When should we declare

[novpj]

IMO 1hr before close and hopefully have 700 on the board by then. As I posted before, I thought we declared early in the last match (from a score perspective)

[Mr. Wicket]

An hour and a bit before tea. Give them about 15-18 overs to bat this evening, or a little less if Pathan and Gangu amp up the runscoring even further.

[King]

Right now if you ask me. Remember the last test match? Pakistan will not go without a fight and India will need a lot of time to bowl Pakistan out twice with Ishant Sharma in the ranks (I want him to do very well of course).

[apocalypse]

At tea

[Cricketics]

play about 5 overs after tea if we have decent batz left by that time.. and then dec

[Guest Hiten.]

On Day 5, tea I really want India to make Pakistan look like miserablesss and helplessss :D

[novpj]

Right now if you ask me. Remember the last test match? Pakistan will not go without a fight and India will need a lot of time to bowl Pakistan out twice with Ishant Sharma in the ranks (I want him to do very well of course).

I would rather we score all the runs needed right now than bat again. IMO this is the trick we missed in Delhi and another 80 runs or so and we could have avoided batting again

[siddhu]

about an hour after tea.. with Dada just gone.. i don't think we will last that long.. but if we do then with a score of around 700 by that time would be good

[Guest HariSampath]

I agree with ravi.... we should have declared around 550, and given Pak half a day to bat today, and picked up maybe 4-5 wkts. There is no point in going past 550, because if we want them to follow on, 35o is a better bet, and if they do get out around 400, would we really enforce the followon as bowlers would have spent a whole day plus more in the field ? So these 650 scores are meaningless and we should always play fast and get to 550 and declare. IMO the good work and advantage of geting 365 in a day has been squandered and I strongly criticise Anil Kumble for playing on for individual's records/stats and not being aggressive enough to try and win 2-0

[siddhu]

I agree with ravi.... we should have declared around 550, and given Pak half a day to bat today, and picked up maybe 4-5 wkts. There is no point in going past 550, because if we want them to follow on, 35o is a better bet, and if they do get out around 400, would we really enforce the followon as bowlers would have spent a whole day plus more in the field ? So these 650 scores are meaningless and we should always play fast and get to 550 and declare. IMO the good work and advantage of geting 365 in a day has been squandered and I strongly criticise Anil Kumble for playing on for individual's records/stats and not being aggressive enough to try and win 2-0

well to be honest.. we haven't played slow at all. The run rate now is 4.18. Total of 611 runs scored in 5 sessions and 65 in the 1st so we have scored 546 in 4 sessions making it 136.5 runs / session. I think that is excellent. plus on batting pitches 550 may not put enough pressure, 650 + or close to 700 might (more likely) break the opposition.

[Dhondy]

I agree with ravi.... we should have declared around 550, and given Pak half a day to bat today, and picked up maybe 4-5 wkts. There is no point in going past 550, because if we want them to follow on, 35o is a better bet, and if they do get out around 400, would we really enforce the followon as bowlers would have spent a whole day plus more in the field ? So these 650 scores are meaningless and we should always play fast and get to 550 and declare. IMO the good work and advantage of geting 365 in a day has been squandered and I strongly criticise Anil Kumble for playing on for individual's records/stats and not being aggressive enough to try and win 2-0

Forgotten Pakistan's last game on this pitch, Hari? A team total of 570, and a blistering 260 by Younis, with Inzi nearly getting a double ton. Replace Inzi with Yousuf, and you get an idea of the magnitude of India's task to bowl this Pakistani side out with their paper-thin bowling attack. Better sides than India have lost with a first innings tally of 550. What you lack in wickets, you make up in runs. India should pay no attention to the meaningless guessing games being played by the commentators, and bat on. We are ahead in this series, if you remember?

[Guest HariSampath]

Forgotten Pakistan's last game on this pitch, Hari? A team total of 570, and a blistering 260 by Younis, with Inzi nearly getting a double ton. Replace Inzi with Yousuf, and you get an idea of the magnitude of India's task to bowl this Pakistani side out with their paper-thin bowling attack. Better sides than India have lost with a first innings tally of 550. What you lack in wickets, you make up in runs. India should pay no attention to the meaningless guessing games being played by the commentators, and bat on. We are ahead in this series, if you remember?

If India gets 550, and that means Pak has to get to 700+ to hope for victory, which means in turn game is drawn anyway. We can bat on and on... but that will reduce possibility of winning, we can of course decide to draw and then bat on

[Mr. Wicket]

There've been two games played in the last couple of years where a team batting first piled up 550 without a problem in the first two days, and then lost. On neither occasion did the other team made close to 700.

[coffee_rules]

If India gets 550, and that means Pak has to get to 700+ to hope for victory, which means in turn game is drawn anyway. We can bat on and on... but that will reduce possibility of winning, we can of course decide to draw and then bat on

Cough * Adelaide * Cough...

[living]

I agree with ravi.... we should have declared around 550, and given Pak half a day to bat today, and picked up maybe 4-5 wkts. There is no point in going past 550, because if we want them to follow on, 35o is a better bet, and if they do get out around 400, would we really enforce the followon as bowlers would have spent a whole day plus more in the field ? So these 650 scores are meaningless and we should always play fast and get to 550 and declare. IMO the good work and advantage of geting 365 in a day has been squandered and I strongly criticise Anil Kumble for playing on for individual's records/stats and not being aggressive enough to try and win 2-0

umm, have you been watching the game? Uneven bounce since the end of play yesterday, and its just going to get worse. Good thing we got those runs, batting will be pretty difficult now ...

[Guest HariSampath]

my point is 550 is enough to get to a winning position on the 5th day, and when Pak are given half a day to at on the 2nd day, more chances of picking up 5 wkts

[Guest HariSampath]

Cough * Adelaide * Cough...

Australia.... and we are playing a weak Pakistan now

[Guest HariSampath]

There've been two games played in the last couple of years where a team batting first piled up 550 without a problem in the first two days, and then lost. On neither occasion did the other team made close to 700.

note who were the bowlers in the winning teams

[siddhu]

Australia.... and we are playing a weak Pakistan now

we didn't declare then... we got all out and anyway, a lead of 23 runs to Aus was not going to help us even if we had declared. It was one and only one matchwinning bowling contributions (in Tests ofcourse) from Eggy trundler that won us the match..

[Dhondy]

Australia.... and we are playing a weak Pakistan now

Irrelevant. The winning side at Adelaide was India, therefore Australia and Pakistan's relative strengths are not up for comparison.