🏏 WTC Final 2023, India vs Australia: Kennington Oval, London 🏏 - Page 33

Jaison: "If Ash is good enough to play in Australia, then why is he not good enough in England? And Umesh's one test match 2 years back is worth more than Ashwin's experience? There is no justification enough not to play your best spinner ahead of Thakur and Umesh." -- Australian summers are generally far hotter than English summers, so a: their pitches do tend to dry out a lot more and bring spinners into play in the second innings, and b: the fast bowlers can't necessarily bowl long, frequent spells in the heat.

Loopy: "Whenever we've been away from Test cricket for a while, it seems that spectators forget the dynamics of it and tend to exaggerate the action. We've only had 1 day of cricket, anything can change. Teams that look in front may lose their edge, weather on day 4 and 5 could assist pacers and wreck havoc and force a result. Just enjoy the cricket and leave the result talks for the later days."

Abhishek: "As frustrated as I am, I want a BIG DADDY triple-hundred from Pujara, not in terms of runs, but balls..."

Vikas Arya: "I kinda of agree with you @Kartik about the two reasonable choices but it does seem to me that India took the more "risky" choice given Umesh's fitness issues and the resulting lack of game time, not that there is anything wrong with it. And lets not forget, hindsight is a beautiful thing."

Siraj bowling the first over today.

Smith moves to 99 with a FOUR.

Smith moves to 103 with another FOUR

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Steve Smith : Not the best of sleeps (on 95*), that's nothing unusual for me in a Test match. Really good day yesterday. It was a nice performance, Travis Head was exceptional. We got ourselves in a nice position but plenty of work to do still. Yesterday it (the way Head batted) certainly helped, it put a lot of pressure back on the bowlers, probably got the bowlers off their lengths and probably translated to how they were bowling to me as well. They were a bit short in the middle session. That came because of the way Travis was playing. It was a nice partnership. I had the best seat in the house for the performance Trav put on. For me, it's just staying in my bubble, playing the way I know to play in Test cricket, not sort of shying away too much from that. If I try to keep up with Heady, I'll probably get myself in some trouble. Just play what's in front of me and just keep batting.(Adjustments while batting in England) Little bits and pieces, how far I move across the crease and different things. The Dukes ball - there's always something happening. Even yesterday, the ball swung for 80 overs. You got to be focussed and switched on every ball because one might do something out of nowhere. That keeps me switched on in these conditions. That's when I am playing my best. It (good toss to lose) might have been in the end. I still think there's enough in the wicket. India bowled a little bit short in the middle session where it was quite challenging. That came from the pressure Travis put on their bowlers. This morning is going to be interesting. We'll see what the new ball does this morning. There's enough there in that wicket for sure.

85.3 Siraj to Smith, FOUR, 7th Hundred for Steven Smith in England!! Takes out his helmet, raises his bat towards the pavillion and then kisses the crest on the helmet!! This was another poor half volley on middle and leg, clipped between mid-wicket and mid-on

85.2 Siraj to Smith, FOUR, too full on the pads, easy picking for Steven Smith who flicks through square leg for an easy boundary. He's onto 99

Most Test hundreds for Australia

41 - Ricky Ponting

32 - Steve Waugh

31 - Steve Smith

30 - Matthew Hayden

29 - Sir Don Bradman

Steven Smith backs away. Some issues with the spidey cam. Siraj is frustrated but he'll have to reload

Giri: Indian bowlers should use the short-ball ploy against Travis Head early in the day. He seemed quite uncomfortable against it, especially when directed to his body. If he gets past the first 10 overs today, India will be looking down the barrel.

Most Test hundreds against India

9 - Joe Root

9 - Steve Smith

8 - Ricky Ponting

8 - Sir Viv Richards

8 - Sir Garfield Sobers

Visiting batsmen with most Test hundreds in England

11 - Sir Don Bradman

7 - Steve Waugh

7 - Steve Smith

6 - Rahul Dravid

6 - Gordon Greenidge

Originally posted by: Prizi

they deserves it