*Official* 2nd Test at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, 13 - 17 Feb 2021

[Adders]

Go offline for a while and the kids come out to play

lol at HB’s advice on how to play Ashwin on this

Who were you having dinner with tonight?

 

[wpdavid]

England and Root have done pretty well to not lose their temper here. I can think of a few teams and leaders who would have blown their top by now given the state of the game and some of the terrible officiating.

Root strikes me as having the right temperament to cope with the above. Maybe a good job that Stokes isn't captaining the side though.

 

[Robbie]

He's tops and any reasonable person would want to abuse me after reading a single post under my name.

That's very kind of you Gnske haha.

 

[centurymaker]

If you're trying to pretend that first two sessions this pitch wasn't dramatically better you're absolutely delusional.

India is going to score TWICE as much on day 3 than England did on day 2! Thats the skill difference that will cause England to lose by 300+ runs.

 

[Adders]

#FREEBURGEY

I'll give a free like to the first person who calls PEWS a nazi for this injustice.

Wait what??? Do we need to go on a revolution again and do I finally have a real reason to update my avatar?

 

[Lillian Thomson]

I'm not sure how Cricket Web would have coped with umpiring in India in the 70's. There was one innings where a sub fielder took 6 catches and only 2 of them came off the bat.

 

[91Jmay]

India is going to score TWICE as much on day 3 than England did on day 2! Thats the skill difference that will cause England to lose by 300+ runs.

Where was the dramatic skill difference in the first test then? India obviously have miles better spinners but this victim mentality some Indian posters have to how vital the toss is in India is strange

 

[wpdavid]

Yeah, it was wrong when they said Pujara did not play a shot in Australia and it was wrong when they said Rohit did here.

The covid period has just showed again why we NEED neutral umpires in India. For me, that umpire has been good all day and except this one shocker, seems fine. At the same time, the 3rd umpire does seem rather eager to jump the gun and it has been in favor of India every time. But with neutral umpires, at least the discussion will be on their performance and ability and quality than bias.

It's not just in India. One of the benefits of neutral umpires has been that any perception of home town bias has become a complete irrelevance, and the game has become more enjoyable as a result.

 

[honestbharani]

Yeah, the pitch has not changed dramatically and the turn and bounce and pace has been the same all two days. Moeen not being consistent and England batsmen letting the puffs of dust spook them and Ash's quality as a bowler has been the difference so far.

Just like how Anderson and Root's quality was the difference between the sides last week.

 

[Robbie]

The footwork of England batsmen against compared to India's is like watching a nerd trying to pin a flower on his prom date's dress in front of her dad while not trying to touch boobs.

I think maybe England had got it in their heads that the pitch was worse than it actually is. They didn't turn up today that's for sure.

 

[honestbharani]

Where was the dramatic skill difference in the first test then? India obviously have miles better spinners but this victim mentality some Indian posters have to how vital the toss is in India is strange

HOw is the toss anymore vital in India than anywhere else? Like seriously?

 

[wpdavid]

I'm not sure how Cricket Web would have coped with umpiring in India in the 70's. There was one innings where a sub fielder took 6 catches and only 2 of them came off the bat.

I suppose we wouldn't even have got to see it in England. Not live, anyway, and not with the multiple-angle replays we get nowadays, and the grainy black and white footage wouldn't reveal much.

EDIT
Actually I'm not sure how relevant that is to the point you're making, but I'll leave it there anyway.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

If he's playing a shot there I'm Katie Price.

Here we have Katie Price

 

[flibbertyjibber]

I think you’re a ****

Here is Harvey Price

 

[OverratedSanity]

Where was the dramatic skill difference in the first test then? India obviously have miles better spinners but this victim mentality some Indian posters have to how vital the toss is in India is strange

I do agree with you that the toss has been an advantage here tbh. Most of the defensiveness is because the idea that the toss is a much bigger advantage on spinning decks in Asia than on green decks abroad is misguided and it never becomes such a massive topic of discussion in those cases atleast imo. Hard not to feel some anti-spin bias whenever its mentioned.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

I suppose we wouldn't even have got to see it in England. Not live, anyway, and not with the multiple-angle replays we get nowadays, and the grainy black and white footage wouldn't reveal much.

I'm assuming a certain amount of coexistence of the two eras.

 

[Shri]

I love it when other teams' supporters are even more pessimistic than me on a bad day. But the truth is that Kohli could safely declare overnight and India still win by over 100.

we lead by 249 now and i'll apologize if eng don't score 250

 

[wpdavid]

I'm assuming a certain amount of coexistence of the two eras.

Yeah, I figured I'd missed the point there.

 

[artvandalay]

I do agree with you that the toss has been an advantage here tbh. Most of the defensiveness is because the idea that the toss is a much bigger advantage on spinning decks in Asia than on green decks abroad is misguided and it never becomes such a massive topic of discussion in those cases atleast imo. Hard not to feel some anti-spin bias whenever its mentioned.

this wasn't the case the whole series last time england toured. otoh the saf series in 2017 was one where the toss was infact decisively important in all the matches.

 

[Adders]

Look ive not hardly watched a ball of this test but good sides don't lose test matches at the toss. Pretty sure England lost every toss in India in 2012. Yes it's a disadvantage but it's not the end of the ****ing game........you just got to play better and it doesn't sound like we have here.