TOPIC:

Who needs Dom Bess when you have Joe Root bowling like Jim Laker?
Innings figures of 6.2-3-8-5 - unbelievable!
England very much back in the game.

When a part time spinner can get 5-8, it makes you wonder what the Indian spinners can do. All out 81 is what they can do. What a joke of a pitch.
I remember Michael Clarke getting a 6 for on one of their dustbowls one tour and the Aussies still lost the game

Clarke took 6 for 9 over there back in about 2004 Mike.
That pitch was remarkably similar to this current one in Ahmedabad.

Remarkably, we lost the Test in Mumbai where Michael Clarke took 6-9, Beas.
And despite his 5-8, Joe Root looks like suffering the same fate.
Based on the current Test and the one before in Chennai, Test cricket is not automatically a batsman's game.
Contrast this with the NZ-Aust 20:20 match earlier today when 15 wickets fell for 434 runs in 40 overs, with 31 sixes being struck.

I am all for evening up the contest between bat and ball in test cricket. There are too many featherbeds produced which don't give the bowlers a chance. This pitch in India has gone too far the other way. Batsmen who we know are good players of spin have been reduced to incompetence by bowlers who would struggle to get them out in normal circumstances. There must be a happy medium somewhere because no-one wants to see tests over inside 2 days which is what has happened here.

All over just after Tea on Day 2!
I cannot remember in my lifetime another Test being finished so quickly?

Just had a quick look at a stats site BH and the shortest completed test match ever was in 1932 when Australia beat South Africa in Melbourne. Australia bowled SA out for 36 in 23.2 overs, Australia replied with 153 in 54.3 overs the dismissed SA for 45 in 31.3 overs for an innings victory. So this game lasted 109.2 overs.
This test just completed lasted a total of 140.2 overs which would have to be close to the top 10 shortest games because the 5th fastest test was 132 overs in 1899. I cant remember any games in recent memory that would have been so short.
Just had a check of the list on Cricinfo. This test is the 7th shortest of completed matches. There was a test between Australia and Pakistan in Sharjah played in 2002 which was completed in 148 overs. I recall that the temperature was close to 50 degrees for just about the entire duration of this particular match.

Blink and you would of missed that 3rd test...hopefully India can win or draw the final test, so Aust doesn't have to fly to the other side of the world for a one off test at Lord's v NZ, who will already be over there playing Eng in a 2 match test series...

Archie, I went to both those T20 matches...here where I live in Christchurch, great ground Hagley Oval and 4 hours down the road in Dunedin...shit that ground is tiny...first game was a shocker, the second a better finish....always a worry if spuds like Guptill and Stonis can score runs like that....as for Finch....seriously the guy will go into the T20 WC with a 20 match run of sub 20 scores....give any one that many chances and the law of averages will see them succeed eventually...pity others aren't afforded such luxury....was keen to see the young NSW spinner play....but got to see old Agar and Zampa again instead....funny how NZ spinners can take a bag each, yet Agar and Zampa take fark all....can't believe how useless Aust batsmen are against slow bowling....even after watching cricket for over 40 odd years....nothing has changed....

Hey Freeze it looks a nice old cricket ground down there in Dunedin.
Whatever happened to the old Carisbrook ground where NZ used to play at down there?
Whilst it seems the Aussie selectors are almost obliged to pick the out of form and reckless duo Finch & Maxwell to keep the coVics from meltdown....and sheesh those self proclaimed supposed "Sporting Capital of the World" muppets in coVic still call for them both to be in the Test team!!

Watched that first 3 hours of the second day and just wondered how much Warney would have spun that SG day night ball with that black seam
In reality pitches like that should be on the ICC scrutiny list if they want to ensure parity and coin through gates
And yes pitches can still be prepared to be unique to each country without being outrageously lopsided
obvious now why one team plays 3 specialist spinners