*Official* 1st Test at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, 05 - 09 Feb 2021

[OverratedSanity]

Anyway if they do get a breakthrough today they'll set themselves up beautifully for tomorrow. There's enough in the pitch to bowl India out in less than 3 sessions.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Guess if it is 20-3 at the close they made the right choice.

 

[nzfan]

That's silly from England. After such good performance in the first dig they've indicated to India they're vulnerable to spin. You know what's coming in the next three tests. Out of 178 Root scored 40 of them.

 

[Prince EWS]

yes

One of the few good things about living in 2021 is that when people suggest captains have put off declaring because of a fast-scoring opposition bat, that bat (Warner regularly, now Pant) has usually actually scored some fourth innings runs before.

It used to drive me insane when people would suggest that Sehwag's inevitable 25 (30) was somehow influencing declaration timings by tens of overs per match.

 

[centurymaker]

That was the most pointless last 20-30 minutes of batting, no issue not declaring at tea or immediately after but leaving it this long to just poke and prod - it's almost as if England wanted to bat tomorrow so they could use a heavy roller on the pitch or something

I was also thinking that might be it!! Because they used it before their innings today and pitch started to explore.

There's probably only 100-101 overs left in the game. England should have declared 10-15 overs ago, instead chose to bat out the innings so as to avoid making the declaration decision. Poor captaincy and management.

 

[hendrix]

How many games is that actually the case though?

How many games feature the 4th innings beginning with roughly 100 overs to go in the test?

I know it's a classic test match idea but I don't think it actually happens all the time.

 

[Burner]

yes

Haha, yes. Kohli has done **** all in 4th innings chases. Pant is the danger man.

 

[JOJOXI]

Fear of Kohil i think is the reason.

Perhaps but think they've been way too cautious..Some may say batting after tea at all was cautious but I completely got it, 59 runs in 19.5 overs after tea is bizarre though, get those in 10 fewer overs and set 420 in 122 overs.

 

[hendrix]

I am not a big fan of Root's captaincy, but contrary to conventional wisdom his decisions to not declare in innings 1 and 2 were both correct decisions.

Innings 1 yes...

Tailend batting innings 2 was bizarre. Either slog or declare.

 

[MW1304]

They obviously had a target in mind, and were aware that if Buttler/Bess got out we would almost certainly get skittled. I really don't have a huge problem with it, there was negative bowling and no point in being suicidal. There's over 100 overs to get the wickets here, which is technically enough time for the runs to get knocked off too. It's really not that egregious.

All the talk I hear from commentators is that nobody has ever chased this total. Well the game has changed and teams are hitting high fourth innings scores to win games with higher frequency. It's a four Test series, I have no problem with a modicum of caution.

 

[weldone]

The question was not about not declaring, it was about how they were batting. It looked like they just wanted to suck time out of the game, which suggests they are/were still thinking of losing this game, which I think is odd. If anything, this maybe be their best shot at winning a test this series.

The idea was not to get all out for 120 or 140, but play normal cricket for as long as possible. They maintained a run rate of 3.82.

Most of the guys in the Indian batting lineup are natural aggressors (except Pujara and Ashwin). This situation of playing for a draw where chance of a win is 0% is alien to them.

 

[Pothas]

They obviously had a target in mind, and were aware that if Buttler/Bess got out we would almost certainly get skittled. I really don't have a huge problem with it, there was negative bowling and no point in being suicidal. There's over 100 overs to get the wickets here, which is technically enough time for the runs to get knocked off too. It's really not that egregious.

All the talk I hear from commentators is that nobody has ever chased this total. Well the game has changed and teams are hitting high fourth innings scores to win games with higher frequency. It's a four Test series, I have no problem with a modicum of caution.

Yep the way they played in the afternoon suggests they wanted to get a big lead pretty quickly. Once Pope got out there was a danger they left India with something achievable, sure it went on a little too long but it was totally understandable.

 

[honestbharani]

I have no problem with a modicum of caution.

A modicum of caution would have been the way they batted in the last session on Day 2 and how they batted till tea and decided to continue batting post tea. Surely once you got through the first 5 overs, it was important to look at time rather than overs or runs.

 

[Prince EWS]

Gun posting from weldone tbh.

 

[honestbharani]

The idea was not to get all out for 120 or 140, but play normal cricket for as long as possible. They maintained a run rate of 3.82.

Most of the guys in the Indian batting lineup are natural aggressors (except Pujara and Ashwin). This situation of playing for a draw where chance of a win is 0% is alien to them.

That run rate only happened due to the efforts of Root (and a bit of Pope) though. I understand them playing like that till they went past 120 or 140 but to have kept doing it till they were 180 was silly.

 

[Burner]

Rohit's been out pulling 7 times already. Maybe if he was a good puller he'd find a way to not pull into a fielders' hands.

 

[Daemon]

After being dropped in SL, Anderson now loses the new ball as well. Sad.

 

[Prince EWS]

After being dropped in SL, Anderson now loses the new ball as well. Sad.

Dropped from his position mid-match.

D R O P P E D
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[Shri]

looks like a pitch where surviving might be easier than scoring at a good rate without losing wickets

 

[mackembhoy]

Wood was bowling pretty much 90+ every over in Sri Lanka.

Archer bowled Chris Woakes speed for the vast majority of his time in tests.