True enough.
Indeed, “Sandpapergate” would rank as one of the most pathetically gormless and ineffectual attempts to alter the ball seen/suspected in world cricket.
.
As compared to use of pomades, sunscreens, sweets and throat lozenges, vulcanised rubber inserts, bottle caps, studs, coins, miscellaneous metal objects, and any other matter of illicit means.
The interesting thing is that in the aftermath, reverse swing has become really a quite rare phenomenon, though still very effective when achieved.
I’d reckon every Test team had developed their own “ball management” program/s, now quietly shelved.
Impressive 3rd innings come back from England. As much as I want India to win, I hope Pope gets his 200 and England match India’s 1st innings. Will set the stage for a rare Day 5.
Well, West Indies were being quoted at 15-1 overnight, when on paper it looked like they had every chance, and indeed pulled it off.
Similarly England were at 7-1, when just looking at the scoreboard you’d think they’d have a much better shot. At the moment Ashwin stands between them and a win.
I laughed out loud when Siraj left the crease on that last over. It looked like he (and Ashwin) have other plans tomorrow. But what a great test match. Had so many facets that we’d never get in a white ball game. I feel especially good for Hartley, who basically got abused in the 1st innings.
From Reddit:
“If i had a nickel for everytime a 24 yr old debutant took 7 wickets against the wc 2023 finalists on foreign soil on the 28th of January 2024 I would have 2 nickels”
Tom Hartley in the Eng Ind game, and Shamar Joseph in the WI Aus game. Although it’s actually Joseph’s second game.
Good result at the Gabba for the visitors. Actually it was better than that. Some of the WI old hands were getting rather emotional about their first win in Australia for a generation.
To my thinking, if Pakistan could have caught like the Windies the locals wouldn’t have won either series of a summer many in Australia considered to be two “no draw card” fixtures.
After seemingly having India on the ropes at 33-3, England dropped Rohit Sharma on 27. Severely punished at he went in to get 131 and put on 200 with Jadeja.
Debutant Sarfaraz then hits a rapid 62 and it is Advantage India at the close.
Meanwhile a mouthwatering Day 4 is on tap with New Zealand needing a further 227 to win with nine wickets in hand, a last ball dismissal of Conway taking the balance back in RSA’s favor.
Great effort by a very inexperienced South African team.
What a frustrating game from an English perspective. Bazball is great, and I do think we’re doing better with it than we would without - Duckett’s 150 is a prime example, we could have been facing an innings defeat without that. But we did seem to throw it away on the third day, as seems so often to be the case.
Still two matches to go. This was always going to be a tough tour. One meek capitulation should not ruin the series. Hoping they come back and we have two good competitive test matches.
In some ways, these kind of results are built in to Bazball, in that if you encourage players to be positive and not afraid of risks (within reason) then sometimes those risks aren’t going to come off. Mostly that’s manageable, on a “it doesn’t matter if five go cheaply as long as two go big” approach, but of course from time to time everyone will roll snake eyes and you lose 8 for 90.
That said, there is I think something missing from the current philosophy which is how to approach batting second against big opposition scores. It’s one thing to go quick and hard facing a 1st innings total of 300; it’s another to do it against 450 plus. Unless it’s a flat track, you end up rolling the dice too many times to get away with it when you try to score at >5 an over.
Also a question about the bowling? There are elements of a top-class attack if everyone’s fit (insert lament about Archer here) but we’re not quite there yet. Tactics also come into this - I’ve not been able to watch, but I don’t think we’ve been seeing funky umbrella fields or the like; when the opposition are on top, what do you do? is a tough question by definition but I don’t think we’ve got the answers.
All of this is of course a little solipsistic - India played really well in the field and batting, and that’s what made the difference.
I didn’t get a chance to watch Day 1 of this 4th test, but the scorecard suggests that Root and Woakes took the old school non-Bazball route to get England off to a pretty good start.
Well for the first session it was Bazball with both Crawley and Bairstow scoring at a run-a-ball or better, and England were 112-5 off 24.1 at the interval. First 100 came in exactly 20 overs.
Then Root and Foakes put on 113 off 43.2 to bring them back from a very dicey situation.
I like the way BBC Sport headlines described Root’s innings as:
Gritty (he was in his 90s)
Composed (at close when he was 103*)
Masterful (a couple of hours later)
I fell asleep early and was shocked to wake up to India already batting. It’s not over, but my book is asking for 16-1 to bet on India. 1-5.5 for England.