The Lemon Fool

Woohoo

Channel 4 have won the rights to show England’s series in India in a groundbreaking deal that means Test cricket will return to terrestrial television in the UK for the first time since the 2005 Ashes.

The Guardian understands that global rights holders Star Sports and Channel 4 have agreed a contract for the live broadcast of the entire tour – four Tests, five Twenty20s and three one-day internationals – with an announcement due soon before the first Test in Chennai on Friday.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/feb/02/channel-4-wins-rights-for-england-test-cricket-tour-of-india

May have to get up early though - three of the four tests start at 4am UK time.

And the Six Nations starts on Saturday.

Bliss !

Odd that C4 haven't confirmed it themselves yet.

Also read that their rights aren't exclusive so BT or Sky may also show it in parallel.

C.

C4 coverage is rather irritating. Too many playbacks interrupting the live session as well as somewhat boring commentary. That said it's fantastic to have test cricket back on terrestrial telly.

Fascinating first day and quite controversial with some questionable umpiring. Also great batting from Sharma in particular and good bowling in patches.

Looks good for India because the track is doing things on the first day so is likely to be a pig for the side batting last.
The day's play also confirmed how valuable Joe Root is as an extra spinner. He bowled probably better than the other two spinners today.

Thoroughly enjoyed it.

I was surprised to see spectators not social distancing and mostly without face masks.

Big defeat on its way. The track is a spinners' dream and India have the better, more consistent spinners.
Let's hope the next venue is a reasonable batting track.

Leothebear wrote:Big defeat on its way. The track is a spinners' dream and India have the better, more consistent spinners.
Let's hope the next venue is a reasonable batting track.

India need 2-1 or 3-1 series victory to make the final at lords thing.

It won't be a decent batting track. they'll risk losing the toss and the test against a draw becasue its a nice track.

didds wrote:

Leothebear wrote:Big defeat on its way. The track is a spinners' dream and India have the better, more consistent spinners.
Let's hope the next venue is a reasonable batting track.

India need 2-1 or 3-1 series victory to make the final at lords thing.

It won't be a decent batting track. they'll risk losing the toss and the test against a draw becasue its a nice track.

What does this actually mean?

Leothebear wrote:

didds wrote:

Leothebear wrote:Big defeat on its way. The track is a spinners' dream and India have the better, more consistent spinners.
Let's hope the next venue is a reasonable batting track.

India need 2-1 or 3-1 series victory to make the final at lords thing.

It won't be a decent batting track. they'll risk losing the toss and the test against a draw becasue its a nice track.

What does this actually mean?

Within reason, the groundsman can prepare the wicket in various ways. They can make it more of a batting pitch so scoring will be easier, the match will last longer but with that the potential for a draw becomes more likely. Or they can prepare it to be more bowler friendly and hence more likely not to go the 5 days and therefore one team or the other will win.

In this case didds is speculating that India will want a result in order to make the Lords final. I am not sure that makes sense as India only have to win the series 2-1 so a draw and a win in the last test will suffice. It's not sh*t or bust in this test.

Note that preparing a pitch is not an exact science.

Also there is an assumption that England will not want a results pitch but I'm not sure that is true either because they have to win 3-1 to make Lords so this is sh*t or bust in that regard.

Given it's a day/night test and the situation of the series/qualifying for Lords I wouldn't expect the groundsman to be told to go much one way or another. If India won it you would expect them to make the wicket in the last test like a road to favour a drawn game.

GrandOiseau wrote:

Leothebear wrote:

didds wrote:

India need 2-1 or 3-1 series victory to make the final at lords thing.

It won't be a decent batting track. they'll risk losing the toss and the test against a draw becasue its a nice track.

What does this actually mean?

Within reason, the groundsman can prepare the wicket in various ways. They can make it more of a batting pitch so scoring will be easier, the match will last longer but with that the potential for a draw becomes more likely. Or they can prepare it to be more bowler friendly and hence more likely not to go the 5 days and therefore one team or the other will win.

In this case didds is speculating that India will want a result in order to make the Lords final. I am not sure that makes sense as India only have to win the series 2-1 so a draw and a win in the last test will suffice. It's not sh*t or bust in this test.

Note that preparing a pitch is not an exact science.

Also there is an assumption that England will not want a results pitch but I'm not sure that is true either because they have to win 3-1 to make Lords so this is sh*t or bust in that regard.

Given it's a day/night test and the situation of the series/qualifying for Lords I wouldn't expect the groundsman to be told to go much one way or another. If India won it you would expect them to make the wicket in the last test like a road to favour a drawn game.

Risking losing the toss is because on a "result wicket" it is much more likely the team batting first gets that result (or perhaps more correctly the team batting last is much more likely to lose).

dealtn wrote:Risking losing the toss is because on a "result wicket" it is much more likely the team batting first gets that result (or perhaps more correctly the team batting last is much more likely to lose).

Bang on. Ref: the 1st test, England won toss, batted and beat India

didds

Was the First Test a "result wicket"?

GrandOiseau wrote:Was the First Test a "result wicket"?

It was allegedly turning by end of day one, albeit not as much as this one. questions were raised about the ability to bat on it by day 4

India 1st innings 4 wickets for Bess, 2 for Leach. Anderson got 2 - numbers 10 and 11.
India 2nd innings 4 wickets for Leach opening the bowling already, 1 for Bess.

For india in the match 13 wickets for spinners