5th test oval, preview

[lemsip]

10 hours ago, vvvslaxman said:

I am not sure he is even 90% lookig at the way he was trudging along in the 4th test. May be he realized it was a  road that gave absolutely nothing. Later we saw how England struggled.

The oval is even more of a road. In early July, Surrey scored 800 runs in an innings here including a triple century by Sibley. Absolutely no point risking Bumrah who is giving every sign of not being able to get through a 5 day test again. The last thing India need is to be carrying a half fit bowler going into another long bowling innings.

[Lone Wolf]

19 minutes ago, lemsip said:

The oval is even more of a road. In early July, Surrey scored 800 runs in an innings here including a triple century by Sibley. Absolutely no point risking Bumrah who is giving every sign of not being able to get through a 5 day test again. The last thing India need is to be carrying a half fit bowler going into another long bowling innings.

 

[lemsip]

15 minutes ago, Lone Wolf said:

 

They need to rest siraj as well and the decision should not be made by the player  else we will have an emotional choice made more by jazba than sense ( much like his drs lbw calls)

[vvvslaxman]

3 hours ago, lemsip said:

The oval is even more of a road. In early July, Surrey scored 800 runs in an innings here including a triple century by Sibley. Absolutely no point risking Bumrah who is giving every sign of not being able to get through a 5 day test again. The last thing India need is to be carrying a half fit bowler going into another long bowling innings.

Over distribution was ridiculous in that match

 

Bumrah 33 overs

Siraj 30 overs

Thakur 11 overs

Kamboj 16 overs

 

Sundar mainly bowled after 69 overs

 

 

 

[rkt.india]

Pitch for the last test looks green. Will they cut the grass?

[BacktoCricaddict]

4 hours ago, lemsip said:

The oval is even more of a road. In early July, Surrey scored 800 runs in an innings here including a triple century by Sibley. Absolutely no point risking Bumrah who is giving every sign of not being able to get through a 5 day test again. The last thing India need is to be carrying a half fit bowler going into another long bowling innings.

 

So many conflicting reports: Seam friendly/spin friendly/road. Not sure what to believe.

 

2 questions for you:

(a) It may have been a road, but is it possible that they would use a different pitch? Maybe leave more grass on it? So, what happened early July may not be applicable now?

(b) Are you going to be there to watch in person?

[BacktoCricaddict]

Tagging known oldies @coffee_rules @vvvslaxman 

 

I have some really cool memories of the 1979 Oval match - listening to the radio and reading newspaper sports pages!! One of Sunil Gavaskar's greatest performances - a 4th innings 221 in a chase of 438 (!!!!), which brought India within a whiff of a rare SENA win (or any win in those days). He was 4th or 5th out, but the rest couldn't close the deal, with the match finally ending with India stranded at 429/8. That draw felt like a loss. Imagine if they had pulled off a 438 4th innings heist!! 

 

That whole series was controversial with Venkataraghavan being given captaincy, and then then Bharat Reddy being chosen as the w/k in place of Kirmani. All of us Karnataka fans were livid, accusing Venkat of favoritism picking his state-mate over the (then) GOAT keeper!!

 

Edited July 29, 2025 by BacktoCricaddict

[lemsip]

21 minutes ago, BacktoCricaddict said:

2 questions for you:

(a) It may have been a road, but is it possible that they would use a different pitch? Maybe leave more grass on it? So, what happened early July may not be applicable now?

(b) Are you going to be there to watch in person?

a) It is possible but I would think all the groundsman can do is leave extra grass on the pitch. That effect will not last beyond a couple of sessions at most and the pitch should settle down to its default state which is good for batting. Recent first class games on this ground suggest a high scoring surface. Temperatures have also come down in London over the last couple of weeks so the pitch may not be quite as dry as it might have been otherwise. There is some rain in the air in the area and also brief showers forecast on day 1 so that might end up making a difference and help the seamers on day 1.

b) Yes I am going to watch the first day's play in the ground. If the match lasts for the 5th day, may turn up for that as well as they release tickets on the day when that happens.

 

 

Edited July 29, 2025 by lemsip

[Austin 3:!6]

These youtube journalists and Gautam Gambhir, both are embarassment. 

[lemsip]

23 minutes ago, Austin 3:!6 said:

These youtube journalists and Gautam Gambhir, both are embarassment. 

Yeah I watched the "journalists" try to interview the groundsman clearly attempting to bait him into providing masala quotes. One of the jounralists asked him "do you think gambhir is a good man" ? And at the press conference Boria turned it around and asked Kotak to react to the groundsman asking if Gambhir was a good man ( when it was his own flunkies asking him). Transparent and pathetic attempt to generate fake controversies for clicks.

Some of the questions from the sadak chaap journalists are so pathetic, I had to cringe.

 

 

Edited July 29, 2025 by lemsip

[Austin 3:!6]

20 minutes ago, lemsip said:

Yeah I watched the "journalists" try to interview the groundsman clearly attempting to bait him into providing masala quotes. One of the jounralists asked him "do you think gambhir is a good man" ? And at the press conference Boria turned it around and asked Kotak to react to the groundsman asking if Gambhir was a good man ( when it was his own flunkies asking him). Transparent and pathetic attempt to generate fake controversies for clicks.

Some of the questions from the sadak chaap journalists are so pathetic, I had to cringe.

 

 

They dont realize how pathetic it sounds...especially in a foreign country. No one talks here like that. This fat groundsman may be having a hearty laugh with his wife at the behest of India. These journalists must realize they are representing India in a foreign country but everyone is behind cheap clicks. BCCI money can only shut up people for sometime.

[Lord]

7 hours ago, rkt.india said:

I have seen all recent games and most of the wickets are picked by fast bowlers. Last year, SL pacers picked 18 wickets in the match to win it. In 2023, England pacers picked 17 wickets to win the match in the ashes. In 2021, Indian pacers picked 16 wickets to win the match. 

 

In 2018, Jadeja picked 7 wickets, hanuma vihari picked 3 so 10 wickets by spinners but we lost that test. Spinners won't win you a test here no matter how many wickets they pick because opposition will have scored 500 by then. 

Quality spinners will win you the game more than a poor Pacer like Kamboj Prasidh. I'm not asking to play all spinners. 3 pacers 3 spinners including allrounders is enough 

[rkt.india]

3 minutes ago, Lord said:

Quality spinners will win you the game more than a poor Pacer like Kamboj Prasidh. I'm not asking to play all spinners. 3 pacers 3 spinners including allrounders is enough 

Not in SENA. You need four pacers there. Quality depends on conditions.  Only a spinner like Shane Warne can be a guaranteed started in SENA countries. No one else.

[Lord]

Just now, rkt.india said:

Not in SENA. You need four pacers there. Quality depends on conditions.  Only a spinner like Shane Warne can be a guaranteed started in SENA countries. No one else.

We've seen both Kamboj and Prasidh. Kuldeep can't be any worse. Will bowl longer spells too giving other pacers rest. 

 

These are pattas, not traditional SENA pitches having swing and bounce 

[Forever Indian]

2 hours ago, rkt.india said:

Pitch for the last test looks green. Will they cut the grass?

 

they usually cut a day before...

[goose]

1 hour ago, lemsip said:

Yeah I watched the "journalists" try to interview the groundsman clearly attempting to bait him into providing masala quotes. One of the jounralists asked him "do you think gambhir is a good man" ? And at the press conference Boria turned it around and asked Kotak to react to the groundsman asking if Gambhir was a good man ( when it was his own flunkies asking him). Transparent and pathetic attempt to generate fake controversies for clicks.

Some of the questions from the sadak chaap journalists are so pathetic, I had to cringe.

 

 

 

 

the art of journalism is to ask a pointed question and report the non answer if that's what yiou get back. this was amateur hour

[lemsip]

12 minutes ago, goose said:

 

 

the art of journalism is to ask a pointed question and report the non answer if that's what yiou get back. this was amateur hour

I am just amazed that journalists of this quality manage to get enough funding for group of 10-20 of them to travel from India and  follow the team on tour.

It would be quite expensive per person and any content they create is not valuable enough to pay for more than a fraction of cost.

Edited July 29, 2025 by lemsip

[rkt.india]

1 hour ago, Lord said:

We've seen both Kamboj and Prasidh. Kuldeep can't be any worse. Will bowl longer spells too giving other pacers rest. 

 

These are pattas, not traditional SENA pitches having swing and bounce 

These are flat by England standard but ball does do something all the time if bowl in the right areas like in second test. There is a reason even England didn't pick any specialist spinner after Bashir got injured. They picked liam dawson who is more of a batsman. They could have picked their leg spinner Matt Parkinson who is a much better spinner.

[Bigg Brother]

Arshdeep should play if fit. Can't do worse than Prasiddh and Kamboj. 

[Forever Indian]

Bumrah to miss Oval Test against England; Akash Deep likely to replace him

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/jasprit-bumrah-to-miss-the-fifth-test-against-england-1497282