5th Test: India v England at Chennai, Dec 16-20, 2016

[WaznTheGreat]

Jesus, India are going to kill us in every test in like 3 days

 

[Hutty1986]

Joisus. Sounds like it was Nair on impossible to dismiss the bloke.

 

[Iafeta]

Why did they bat on? Oh that's right, their cricket culture puts stats first ahead of going for a win.

 

[JJ]

There you go they just answered me. Sobers, Simpson and Nair

Took old Bob a while to get his first one though from memory

Nair will be interesting to watch - I laugh at the way people scoff at Indian bats - not all will be a Gavaskar, Dravid, or Tendulkar but they are usually pretty bloody good in most conditions.

India might be nigh on impossible to topple at home for a while now...

 

[JJ]

Why did they bat on? Oh that's right, their cricket culture puts stats first ahead of going for a win.

Maybe they just wanted to bat once? They have a day to roll England - I just don't see what the problem is, and to be fair many (most, all even?) test teams delay declarations if personal milestones are close, nothing particularly Indian about that

 

[TheFrog]

Why did they bat on? Oh that's right, their cricket culture puts stats first ahead of going for a win.

They scored 176 in under 26 overs after tea. It's highly unlikely they could have scored at this rate late on the 5th day. I would have continued on to stumps and given a demoralised England a day to save the match, and 320 or so deficit.

If England can bat 90 overs it will be a draw, which would have still been the case if they'd declared at 600 or 650.

Jesus, India are going to kill us in every test in like 3 days

They bat for two and a half days in their first innings, half a day to bowl us out twice, sounds about right.

Actually England have made some first innings runs this series, maybe we can too. We live in hope, but seems a lot like lambs to the slaughter.

 

[JJ]

Yep, batting on looks the 100% correct decision, and as you say they weren't edging their way to milestones, they were making England pay

 

[Meth]

Triple century in his second Test.

Drop him immediately

 

[vvvrulz]

Why did they bat on? Oh that's right, their cricket culture puts stats first ahead of going for a win.

To be fair they have a day to bowl them out and they're up 3-0, they have earned the right to chase a stat or two.

 

[AlwaysGreen]

I've got no issues with India's tactics on this pitch. Bat England out of the game and demoralize their bowlers why you're there. The worse they can do now is draw.

The issues are the pitch which is a road and does nothing to promote cricket. The second issue is that India have found a way to stay top of the icc rankings: schedule 10+ tests at home a year, play fewer away and stay top. The ICC are powerless to stop them and other sides will take the money on offer without caring about the consequences.

As for Nair, have no idea if he'll ever be heard of again. Lokesh Rahul however is a seen as a very good prospect.

 

[some11]

Declare on 759? Why not go for 1000?

Weak.

 

[Hutty1986]

The thing is, India's batting is just so consistent at home. Other sides (cough, Straya) seem to have the odd collapse at home, but India are regularly racking up 400-500+ scores it seems.

The only real way to have any chance of success over there is to bat first and score big, then have an attack that's versatile and strong enough to limit India's reply with the bat. Read on Cricinfo the other day that only one side (cough, Straya) has batted first, made 450 or more, and lost a test in India.

 

[2 weeks]

A few Indians on twitter blowing up at Kholi for his tactics last night, first signs of dissent i've seen from them towards him.

 

[Bazal]

I feel dirty just reading that.

Why? The kid is playing his third test, he could literally be anything at this stage...fair enough if it was Mitch Marsh, but in 5 years time Nair could be the best bat in the world. Or he could be a trivia question.

 

[Bazal]

Why did they bat on? Oh that's right, their cricket culture puts stats first ahead of going for a win.

It's day five, they've given themselves a full day to bowl England out and made sure they have a reasonable score so they're a chance of winning. I thought it was absolutely the right way to go about it. Once Nair was in range of 300 he didn't f**k about and it didn't cost them anything to let him get there.

 

[Pete Cash]

The pitch was really slow. One of the slowest pitches I've seen. I think the terrible weather in Chennai before the test didn't help.

If England bat with insane discipline they might be able to play ashwin off the pitch even if it's spinning square.

 

[vvvrulz]

Why? The kid is playing his third test, he could literally be anything at this stage...fair enough if it was Mitch Marsh, but in 5 years time Nair could be the best bat in the world. Or he could be a trivia question.

Nup, not buying that.

England themselves got to all but 500, with Dawson and Rashid getting through 300 balls just between them.
Ashwin has been largely ineffective, the master at exploiting Indian tracks.
Rahul, another fringe player, cracked 199

If India batted on they were a chance of crossing 850-900, now watch England bat out the day pretty comfortably (maybe I'll eat my words)

Whether Nair goes on to become Bradman is moot based on this test. Good on the kid for getting here, you play what's in front of you, but this match is a farce just as much as Sri Lanka's 952/6 was. Credit to India for trying to make a match out of it though.

 

[vvvrulz]

Well, The SIr has five now, could eat my words after all.

 

[jargan83]

India won't need the full day to win this.

 

[Bazal]

Nup, not buying that.

England themselves got to all but 500, with Dawson and Rashid getting through 300 balls just between them.
Ashwin has been largely ineffective, the master at exploiting Indian tracks.
Rahul, another fringe player, cracked 199

If India batted on they were a chance of crossing 850-900, now watch England bat out the day pretty comfortably (maybe I'll eat my words)

Whether Nair goes on to become Bradman is moot based on this test. Good on the kid for getting here, you play what's in front of you, but this match is a farce just as much as Sri Lanka's 952/6 was. Credit to India for trying to make a match out of it though.

Ridiculous opinion at this stage IMO. 300 is an immense effort in your third test match regardless. He may well turn out to be nothing more than an answer to a trivia question but three tests into his career he certainly doesn't deserve to be belittled