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Should Test Matches be Played at Neutral Venues?

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In recently concluded test match between India and England at newly inaugurated Narendra Modi Stadium worlds largest cricket stadium the way bowlers have dominated and the match was ended within 5 sessions, have raised the voices that home teams can prepare the pitches for their advantage and thus violate the rules of fair play. The pitch in controversy lasted for 2 days only and the such was the impact that no team was able to cross 200 run mark and even a part timer like Joe Root was able to take a fiver.

Joe Root (captain) of England during day two of the third PayTM test match between India and England held at the Narendra Modi Stadium , Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India on the 25th February 2021 Photo by Pankaj Nangia / Sportzpics for BCCI

What makes this series and its outcome more important to the world is, the winner will face Newzealand in the final of World Test Championship, to be played at Lords the same venue that hosted the 50 overs World Cup final last year. Current standings of the points table suggests that India, England and Australia are in race for the final. England fans and supporters are hoping for one more final against the newzealand at the home soil but to reach there they have humongous task ahead. Winning in subcontinent is always been a dream for any visiting team. In home conditions team India is almost unbeatable and when they have the crowd support behind them along the pitches favoring they become deadlier.

Coming bac to the pitch that was prepared for the third test between India and England garnered a lot of attentions from former cricketers and experts. A pool of current and former English players have raised their concerns about the pitches offered for the ongoing series. If the pitch straightaway starts helping the spinners (in this case it was misbehaving) from the ball one, it requires some serious attention from ICC.

Though this is not for the first time that any home team is preparing the pitches as per their strengths. Any home team would try to prepare the pitches which suits their style of play or is difficult for the opponents. When team India visits any country they also face situations which are not familiar to them. World knows that fast, bouncy and swinging condition are a weakness for Indian batting lineup and oppositions always try to exploit it by offering supporting pitches. If SENA countries can prepare wickets which suits their style of play, why can’t team India prepare pitches which favors them.

With this pitch controversy once again the same old debate has started that should test matches be played at neutral venues to counter the home conditions. That will not only eliminate the home conditions advantage but will also give rise to the popularity of cricket at non-cricket playing places. Teams may not find the same level of audience support at neutral venues initially but with time it will become popular too if the quality of cricket is there. We should not forget that initially 50 overs cricket was also not very popular but with time it has gathered a lot of attention even when the matches are played at neutral venues.

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What time holds we don’t know but one thing is very clear that Newzealand will be waiting once again to play the finals at Lords and this time they will not let the chance go from their hands to lift the most prestigious title of the cricket.

All image source : Google Images

Villains of Chennai

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With its first defeat at home after four years and that too on the ground which is believed to be one of the luckiest one for team India, some questions awaits for Virat and company as the next match standing just 72 hours away. With star players still not in their best shape, it would a grueling situation for team after being on the field for almost 3 days in the heat of Chennai.

We the fans in India chastise every failure and forget them very early too. We forgot the 36 all-out in Adelaide and filled with the joy of drawing the match in Melbourne. When the team Won at Sydney and Brisbane we were on cloud nine. But as soon as the we failed in the first innings against the lesser known bowing lineup, fans found a new reason to blame the team.

Do Indian Players Still Play Spinners Well

This defeat reminds us of the loss against the Australia at Pune four years back when our mighty batting lineup fell miserably against relatively less experienced spin bowling attack. Same happened in this match as well. Jack Leach and Dominic Bess might be big names for England cricket today for Indian fans and for the world they are lesser known players who are trying to make a name in international cricket.



What surprised more was even their fast bowlers were testing our batters on spinning friendly pitch and their batting lineup looked at no discomfort against our bowling. Apart from James Anderson all the bowlers are relatively new to the international cricket but their performance in this match have confirmed one thing that it will not be a easy going for team India in upcoming 3 matches.



Fans who were hoping for team to play in the ICC Test Championship’s final at Lords, will be rethinking after this performance. Momentum is now with England and even if they could draw the series, we might see the finalists of World Cup one more time playing for the pride at the same place.



This I am writing not on the basis of this one match but look at the form their captain is in. With this “Avatar” Root will pose challenges in next 3 games as well. Age is just a number for Anderson and he is looking younger day by day and showing this with his bowling. Archer is still a mystery for most of the batters. Bowlers are helpless against the power hitting of Stokes and Buttler.



For India the positives of this match were 6-fer of Ashwin, 85 from Sunder in first innings and Pant’s 97 in first innings. If we talk about the villains of this match there will be several contenders. Here we have listed three players who fans believe are responsible for this loss.



1. Rohit Sharma – With failures in both the innings and missed chances in slips he is first one to be blamed for India’s failure in first test.

2. Virat Kohli – Its been more then a year now that the world has witnessed a century from Indian Run Machine’s bat and his failure in first innings saw the collapse of the middle order. Team selection is another issue which raised the eyebrows of several experts.

3. Shahbaz Nadeem – He is playing just his second game and it would be hard to blame him for the defeat but his ineffectiveness on a spin friendly pitch hurt the team a lot.

As a true Indian fan we will hope for a fight and comeback from team India in next match but the way things have gone in this match, road to the next matches looks difficult for team India. Whatever be the result we will keep cheering and hoping for a win in the series.

We left readers with a survey. Predict the player from the options and get a chance to feature on our next article with your views.

The unusual failure of CSK and big Indian players in IPL2020

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Probably this question is in the mind of every cricket fan and specially those who admire Dhoni. Ever since team India’s exit from the world cup 2019 in the semifinal against New-Zealand, speculations were high about his retirement from the game. Eventually it did come as a surprise, almost after a year when he announced on the evening of independence day. He has a huge fan following all over the world and specially in India. People wanted to see him one last time on the cricket field but this could not be happened reason his own decision to remain unavailable for the selection early on and then this pandemic which has affected careers of many.

Fans after the disappointing news of retirement from international cricket were hoping to see their favorite cricketer in action in this edition of IPL. But fate had something different for him. Because of the COVID-19, initially the much awaited tournament was postponed for September and then the managing body was forced to organize it outside India. Finally it came to UAE but the new normal has forced the governing body to organize it in almost empty stadiums.

Excitement of IPL was surely not there. packed stadiums, loud music, cheer leaders and a hell lot of noise for every single run scored and every wicket fallen are missing. Even the players are not feeling the spirit of IPL, once they used to.

For CSK this year has been very bad right from the beginning. First the Raina controversy and then the exit of harbhajan citing personal reasons followed by below par performance of the team was enough to raise the eyebrows of the fans. Fans are shocked, they can’t believe this is the same CSK, they use to cheer for all these years. The charisma, the charm and the impact are missing on the field. Batsman are finding it difficult to hit the ball, bowlers are not striking and even the fielding is disappointing.

There could be multiple reasons for this rare failure of CSK. One point could be the fact that most of the players do not play at international level, either because they have retired or they haven’t been introduced at that level so far. Second the team has yet not been habitual with the wickets of UAE which are bit two paced and have posed problems for batsmen.

One more important reason could be the empty stadiums. Most of the teams when play in India, have a huge support from the crowd and with time players become use to it. And suddenly when they are asked to play in the empty stadiums, they might be finding it difficult as the atmosphere they used to play is missing. This situation may apply more on senior players like Dhoni, who whenever comes to the ground there is a big cheer from the crowd, no matter on which ground or city the match is being played.

For players, who hardly get a chance to play in front of the huge crowd, the situation might actually favor. Simply because they do not feel the nervousness of being watched and can play their natural game. We could see this absence of nervousness from some of the performances as well, like Rahul Tewatia’s five sixes in an over, Ishan Kishan’s powerful hitting and some brilliant catching by other young players. While players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Dhoni are just looking like a shadow of themselves. They might be missing that feel and atmosphere of the audience roaring in the background, cheering for every single run scored, every boundary hit and for every single stop in the field.

Yes there are some exceptions to this as well, like the power hitting of Chris Gayle is unaffected, ABD is hitting as if he never retired from the game, Pollard is striking every second ball miles away.

Good thing for India is young Indian talent is firing despite the conditions and the the challenges posed by the pandemic. The likes of Devdutt Paddikkal, Shubhman Gill, Mayank Agarwal, K.L. Rahul, Washington Sundar, Prithvi Shaw, and Jasprit Bumrah are some of the names which have done well in this edition.

The race is still not over for the CSK as your never know in cricket until the last ball is bowled. But going with the performance so far, chances of CSK making to the play-offs are dying and with that the career of Thala also seems to be setting like the sun.

We end this article with a question for the readers. Your reviews are always welcome.
All images source : Google Images

The Super Over Sunday Thrill

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It was a super Sunday for the IPL fans. The excitement of the cricket was at its peak on Sunday in both the encounters. IPL has already through half way stage and we have witnessed some fascinating cricket in last 2 weeks or so. But what we encountered on Sunday was thrill at its peak with 2 super overs in a match.

Even after the first super over the result could not be decided and the match went for super over 2.0. At international level these sights are rare but in IPL super overs are common in almost every edition.

Unlike other it was a day with 2 matches played at 2 different venues but the outcome of the games was decided same way : Super Over. In the first encounter between SRH and KKR we witnessed some sheer brilliance of bowling by kiwi quick Lockie Ferguson while the second match was by far the most exciting outings for the fans after last year’s world cup final between England and New-Zealand.

Since the inception of the league one thing that hasn’t changed is entertainment for the crowd. Of-course the grounds are empty this year because of the pandemic but the people watching matches at home on television screens are guaranteed with the some very exciting cricket.

One can not ask for more. After 40 overs the result is not out, teams went for super over and it tied again. what followed after that was another super over and there we got the result. It was a roller coaster ride of excitement for the fans. In previous editions also we had witnessed some exciting finishes, But 2 super overs in a single game is the thing witnessed for the first time, we are told.

No one can forget the last year’s world cup final between England and New-Zealand where the result could not be decided after the super over and winner was decided on the basis of number of boundaries hit during the innings.

The phenomenon of super over 2.0 might be an outcome of the backlash erupted after the decision of world cup final. People were not at all happy with the rules in place in case the super over also ties. We have witnessed some close encounters in this edition of IPL but this will go down as the most exciting finish of the season so far.
We don’t know what future hold for us in upcoming matches but one thing can be guaranteed that is entertainment. (All images source : Google Images)

We leave you with an opinion poll.