form of batsman WK Naman Ojha

so Patel for Rahul
Ojha for Dhoni
and if Bhuvi is fit then he is in for someone like shami

Aus got lucky...if we had won the toss in adelaide and Sydney...we would have won those games

we came within 50 and 70 runs of winning......and that was only the offset due to toss advantage

KP_fan wrote:Aus got lucky...if we had won the toss in adelaide and Sydney...we would have won those games

we came within 50 and 70 runs of winning......and that was only the offset due to toss advantage

Do you have another TOI article to prove your hypothesis?

(if so, I'll read it in the morning... getting late here. I enjoyed that long post by the way)

Indeed, its all in the toss!. What do you say, LD?

I'm sure India would still have found a way to lose, msp.

msp83 wrote:Indeed, its all in the toss!. What do you say, LD?

that's how Andy Flower won the English leg of the ashes claimed boof....winning more tosses and the one game where Aus was likely to win, rain appeared and washed off

Please don't remind me, mate. Luckily they have made some amends since.

I'm still getting over McGrath's ankle accident in his warm up nearly a decade ago.

The Loaded Dog wrote:Oh, and England... the ball is in your court now for next summer.
Let's see what your grounds-people can produce, yah?

Dead pitches so all games go the full 5 days and we can milk The Ashes cash cow a little bit drier

The Loaded Dog wrote:Please don't remind me, mate. Luckily they have made some amends since.

I'm still getting over McGrath's ankle accident in his warm up nearly a decade ago.

It's a travesty that cricket ball didn't get an MBE!

That cricket ball revived test cricket, and the blockbuster crowds this December is give or take backdated to that moment.

Here's an article about the state of the pitches I was referring to in my previous post on page 5 towards the bottom.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/content/story/820483.html?comments=all#usrcomment

Part of it says:

My theory is that there must have been some sort of tacit understanding that most of the matches needed to go at least four days in order for the Indian television market to reap maximum dividends

This is somewhat along the lines of what I was thinking. The only other important thing to add would be that it's not all about "the Indian television market to reap maximum (financial) dividends".

It also about us, the fans, getting a more even contest than the last couple of home series against England and India.
I think it works both ways though. Whitewashes can drive away crowds as much as too many drawn matches... especially for the more fickle cricket supporter. Real fans don't mind the odd drawn match here and there though. (2-0 was an OK result in all fairness, imo.)

Hence my comment (previous page) about trying to produce something in between what was produced (MCG in particular, SCG partially) in this last series and the 2 series before that. It's a difficult balancing act for a curator to produce a pitch which would satisfy both teams and also provide for an exciting contest for us fans.

Most people don't mind a draw if a result is still a possibility heading into day Five. Its when there a three innings and a gazillion runs in five days when people decide they've got things to do. The average fan does appreciate a draw when a team has had to extend themselves to get it. The Adelaide test against you guys in 2012 is the only test I've seen on Supersport where day Five was replayed in its ENTIRETY. And it was replayed half a dozen times, so ratings must've been good. Every single ball. They don't even replay T20s in their entirety.