India v South Africa, 1st Test, Chennai, 5th day

Manjrekar: A forgettable Test

March 30, 2008

Sanjay Manjrekar looks back at the Chennai Test and says that the players deserve credit for playing all five days on a flat wicket in those hot and humid conditions, and that for the sake of the series we must hope that the next two pitches offer something to the seamers or the spinners. Only then will there be a real contest between bat and ball

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Comments have now been closed for this article India did well to get S.Africa in the first innings although they gave too many runs through bad fielding. Nevertheless under oppressive conditions this was good effort. However India failed to capitalize on a brilliant and fast 319 from Sehwag and folded like nine pins after Sehwag on a easy paced pitch. That was the turning point. Had India added 400 on the 4th day, it would have been a different story. Lessons learnt 1. Prpare more sporting wickets to produce results 2. Opportunity comes but once - India must learn to capitalize 3. Change hours of play to 8 AM to 11 AM and then 3 PM to 6 PM to combat heat factor 4. Greater focus on youth to cope with the conditions 5. Proper team replacements e.g., Include Gambhir or Yuvraj & Chawla to replace Tendulkar and Kumble, who are both injured. Also Kumar and Ishant to replace Sreesanth and RP Singh. India has many options to deal with both pitches and weather conditions by including players of right choice. More spirited team needed. Posted by Nampally on March 31 2008, 13:43 PM GMT Heavily disappointed with the dead pitch. It was expected to be a great battle but wasn't to be!!! Some thought has to be give that at least in TEST matches we prepare a wicket which has something for the bowlers. With ODIs and now T20s, we can't afford to have DRAWs purely due to badly prepared pitch. And I agree with Sanjay it was a test to forget. Its true that Viru's 319 & Rahul's 10k runs was some thing to cheer about. But dont forget its a team game & individual records are just rewards but the true Award is Team's victory. And both of them would have like to have the Award than reward. Posted by A_PROUD_INDIAN on March 31 2008, 13:04 PM GMT The chennai pitch was meant for toddlers to say the least. What a bummer of a match...Sanjay you are exactly right...and neither I wouldnt be suprised to see fast bowlers voluntarily opting out of Test matches to be played on pitches like these in the future....What..Even Boycott's mother in law would have score a triple century on this dust bowl.. When will the administrators or the curators ever learn to prepare a TRUE pitch...It would have being worth the salt if India had won...who is bothered of the fastest triple or 10000 runs if it doesnt win you matches. Posted by Patcom on March 31 2008, 12:54 PM GMT It is high time the Cricket Administrators and Curators realise that they are doing a huge disservice to Test Cricket by producing such pitches. With the advent of T20 as it is there are fears that the days of Test Cricket are numbered which would be a HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT for a connossieur like me. And by producing such DEAD DODOS it is merely fuelling the philistines who clamour for the end of Test Cricket. There should be a good contest between bat and ball. And lately even if a careful analysis of the performance of our Indian Cricket Team is made it will be found that our Team has done well becoz there was someting in it for the bowlers who were good enough to exploit it to their advantage. Posted by guptavipulv on March 31 2008, 08:40 AM GMT After a wonderful Australian series it's sad to see the players playing on a dead pitch like this. Actually what is the motivation to prepare a pitch like this? is pitch making a trail and error process or what? It's pathetic to see this test match except the audacious Sehwag's triple century. When does the paradigm shift happens with the Indian cricket administration? are they afraid of seeing India loosing if they prepare fast pitch, but they just played on Australian pitches and it would have been ideal to prepare a fast pitch. Anyways they killed the interest of watching cricket from America(by loosing our sleep) one more time. Kudo's to Indian cricket management. Thanks Raj Posted by rajkoppa on March 31 2008, 00:35 AM GMT Its hard to believe why such wickets are still made in our country. These type of dead wickets having nothing for the bowlers in it are really destroying the interests of Test cricket which is already falling back to ODIs and Twenty20s. The BCCI,local cricket boards and the curators should do something to hold the interests of the people in Test matches. When ODIs and T20s are designed especially for the batters, why not design the Test Cricket for the bowlers, where the wickets will have plenty for the bowlers so that the skills of the batters are tested to survive and make runs and we can see more results on Indian surfaces. Posted by SujoyMoulik on March 30 2008, 18:36 PM GMT Sanjay, what do you want to forget in this test. This test match will be recorded in the history. For the fastest triple century by any person in a test match for the highest individual score by an indian. dravid has completed his 10000 runs. Posted by ManujBalaji on March 30 2008, 17:27 PM GMT A real dull test match, as a neutral observe the only interesting thing in the game was the thought that Viru could break Brian Lara's record. The rest of it was absolutely dull and boring. A few more of such games, and test match cricket is bound for a slow death. With 20-20 becoming a rage in India, Test cricket will soon be seen as a waste of time, unless pitches are prepared which make the game interesting. Nowadays, fans of test cricket will only watch games in which their own teams are involved or in which Australia could be beaten. No one cares of the other games.The next test is also expected to head the same way. God save Test cricket. Posted by roshan_sherigar on March 30 2008, 15:06 PM GMT Top ^