knowing Virat, he will be pushing for play to continue, will test of Match referee and umpires.

comment by Whyalwaysme (U9900)
posted 1 minute ago
knowing Virat, he will be pushing for play to continue, will test of Match referee and umpires.
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Wouldn’t you though? Knowing your team has just batted on it. Elgar was milking it slightly too with the ice pack.

It was a short ball - fair enough it it pitched a good length and it shot up and hit him in the grill

Oh yes Kev H, absolutely. I think Virat should push them to bat on. SA will try to chicken out as they have nothing left to play for. They can save themselves for ODIs and T20s now. India have point to prove and should try and win this game. Hope Virat puts the pressure.

Its drizzling now ! don't know the forecast but imagine if it rains overnight and leaves some moisture in the wicket for tomorrow fresh start I guess SA batsmen wont like to bat on at all !

Give over lads, how are saffers cowards?? Was purely an umpire decision. Nothing to do with saffers. Do agree that given the pitch is behaving exactly as it has all day they should play on now. Personally, think it should have been called off this morning when they looked at it initially.

Afridi

Not exactly cowards but it appears to me from their body language that they are not keen or fussed about batting on and would prefer to get out asap. We don't know whats said by captains but it appears SA will push to call it off? I am just assuming..

The balls that have risen and hit the bat have all been short balls.

I haven't seen one which was pitched up or on a good length which shot up

Ridiculous to call this off

SA don't mind producing wickets like these for their bowlers.. Not so nice when they have to face it. Goes back to a game years ago where the pitch started off very damp and it was almost dark. England were 4 down for nothing.. SA produced that pitch.. they woulda complained if they lost the toss and were forced to bat..
If India battered on it for 80 overs so should SA. South Africa will complain because they may lose and don't like it..

comment by Whyalwaysme (U9900)
posted 10 minutes ago
Afridi

Not exactly cowards but it appears to me from their body language that they are not keen or fussed about batting on and would prefer to get out asap. We don't know whats said by captains but it appears SA will push to call it off? I am just assuming..
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Yeah agree they will look to push it off only because of the position they find themselves in rather than the pitch itself. Think any team would do that... but I think the umpires have fekkked up here by asking the captains - shouldn’t have anything to do with them. Umpires should have made the correct decisions early.

Not easy to end a game when its almost nearing a close. the test England and west-indies that was abandoned was at the start. That pitch was deadly.
I think they will start in the morning after the rollers been on it. see what happens then.

The pitch isn’t going to get any better that’s for sure.... if it’s left to the captains, India will want to play and saffers won’t.. not sure what happens then.

In that case, it will be umpires and Referee's decision whether to call it off or continue.

Also both captain need to agree if they want to get any work done on the pitch apart from Rolling. I doubt I hope Ind don't allow them to touch the pitch apart from regular rolling.

SA management/ground staff have fekeed up this test for sure.

There is talk that the grounds man have been asked to try and repair the pitch. If they manage to some how repair this wicket not sure how that is fair on India who had to tough it out on the same wicket. Abandonment beckons.

SA should be made to forfeit the game its their board and grounds man that prepared this pitch.

Not sure saffers management and board will want this called off, of it can be avoided. They’ll end up losing johannesburg wanderers as a test venue. Will have massive implications for them.... they’ll probably favour to play on. Won the series anyway.

And people wonder why Test cricket is dying. It's end of Day 3 on a bowlers paradise. What are the umpires expecting?

Just because Elgar can't play a short pitch delivery.. Actually most of the Indian tail batted better on here than Elgar has. If they do call this off, will open up a huge can of worms. Don't think the ICC will want to upset the BCCI anymore. South Africa will also be concerned with putting any of the Australia Test matches in jeopardy.

South Africa should go out there and play or forfeit.

Imagine the reaction if this was an Indian pitch lads - would have been absolute outcry. Fact is we have not once complained about the pitches on this tour despite the last one being rated as poor as well.

Bhuvi I thought was absolutely superb today as was Rahane and the fact that both were dropped during this tour is an absolute shambles. Potentially match changing contributions from both of them. Shastri needs to go back to screaming "trace a bullet" in the commentary box because it seems that is all he is apt at doing.

South African commentators and Holding were very critical of the pitch.

I said this from the first test, this was a terrible pitch. India haven’t played good cricket at all throughout the series but have not complained about the pitches.

Rahane would have made a huge difference imo. Already his 2nd innings and he has made a huge contribution on probably the toughest pitch of the series. Bhuvi should play all teat matches. He can be our allrounder

Well said Viru. I think Pandya needs more time to mature and at present Bhuvi is lot better than him for sure. Even Ashwin should be considered over Pandya in any pitch as he gets wickets no matter what and can contribute with the bat too. I know our management supports Ishant forever but he never brings confidence as a frontline bowler. He should be the main bowling spearhead after so many matches but even Bumrah brings more to the table than him. I hope Shami bowls better tomorrow otherwise Umesh should be given chance in future games, especially in England or Australia..

Yeah I reckon our bowling is sorted. The bigger issue will be our batting. Our openers and Pujara failed miserably this series. You can’t have top 3 failing consistently in the series. I reckon England will be a do or die situation for Vijay and Pujara. I think both have had plenty of chances to play in overseas conditions and if they can’t start scoring runs then we need to look at other players

My main concern is, they stopped the play when the pressure was on SA at the faggg end of the day under fading light when only few overs were left and we all know how tentative players are during that time....who will give that same situation back to India now.....did anyone think about that?...

South Afiican captain and coach +umpires looking at the pitch and they decide to take 30 minutes to have a look again..Lets understand one thing if the roles were reversed south Africa would be all for bowling..

Yup Liver.. Well said bro 👍