[NPV]

New Zealand 60/8 but the question on my mind is if they're all out soon, will Kohli enforce the follow on ?

I'm sure new Zealand will be very uncomfortable playing another inning today but remains to be seen what Kohli and co. think.

Edit: New Zealand 62 all out!

[harry10]

Knew kohli won't take follow on. Don't mind batting more and practice out till 2nd session tomorrow.

Ajaz is the luckiest and unluckiest guy in the same match. Euphoria of 10 wickets died within 2 hours of batting collapse.

Kohli knew Siraj hat trick ball was pitching outside still took the review cos it was hat trick ball.

Don't think any home team is as dominant as India is since last few years.

[Eddy]

Good decision by Kohli. Follow on should never be enforced on days 2 & 3 when the pitch is best for batting in most cases. Why alllow the opposition to make use of good batting conditions?

[VWAllstar]

Pertinent question. Source: Cricinfo

Who will be the man of the match as things stand now? Mayank's 200 runs already helped India get ahead on a pitch where the opposition scored just 62 in their first innings. Or should MOM award go to Ajaz Patel for his 10 wickets which doesn't happen often but it had little impact on this match?

I believe the MOM should be Mayank as he scored nearly 50% of the team's 1st innings total where opposition got bowled out for 62. However, cricket has many untold stories and twists. If Ajaz pulls a plug now and gets NZ that small ray of hope, then..

[Eddy]

If ever there was a case for a joint MoM, this match it is.

[NPV]

Umpiring has been below average in this series despite having probably India's best and experienced international umpires in the present times adjudicating - Nitin Menon, Anil Chaudhary and Virender Sharma.
Add to this, Saha isn't assertive with his feedback on DRS calls and now India has lost 2 reviews! Nichols was lbw off Umesh Yadav, but he thought there was an inside edge and didn't bother to review! Replays showed Nichols was in fact out and there wasn't any inside edge.
Does seem unlikely at the moment, but will New Zealand bat out the remaining 2 days and maybe with some help from weather/rain earn a draw ?

[padmrajravi]

To me there is no confusion about the Man of the match. Unless something out of the ordinary happens, it is Mayank Agarwal. Ajas Patel's exploits are only because there are no other quality spin bowlers in his team. Mayank performed better than all the other batsmen playing the game these 5 days. Can anyone confidently say Ajas performed better than all other bowlers who played these 5 days ?

Imagine if Aswin was in place of Ajas Patel in the Newzealand team. Will India get 300 odd runs? I consider Aswin's and Siraj's performance better than Ajas's performance. They literally rattled Newzealand batsmen. India had no problem playing Ajas.

[nairrk]

2nd test: New Zealand/India


India won the match by 372 runs


Scores:

India 325 & 276/7 d
New Zealand 62 & 167

[Bibendum90949]

Picture Perfect !
Someone made these guys pose for it.

[Venkatesh]

Mayank Agarwal Name inscribed on the Honours Board at the Wankhede.









Link

[NPV]

England tottering at 144/9 after winning the toss and opting to bat first!

All the top test teams have vulnerable batting lineups that can fail miserably on a given day, India doesn't have a monopoly on this

We just saw New Zealand score 62 and 167 in the second test against India.

Now, if only Australia can bat as badly, it would make my day

Edit: England 147 all out!

[Venkatesh]

India’s squad for Tests against South Africa announced.

Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Md. Siraj.

Rohit Sharma has been named as India’s new ODI & T20I captain, replacing Virat Kohli.

Beginning of a new era for India men’s limited-overs cricket.



Source

[VWAllstar]

There are quite a few interesting news/update/rumours with Indian Cricket.

1. Update: 18 men squad announced for SA Series with R Sharma as the VC. In all probability, H Vihari would be the number 5.
2. Update: R Sharma named as the Captain of ODIs. Although almost redundant format, he deserves to lead the white ball matches.
3. Rumour: Kohli wasnt ready to step down and was forced by BCCI (read Ganguly) by simply releasing a statement confirming the change.
4. Rumour: Hardik Pandya to announce retirement from Test Cricket to prolong his white ball career.

[padmrajravi]

My unpopular opinion is that Kohli should step down from Test captaincy as well. I don't think his captaincy has any role in India winning test matches. His batting sure does play a role. In tests, the individual players with an attitude to never give up can save it or even win it. If we analyze all the famous wins that India managed in the recent past, all of them have been by coming back from a precarious position. Those happened because few like Pujara, Sundar, Shardul, Vihari, Aswin, Bumrah, etc did not give up and kept fighting. The captain had very little role in those comebacks.

Captaincy is a lot more critical in T20s because T20s do not give you a chance to come back. A single bad decision by the captain leads to a loss in most cases. That's why I think our T20 record will improve with Rohit and the test record will stay the same irrespective of Kohli being the captain. For team coherence and to eliminate any possible conflict between Rohit and Kohli, it is better for us to be under a single captain in all formats. And Rohit seems to be the obvious choice for the next two years.

[landcruiser123]

Originally Posted by padmrajravi

My unpopular opinion is that Kohli should step down from Test captaincy as well......For team coherence and to eliminate any possible conflict between Rohit and Kohli, it is better for us to be under a single captain in all formats. And Rohit seems to be the obvious choice for the next two years.

I agree. But just thinking long term, I don't think Rohit should be Test captain.

Like how RSA handed the reigns to Graeme Smith, BCCI should be brave enough to risk a youngster like Gill. Only issue is that he's not even close to sealing his place considering the competition for the opening slot.