India v Sri Lanka, 1st Test, Ahmedabad, Nov 16-20

tac wrote:SRT saves the test for India with a gutsy 100 . . .

Now that's the type of spin we could have used on the pitch.

An absolute f**king farce.

The 40 or so "fans" lingering on in the stands through the last hour of this bore-fest will doubtless now disappear to the nearest bog for a celebratory w*nk in recognition of yet another meaningless "milestone" on the little bugger's scoresheet.

SG wrote:

Ive had the 'privilege' to watch most of this match and they wonder why the Indians prefer their T20s and ODIs to their Tests!!

Yep, 7% represents entire India.

Don't be chippy and girly. WGAF what some dross poll says - those droning ODIs had big crowds, this Test so blatantly didn't. Case closed. Please quote this with a retraction.

Not sure why people are going so mad about SRT, of course they were going to wait until then and rightfully so. Wherever the venue, the crowd deserve to see a decent ton. OK, it was not in the most troublesome situation but he still had to face plenty of balls and see India through to the draw.

My finger nail was bitten down to the stubs. whew. This match ebbed and flowed, seed and sawed, both teams fighting to the death, giving it everything to gain the upper hand in this test match, and what a test match...?! a genuine tribute to the word 'test'.

Or in reality a f**king farce. I happen to think 'we' have the beating of this SL side but the pitch is a complete joke.

those droning ODIs had big crowds, this Test so blatantly didn't

Every country draws big crowds for ODIs and T20s. What does that mean?

BTW, lesser people attending test cricket in India is due to BCCI's faulty policies.

Its mandatory to purchase all 5 day tickets for a test match in India. And did I mention this test started from Monday which means all its days would be working days for common public.

Don't know what people are whinging about. Cricket is more than just getting a result. If drawn games are of no interest then you can always watch 20-20.

This match shows why test cricket is the highest level of sport.

Even though no result was possible there was still a real sporting contest going on. SRT was trying to score his hundred. The Sri Lankans were trying their hardest to stop him.

Most test matches are shite. The so called hey day for fast bowlers-the 80s-had more draws than the 90s or 00s. Thats why its not a truly global sport, not everyone can appreciate the nuances. Odis are looked down upon but its down to them that we see more results now. Of course, pitches like this are detrimental but its not just india. Faisabad, adelaide, oval, lords, antigua...

Well played gg, srt we could so easily have lost this test had they not held fort. Is that ton no.88?

Ash wrote:oval, lords

Neither of those decks are anything like this one or Antigua, there have been something like 4 draws at the oval in 20 years. Both of them usually last 5 days and produce a result

taipan wrote:I have never had any respect for Indian cricket but had thought that Tendulkar, at least, respected the game. I was wrong, he is as quntish as the rest of them.

Your lack of respect is devastating to Indians. In fact I often wonder how we carry on.

On another note, well done SRT and GG!

well done by the indians. preventing a repeat of bangalore and bombay when we lost tests against pak and eng that should have been easy draws. good defensive batting when it was needed

hope we get a better pitch for the next game

It was a boring yawn fest last 2 days, but the last 15 overs were really exciting. Even a boring draw can have it's moments. The wait to see if SRT would get a 100 was in itself a good fight. It was disgusting seeing the Lankan bowlers pack the off side and then bowling completely wide off the pitch to stop SRT from scoring runs. Just becaue a test is headed for a draw doesn't mean the players should kill the test completely. In the past on a couple of tests even the Indians have been guilty of such negative cricket. I absolutely hate what Ashley Piles and N. Hussain invented in 2001 on their tour to India. There should be a ban on such dreary stuff in test cricket really. Good fightback by Indians under pressure and an honourable draw earned! I always marvel at the patience Laxman can display. the way he avoided fishing outside the off stump to the off side trap and the way he can just hang in there for half a dozen overs without scoring despite getting a 50 is testimony to his patience and concentration skills. Hats off to him as well for not allowing the Lankans to trap him.

Why should a bastmen not bat for a 100 in a dead test by the way? Why shouldn't Sachin or any other batsmen in this situation not be rewarded for their labour and why should it be considered a farce? Why should a game be killed early and spectators denied a chance to get something positive out of it just because a test is heading for a draw? Why should a team fighting back be denied a chance to get it's confidence level up and be denied a chance to spend some quality time in a middle that may inspire them positively for the next game? In which case lets all take this a step further and scrap playing dead tests after a series is decided. Because such tests only serve statistic value under any case. Lets just start calling a test off if even a remote doubt that it will end in a draw creeps in. Because fighting back and achieving milestones is farcical just because the test is heading for a draw right? The team fighting back deserves nothing to draw strength from in the next game they play.....

If test cricket is not to be seen to see great characters fight adversity, if it is not for seeing great batsmen get centuries or bowlers getting wickets than what is it for? All tests that ended in run fests in the history of the game where people played on for getting a milestone in should be declared farcical in which case!

Batman wrote:It was disgusting seeing the Lankan bowlers pack the off side and then bowling completely wide off the pitch to stop SRT from scoring runs. Just becaue a test is headed for a draw doesn't mean the players should kill the test completely.

Er, what? So the test is completely dead, India want to play on just to let King Sachin get a hundred, when Sri Lanka have already offered the draw, and you're moaning that they decide to make it hard for him? Oh yes, what they should have done was genuflect and throw up pies so we could all bask in his magisterial glory. What utter bollocks. They had sod all to play for, so stopping him getting a hundred where the only reason the game went on was for purely selfish reasons was exactly the right response.

Farcical is when the Lankan team selfishly batted for a world record [970+ runs] in their first home test against visiting India in 1997. Farcical are the timeless tests one sees in Antigua these days or the first 2 tests played in Pakistan against India in 2006. Farcical is having tests called off without a session being bowled because the pitches were rank bad to begin with. There was nothing farcical in this instance, not even 1% of the farces we have seen before. Why should India accept a timing for a draw just because the Lankans had a party with the bat and then decided they had enough? I wouldn't blame any other team as well for the same either in such a situation.....

There was nothing wrong in India's decision to bat on today and the same holds for true for any other team in the same situation.

What I don't understand is why a lot of the Indians feel slighted at the mention of their consistently dead, turgid, placid, boring pitches. If England have shitty pitches it's usually stated, concurred, done and dusted. It isn't like it's a slight on a billion plus souls, it's a statement of fact qualified by the results and the state of play. I've just watched most of it. It's not a subjective thing and it's not something that will go away by stating random occurrences from other countries.

Chivalry Augustus wrote:Away? AWAY? Playing all but 5 of your Tests on the sub-continent means you've scarcely played an away match. These sub-continental FTBs don't understand the meaning of 'away' - the only non-subcontinental pitches Gambhir has played on have been in NZ and Zimbabwe against two of the turd nations. He'd never average over 50 if he played all his Tests in England, he just isn't good enough.

Jayawardene's the ultimate though. Averages 38 (THIRTY EIGHT - 3 and outside of the sub-continent. He's probably not even a more talented batsman than Ian Bell.

If you took out his runs in Zimbabwe, you'd really strip away the veneer to reveal what an embarrassingly average batsman Mahela Jayawardene is. He's probably not even better than Paul Collingwood.

so on what basis is gambhir a FTB if he's succeeded everywhere? performance is what counts.

many england batsmen average more at home and most indian bats average more in england so the 'he'd never average 50 in england' argument doesnt hold.

i also dont get this lumping asia together thing. away runs are away runs. the conditions in SL are different to those in india, ditto pak.

re : mahela, he was definitely a FTB when he started out but hes on top of his game right now, id back him to score runs anywhere. definitely more talented than collingwood and bell.

JKLever wrote:

Ash wrote:oval, lords

Neither of those decks are anything like this one or Antigua, there have been something like 4 draws at the oval in 20 years. Both of them usually last 5 days and produce a result

since 2002:

7/16 draws at lords
3/8 at the oval
2/4 at ahmedabad

similar ratio. oval and lords have both flattened out in recent years.

fwiw:
3/4 faisalabad
5/6 antigua
1/6 adelaide

flat pitches are an issue and probably more so in india but you have to factor in bowling strengths too. these were two of the weaker bowling sides. aus v sa on the same pitch might have produced a result.

Yeah, Gambhir's a very good player, IMHO.

And any comparison of Jayawardene to no-shots Collingwood is frankly ridiculous.

Obviously Ian Bell is better than all three of them combined...

Ash wrote:

JKLever wrote:

Ash wrote:oval, lords

Neither of those decks are anything like this one or Antigua, there have been something like 4 draws at the oval in 20 years. Both of them usually last 5 days and produce a result

since 2002:

7/16 draws at lords
3/8 at the oval
2/4 at ahmedabad

similar ratio. oval and lords have both flattened out in recent years.

fwiw:
3/4 faisalabad
5/6 antigua
1/6 adelaide

flat pitches are an issue and probably more so in india but you have to factor in bowling strengths too. these were two of the weaker bowling sides. aus v sa on the same pitch might have produced a result.

I had put up the stats sometimes back for Pakistan pitches, Lords and Antigua when old man Horrie ranted on incessently about 'boring, flat Indian' pitches that ended in draws and had put up statistics to suggest that we had lesser draws recent years and more results. The senile nutjob never got back on it and continued his imaginary rant later on. The 'draws' in India are not more than when compared to the draws we see in WI, Pakistan and England in numbers. For instance last decade Lords has seen nearly half a dozen draws. Between England and India's last visit in WI, there have been nearly 6 draws in 2 series itself.

Ash wrote:

JKLever wrote:

Ash wrote:oval, lords

Neither of those decks are anything like this one or Antigua, there have been something like 4 draws at the oval in 20 years. Both of them usually last 5 days and produce a result

since 2002:

7/16 draws at lords
3/8 at the oval
2/4 at ahmedabad

similar ratio. oval and lords have both flattened out in recent years.

fwiw:
3/4 faisalabad
5/6 antigua
1/6 adelaide

flat pitches are an issue and probably more so in india but you have to factor in bowling strengths too. these were two of the weaker bowling sides. aus v sa on the same pitch might have produced a result.

you might need to look at how rain has affected the tests at eglish grounds . . . a draw doesn't always = a flat pitch

Ash wrote:
re : mahela, he was definitely a FTB when he started out but hes on top of his game right now, id back him to score runs anywhere. definitely more talented than collingwood and bell.

Yep.

Dello wrote:
And any comparison of Jayawardene to no-shots Collingwood is frankly ridiculous.

Yep.

Dello wrote:Obviously Ian Bell is better than all three of them combined...

****** damn straight. Go Belly, it's ya birthday...

tac wrote:

you might need to look at how rain has affected the tests at eglish grounds . . . a draw doesn't always = a flat pitch

I'm too stoned to actually think about it properly but the 1st two that come into my head are in 2006 where the pitch flattened out big style and we couldn't bowl SL out, but we would've won were it not for the bad weather and in 2007 where the pitch flattened out big style and we couldn't bowl India out, but we would've won were it not for the bad weather and there was a stone dead LB turned down for the last wicket. that makes it 5 draws and 2 moral victories.

Brass Monkey wrote:I'm too stoned to actually think about it properly...

Before midday on a Saturday.

Party hard, dude.

nah I've been ill all week, this is the first time I've felt well enough to not be in bed, it's a chilled one.