Surely SA purposely would not have asked for such a pitch but for sure SA would have put a more emphasis on a pacy track. And considering how much talk the pitch generated even before the match started and how much grass was there one day before the match surely was an indication that it was going to be a crazy track.
India Tour of South Africa
- Thread starter prath92
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Surely SA purposely would not have asked for such a pitch but for sure SA would have put a more emphasis on a pacy track. And considering how much talk the pitch generated even before the match started and how much grass was there one day before the match surely was an indication that it was going to be a crazy track.
A lot of presumption in that post.
Again, not a lot SA team can do about it even if they think pitch is crazy from day 1. Umpires should have acted earlier is at least something all can agree on. I saw Virat telling batsmen to stay when Rahane got hit on elbow though so we don't know how that would have gone had umpires asked players to go off.
Play to continue tomorrow 
Which parts?
What would interesting to see is whether SA would have come off if they were chasing 150.
Money is more important than safety.Play to continue tomorrow
Play to continue tomorrow
Should give India the win and call it off.
Just hoping match ends without anyone getting injured. Else it will be a shit storm for referee and umpires. Damned if you do, damned if you don't is their situation right now
Via Cricinfo. Felt important considering the speculation over the last few pages.
I just don't see how they came to that conclusion after stopping play today..Play to continue tomorrow
There was similar outrage when Sri Lanka were throwing up at Delhi. Then India got on and started throwing up, and suddenly the keyboard warriors became health conscious.
Too many sub continental fans have a victim complex.
Our team obviously wants to prove a point. Honestly, if they have no problem, the feck is yours?
Posted full interviews from both teams a couple of pages ago, which might provide a bit of context. SA manager saying getting hit on elbows, wrists, rib cage is alright but getting hit on the head from a ball that shot up from good length should cause concerns, which was why umpires had the teams walk off. That probably prompted a lot of discussion since Elgar got hit while trying to play on front foot from outside the crease to a ball that was short of length bowled by someone who hits the deck hard. More due to poor technique and less about the pitch (though it contributed).
Read somewhere that the umpires have to prove that the pitch deteriorated sufficiently between the time it was considered okay (Ind innings) and by the time they think it worsened (SA innings) to declare it as unfit. Not sure how true it is but maybe that's why they decided to continue tomorrow since there was not a great difference?
Why are the team captains/managers even being consulted? Surely it's up to the umpires and match referee to decide if the pitch is dangerous or not. Why involve the teams in that decision? Surely India who have an upper hand are more likely to play, esp after having batted twice on the same pitch.
Umpires take them off, match referee meets the captains (and no one else!), if the captains agree to play on they do, if they do not they look at fixing the pitch without disadvantaging one team and if they cannot repair the pitch they abandon play. If South Africa really wanted to dig in and not play they wouldn't be playing.
you're a data analyst from chennai
How is that relevant?
Interesting. Did not know that just one captain could decline to play and force the matter.
That is how I'm interpreting it but we have no idea how these conversations work and there are also external pressures (boards, TV, fans etc).
Or maybe it's because of fans like you (whichever nation you are from) that you feel everything India or BCCI does is wrong. Maybe stop calling India home town bullies or stop acting up when India thrash opposing teams when they tour India because of spin heavy tracks. It seems you do not want to understand the point. No one wants anyone to get hUrt. For all I say abandon the match and move on, but the problem is this is not the first time we have been facing in pace heavy tracks when ever we tour, and all we hear is how India are home track bullies and cannot play abroad but when the same happens to other teams, it is just because of unfriendly pitch.
They could literally do what they are doing now. The pitch didn't magically become dangerous in the 4th innings, was just as dangerous in the 2nd innings but obviously nothing concerned them then.
We're in the 4th innings, think we'll manage. The sudden drama is borderline hilarious.
Imagine after all this we(India) lose.. That's going to suck so much.. Need to remove AB and Amla before they gets going..
Again, SA team didn't go to Umpires to ask game to be called off. The decision to go off for Umpires was also culmination of all previous instances of dangerous bounce in match before. It is not as if they are taking this call only for safety of Saffers and didn't care about Indians.
Edgar acting as if he got shot, calling physios and wasting minutes with that water bottle on his head and what not when the ball never touched him and only hit the grill. The message was loud and clear. That too after a standard short ball that had nothing to do with the pitch.
I've been watching cricket for over 20 years now. I've seen batsmen hit on the helmet many a time to know how 'hurtful' that is. A little shaking it off is all it needs, but when you're clutching at straws to get the match called off for the slightest thing you have to stoop to such play acting.
They literally have no intention of playing on and none of this caution was on display till they saw defeat looming large on their heads. Cowardly.
The umpires are obviously idiots for letting the game get this far on this pitch, and should have simply called it off earlier, but leaving it to the call of the team that's not looking like they'll chase the target after 3 days and over 3 innings played is pretty daft and unfair to India to say the least.
There isn't. Rahane's press conference makes it clear that the Indian camp does not consider this a dangerous pitch and they want(wanted) to continue at any cost.
The hit on grill can easily impact on forehead. Not a rocket science and yes there have been instances of players being more shaken after such hits. It is RAWK level stupidity in believing that Elgar did it purposely. He didn't go down 'like shot.' He was standing OK and medical department obviously have to look at it as it is potential head injury.
I know you support SA but this is getting a bit silly. It wasn't just that incident, he was obviously milking any sort of contact and his reaction to that bouncer was clearly prolonged.
As per Rahane's conference, they were never offered the chance by umpires to go off. They only offered a chance for physios to come on. That's not how the law works anyway, umpires take the call to go off regardless of what the batsmen want. Whether the game is called off or not is upto the 2 captains (or a single one if he refused to play once they have gone off).
lol Moby I don't 'support' SA! I thought Elgar was milking first hit but replays showed he got hit that time too. There is of course possibility of SA players reacting little worse here though but call needs to be taken by Umpires whether it is pitch doing the variable bounce affecting batsmen or is just standard mis-judgement by batsmen when hit.
When Rahane got hit, Virat was immediately pointing them to stay. So I doubt India would have walked off anyway. I don't think rules can force teams to walk off. If players want to continue, Umpires continue.
Umpires basically have let it build after every blow rather than sooner decision. If hypothetically India refused to go off when asked but SA do as they did, we can't blame South Africa.
I don't know if you were watching that there were around twelve thousand replays to show that the ball landed 8.5m from the stumps, which makes it a standard short ball which would bounce as it did. It was the third ball to Edgar that reached that height, he negotiated the first two, got hit by the third and called the ambulance.
The SA spokesperson statement despite undeniable evidence of the length of the ball saying it was the pitch that caused the height is again laughable and pretty clearly cements the theory that they're trying to get the asses out of this one with a draw.
Hence the inconsistency on their part.
No one really cares about the result as it's a dead rubber anyway, but it really is laughable to see SA run with their tail between their legs.
SA spokeperson might have said but again, referee came on pitch after the hit and it was culmination of previous incidences not a stand-alone call. Blaming SA here is pointless, they didn't ask referee or umpires to intervene.
Nope, that is not the protocol. The initial decision to come off it entirely upto the umpires, at that point whether batsmen agree to go off or not is irrelevant. Players' desire to continue only comes into place once the matter has been discussed with the match referee. So it is entirely umpires' fault that they did not call it off in the first session itself. And yes, Indian batsmen would have never come off happily since as per Rahane, they don't think it is a dangerous pitch. Essentially Indian camp is intent on making SA unilaterally take the call to stop playing. That puts SA in a tricky spot since they seemingly, even now, can't bring themselves to criticise the surface without obfuscating the issue.
India are just taking the risk because of nothing to lose situation. If India were in South Africa's position they will behave exactly same way.
Nah they only stood around for ages showing how badly the ball had hit the helmet, have no intention of playing forward, will be forcing the play to be called off and have team representatives only nail the issue further. A bunch of real sporty saints.
As said before, very RAWKish. Didn't do well when it mattered in previous two tests and now finding reasons for moral victory.
Imagine if saffers successfully chase down the target tomorrow
They would have, and as Sunny said they would have been called unsporting cowards who as per usual cannot handle a bit of pace and bounce. But obviously since it's SA it's all legit concern and not running away from defeat at all.