***Official*** India's Tour of Sri Lanka 2017

[OverratedSanity]

Pandya, the guy supposedly picked as an all rounder over Bhuvi, batted at number 8 and hasn't bowled a single over out of 62 yet.

 

[AndyZaltzHair]

Pandya, the guy supposedly picked as an all rounder over Bhuvi, batted at number 8 and hasn't bowled a single over out of 62 yet.

Fair enough 10 vs 10

 

[srbhkshk]

I think the Pandya situation is that they don't really need him in this test match but they want him to get a bit of experience before playing him in Aus/Eng/SA series, so they are basically not taking any risks with his body. About fair I'd say, but not to Bhuvi.

 

[cnerd123]

Pandya, the guy supposedly picked as an all rounder over Bhuvi, batted at number 8 and hasn't bowled a single over out of 62 yet.

Pandya now has a 50 on debut and bowling figures of 1/11

zzz

 

[NUFAN]

I knew India would bat again. I guess in fairness these are great batting conditions - Kohli will love the chance to make some runs. Will laugh if India declare today.

 

[srbhkshk]

I knew India would bat again. I guess in fairness these are great batting conditions - Kohli will love the chance to make some runs. Will laugh if India declare today.

India have basically stopped enforcing the follow on for quite some time now. Given how often our bowlers break down, it's 100% the correct thought process imo.

 

[Prince EWS]

I probably would have batted again tbh. I suspect my gripe with Kohli will come when they inevitably declare too early rather than this decision which I would've been okay with either way. You don't get extra points for finishing early.

 

[Prince EWS]

I don't think Dhawan agreed with the decision...

 

[srbhkshk]

Apparently the highest successful chase at Galle is 99.

 

[vcs]

Was that in Murali's last Test? I remember them chasing a score of around that size in that match against us.

 

[vcs]

Anyway, I don't think "highest successful 4th innings chase at a venue" is a particularly useful metric, they should talk about runs/wicket in 4th innings instead.

 

[srbhkshk]

Was that in Murali's last Test? I remember them chasing a score of around that size in that match against us.

99 was against Pakistan, 96 against India. Seems like a pretty dire situation if you are to chase more than 300 even looking into all matches. Also Ash/Jaddu.

Team records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[cnerd123]

Anyway, I don't think "highest successful 4th innings chase at a venue" is a particularly useful metric, they should talk about runs/wicket in 4th innings instead.

in a way though it makes sense. If a team sets a basically unchaseable 4th innings score (like India will do here), they often take their foot off the gas when bowling in the 4th innings and you tend to get these pressure free, counter attacking innings from the chasing side. They'll end up with something like 260 or 300 a/o chasing 450, and that will artificially inflate the runs per wicket stat.

Highest successful chases seems a better metric that way. Especially if you have a significant enough sample size of matches to go off.

 

[Spark]

Also, 4th innings chases are weird. The simple fact that you're approaching a winning score makes everyone behave differently, relative to when everyone knows that the chasing side doesn't have a hope.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Pandya now has a 50 on debut and bowling figures of 1/11

zzz

I'm not criticizing him, but the way he's being used. If you've dropped one of your better bowlers, and the replacement barely gets a chance to do anything, it's just silly.

 

[honestbharani]

I would not have minded any of these changes had they rested nostrils for Bhuvi.

 

[cnerd123]

I'm not criticizing him, but the way he's being used. If you've dropped one of your better bowlers, and the replacement barely gets a chance to do anything, it's just silly.

My point was he's been so shielded and under used yet is coming out of this test with figures that will then be used to justify his continued inclusion. Which is annoying.

 

[Howe_zat]

in a way though it makes sense. If a team sets a basically unchaseable 4th innings score (like India will do here), they often take their foot off the gas when bowling in the 4th innings and you tend to get these pressure free, counter attacking innings from the chasing side. They'll end up with something like 260 or 300 a/o chasing 450, and that will artificially inflate the runs per wicket stat.

Highest successful chases seems a better metric that way. Especially if you have a significant enough sample size of matches to go off.

Also, 4th innings chases are weird. The simple fact that you're approaching a winning score makes everyone behave differently, relative to when everyone knows that the chasing side doesn't have a hope.

I think you're both right and what it ultimately ends up at is admitting that a different size target will be a different kettle of fish. So the best approach when trying to find a metric of 'how hard is it to chase this kind of score' is to look at 'how may chases with a similar target got close or won'. In this case the fact that the highest successful chase is 99 is relevant, but it wouldn't be if there were a bunch of matches where the target was 350 and teams kept dropping short in close matches.

~

Btw the only reason against Kohli batting again is the fact that we're all sort of ignoring the match for a while, but since that's not a cricketing reason, I don't think anyone can really make the argument with a straight face. Certainly Kohli won't face the same criticism as Cook did when he made exactly the same decision against Pakistan last year.

 

[vcs]

This is such a dull phase in the match.

 

[vcs]

I'm conflicted on whether I want Kohli to downhill ski his way to a cheap 100 here, or save it for when we really need it. Not that the two events are connected in any way, but still..