ChinmayC Blog

Source: BCCI As many as 16 wickets fell on the very first day of the Second and last Test match, a day-n-night pink ball affair, between India and Sri Lanka at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru today. Pink ball test matches have been a very recent addition to the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Test Championship (WTC) schedules and this is perhaps only the third match played in India so far. India demolished Bangladesh in the first ever Pink-ball test in Kolkata and then England in the second pink-ball Ahmedabad match. Normally the pink ball is associated with more swing, particularly in the twilight period when the lights come on, even though this is still not a proven fact. In this particular match more than the pink ball blues the pitch seems to have played a far pivotal role. The pitch has proved to be a turning one from day 1 combined uneven and variable bounce which helped both the seamers and the spinners. The way the wickets fell in heaps on the very first day the ma...

It was inevitable that India would beat New Zealand in the Test Series decider in Mumbai after the Kiwis were bowled out for a pathetic 62 in their first innings giving India a lead of 263 runs; only the margin of the victory was of interest. It could have been by an innings and some runs had India enforced the follow-on at the last session of the second day. That surprising decision was somewhat explained by the Head Coach Rahul Dravid, happy with his first series win as a coach, that it was to give some batting experience to the Indian young guns and that there was no worry at all as India had ample time to bowl New Zealand out in the second innings. Perhaps, the decision was also to enable the inconsistent Pujara who came out to open in the second innings with Mayank and captain Kohli to have some batting practice too ahead of the South Africa tour starting from 26 th of this month. And more importantly, considering the fact that India’s top order or middle order or both has been fa...