World Test Championship Final 2023 (7th June - 11th June)

First topic message reminder :

The second edition of the World Test Championship concludes with the final between Australia and India, starting on Wednesday at 10:30 BST (that's half an hour earlier than tests in England usually start, so be aware!).

Australia narrowly missed out on reaching the first final, but for this cycle they comfortably topped the table with 11 wins in their 19 tests. This included a 4-0 hammering of England at home and also a narrow win in Pakistan, although they did lose to India in India by a margin of 2-1. India edged out South Africa to 2nd place to reach their second consecutive final, and they'll be hoping to go one better than 2021 where they were defeated by New Zealand in the final.

The two squads are as follows:

Australia: Pat Cummins (captain), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Josh Inglis, Todd Murphy, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner.

Reserves: Mitch Marsh, Matt Renshaw

India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Ravichandran Ashwin, KS Bharat, Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, Virat Kohli, Ishan Kishan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Axar Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Mohammad Shami, Mohammad Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadakt, Umesh Yadav.

Reserves: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mukesh Kumar, Suryakumar Yadav

Must be noted that Josh Hazlewood, who has hardly played any tests over the past few years, has been officially ruled out of the final, as he continues to battle troubling injuries. Boland will be the likely beneficiary.

Unlike the 2021 final, the weather forecast is for continuous sunshine and temperatures going into the high 20s. There is a reserve day in place, but it's not probable that this will be required.

I favour Australia to win this one. Their batting and seam bowling seems much the stronger, plus Australia are likely to find conditions more to their advantage than India.

Smith out!!!!

I believe they'll only use it if there were rain interruptions, not because of slow over-rates. And I'm not sure if there's a minimum threshold or what. If rain takes out two overs, would they come back for those two overs? At least with the last final it was far more clear-cut!

Thakur takes out Smith. Goodness. India coming back into it.

Wow ! Thakur into the attack and bingo ! Smith plays on...gone for 121 and we are into the bowlers...

Now it will be interesting to see how well the Australian tail can build on this impressive score.

At least these wickets have brought the game to life...I rather feared it might have become an Australian 600 and just a slow procession to a (thoroughly deserved !) win from there : this would be a bit more interesting if they can be held to say 450.

Will also make a bit of a test for Carey in attempting to marshal the tail.

Starc in ahead of Cummins ? Bit surprising ... Presumed they'll want him to try for quick runs ; but he's yet to score off ten balls...

Duty281 wrote:Quite surprised India want to bowl first.

Checking in a day late here - but from what I've seen they appear to have been a little duped by the appearance of the pitch? Looks like one of those NZ decks that looks green, might nip for a bit, but is actually a road, as ever at The Oval.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Quite surprised India want to bowl first.

Checking in a day late here - but from what I've seen they appear to have been a little duped by the appearance of the pitch? Looks like one of those NZ decks that looks green, might nip for a bit, but is actually a road, as ever at The Oval.

Yes that I think, and it was quite overcast when the decision was made. But they're certainly fighting back well this morning.

Brilliant fielding from sub Axar Patel ! Starc run out to a direct hit and it's seven down...

India coming back into this quite strongly.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Quite surprised India want to bowl first.

Checking in a day late here - but from what I've seen they appear to have been a little duped by the appearance of the pitch? Looks like one of those NZ decks that looks green, might nip for a bit, but is actually a road, as ever at The Oval.

To be fair there was a bit of nip in the first session - though nothing outrageous. But the Warner/Labuschagne stand nullified that rather effectively...and since then it's all been pretty good for batting.

Maybe not a total road though. Just seen a couple bounce quite sharply : will be interested to see how the Aussie pace men use it.

It was India's session
BUt the 3rd session yesterday pushed India too far back & Id has conceded too many byes and leg bye boundaries

95/4 for the session. Slow over rate again , just 24 bowled. India won't care - those four wickets have brought them back into it a bit. But they will have to both remove the last three after lunch fairly quickly - and then bat big.

Australia have scored briskly again so they are giving themselves plenty of time to take advantage of this good first innings.

Funny old scorecard with one mammoth partnership and not a lot else bar that Warner/Labuschagne effort.

It's a pretty good Australian tail. No McGraths or Tufnells in it, so they might still wriggle close to 500 or, perhaps, beyond it.

KP_fan wrote:It was India's session
BUt the 3rd session yesterday pushed India too far back & Id has conceded too many byes and leg bye boundaries

Good spot, 34 extras already. Umpires have been quite strict, by test standards, on wides.

Duty281 wrote:It's a pretty good Australian tail. No McGraths or Tufnells in it, so they might still wriggle close to 500 or, perhaps, beyond it.

500 runs is probably stretching it... I'll go 462 with a few streaky shots and some wild extras to the boundary.
India should clean the tail up pretty quickly if they stick to their plans.

True, I must remember it's not England bowling to the tail! Ball doing plenty in this afternoon session, bodes well for Australia later on.

Cummins can bat . Though he probably hasn't done so as much recently as it once appeared he might. And Lyon can indulge in a bit of tail wagging ; so 500 is still on (though I wouldn't count on Boland for too many)

439 now and this ball is thirty odd overs old . Reckon India need to break this pair soon or a lot of that good morning's work could be undone. Carey enjoying these balls pitched on his legs...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm5IEEAODpo&ab_channel=JarrodKimber

Informative video from Jarrod Kimber there about Head's innings.

Interesting seeing that Head's "in control percentage" dropped to about 50% when facing the short ball. He also hit relatively few boundaries from short balls considering India bowled quite a few to him. As Kimber says would tend to suggest that India got their plan right as the day went on but Head just had a very good day out.

Worth noting the video was released before the days play as well so not like it was reactive after Head eventually got out to the short ball this morning!

Was just about to add, alfie.  

Carey is having a good swing at the ball, Cummins sure can club them and ol' Lyon-heart can also be quite fearless when he's having a go.

Ricky really is going on about the pitch now... the plate cracks as he calls them. Also Warner's marks parallel to the stumps (with two depressions) which he says makes the batters feel uncomfortable. I guess we'll see how much it deteriorates over the next few days. It could be behaving completely differently by Sunday... or even sooner.

Jadeja on ...not before time. Went for one six but he's done for Carey now.

Not sure why that wasn't given out live ? Unless he'd hit it , looked stone cold out...as the review showed.

End of a useful knock from the keeper

453/8.

Carey takes them past 450, but out next ball. Useful innings. He's gone under the radar a bit, but he's a very useful asset for Australia, especially if he's coming in at 350/400/5.

Pitch is starting to misbehave. Looks as though it will be incredibly difficult to bat last on, and Lyon will really enjoy bowling on it on days 4/5.

Duty281 wrote:Carey takes them past 450, but out next ball. Useful innings. He's gone under the radar a bit, but he's a very useful asset for Australia, especially if he's coming in at 350/400/5.

Pitch is starting to misbehave. Looks as though it will be incredibly difficult to bat last on, and Lyon will really enjoy bowling on it on days 4/5.

Agree about Carey. Deserved first wicket for Jadeja, getting the lbw in his favour on review. I like Richard Kettleborough as the tv umpire. Clear voice, unflustered and thorough.

Haven't seen much of today's play since the first half-hour but would be surprised if the pitch deteriorates as much as some seem to be expecting. It's held up at the three CC matches at the Oval this season although those were in much cooler temperatures. The hot weather might make a difference.

Fast, full and straight - that's how you bowl to a number ten, England.

Yes I'm not convinced we will see the pitch fall apart...doesn't usually here , does it ?

Nine out now with Lyon departing to warm up for his bowling spell... Three now for Siraj and we might see Captain Pat having a swing perhaps ? Anything they can add to 469 should be plenty...

Looks quite dry and whitish from above... but still a green tinge when viewed at ground level. A few warm days at 27 and 29 degrees and surely that top couple of inches will feel the strain and begin to move a bit.

469, Australia will be more than happy, but India have done well to restrict them today. General theme of the innings was India lacked control with the ball, serving up too many boundary balls.

Hugely important job for the Indian openers. They cannot expose that soft Indian middle order to the new ball. But even past the new ball indications are that the bowlers will always be in it, especially Lyon.

And all done at 469. Represents a pretty good fightback from India today ; but I reckon Australia will be fairly satisfied with that after being sent in.

Will be a fascinating session now as India's openers have to face some rather handy Australian pace bowlers...

469 all out.

A very good score but also a really good fightback for India considering where Australia were with Smudge and Head still at the crease.

I expect Australia's fast and tall bowlers to get this pitch doing a fair bit with the new ball so the India top order will need to bat well but there's definitely lots of runs still in this pitch once the ball softens.

It's be a engrossing Test so far considering that's just the first innings.

One hopelessly one-sided session , the 3rd one yesterday has seen India really 120 runs worse than they should have been had they juts kep fighting on and show some more intelligence.

Siraj is newer but cleverer than Shami
Shami's problem is his length is half to one yard short...and he tries too hard to blast out wickets

Yadav has disappointed .....

India's 4 Oldies have to weigh in with 2 hundreds between them and the WK aught to show his worth matching atleast Carey's contribution

Slightly odd innings from Australia - partnerships of 2, 69, 5, 285, 13, 11, 15, 51, 15, 1.
Very much dominated by the Smith-Head partnership, with a couple of other decent contributions (Warner-Labushagne and Carey-Cummins), but a whole lot of not much elsewhere.

tell Aus when put in they would get 469, and they'd be very happy, but from 360-3 failed to put the game out of sight today.

alfie wrote:And all done at 469.  Represents a pretty good fightback from India today ; but I reckon Australia will be fairly satisfied with that after being sent in.

Will be a fascinating session now as India's openers have to face some rather handy Australian pace bowlers...

Yep, and while Australia before today's start (per Warner on Sky) were looking to reach 500, I don't think they will be too upset about being 30 or so shy. In modern parlance, their dismissal midway through the second session has moved the game on and lengthened the odds on a draw which few want.

alfie wrote:Yes I'm not convinced we will see the pitch fall apart...doesn't usually here , does it ?

Nine out now with Lyon departing to warm up for his bowling spell... Three now for Siraj and we might see Captain Pat having a swing perhaps ? Anything they can add to 469 should be plenty...

No, it doesn't.

Particularly thinking of the Surrey v Hants Championship match at the Oval earlier this season. Surrey made 247/1 to trounce Hants by 9 wickets in the last session of day 4 with Pope blitzing a ton and Sibley steadfast in support with 70 odd. As an aside, Dawson went wicketless for 24 from 3 overs.

Beautiful ball Scotty!
Gill is such a class batsman.

Cummins with the first after a positive Indian start, and now Gill shoulders arms to one that splattered his stumps. Big misjudgement.

Starc was a bit wild with his two overs, but Boland has offered supreme control. India in early trouble.

Indians came out decided they will play positive
& they did
until Rohit overdid and played across the line instead of hitting with straight bat down the line

and Gill had a brain fade shouldering arms to one on the middle stump
Desi media is trying to build him as the next tendulkar +Kohli rolled inot one

Classis case of a wicket changes everything. India were looking comfortable until Cummins trapped Rohit.

India now need Pujara and Kohli to dig in like Marnus and Smudge did yesterday when it was tough going for Australia.

king_carlos wrote:Classis case of a wicket changes everything. India were looking comfortable until Cummins trapped Rohit.

India now need Pujara and Kohli to dig in like Marnus and Smudge did yesterday when it was tough going for Australia.

Now Kohli & Puajara I fear will do what they have been doing for last 2 to 3 years....."Start Eating Balls"

Bright little knock by Rohit but all too brief. Not what his team needed at the start.

And as for Shubman Gill : I've seen some bad "leaves" over the years ; but that is up there with the worst !

Might not derail the Gill Hypetrain . But maybe slow it down a bit.

Boland continues his excellent run in Test Cricket. The merits of accuracy and consistent avoidance of bad balls should not be underestimated

India in big trouble. Their best two bats together now and boy do they need them to roll back the years...

This game is done

KP_fan wrote:Indians came out decided they will play positive
& they did
until Rohit overdid and played across the line instead of hitting with straight bat down the line

and Gill had a brain fade shouldering arms to one on the middle stump
Desi media is trying to build him as the next tendulkar +Kohli rolled inot one

Sure, it wasn't great batting by Gill but lovely bowling by Boland. More than the fatal inswinging delivery, I adored the cunning build up to it which ultimately foxed the batsman.

One misjudgement, pretty careless, two misjudgements...

Duty281 wrote:It is a bit of a nonsense about the reserve day because, imagining there's no rain interruptions, envisage the end of day five being reached with India needing 20 to win and 2 wickets left, and that reserve day just sitting there unused. It would be quite a farce. Although I think India are some distance away from victory at the moment! Also disappointing that a draw means the trophy is shared. There's no tiebreaker based on first innings score, or countback to who finished higher in the league table.

There is a chance of some thundery showers on Saturday or Sunday, as the temperature goes into the high 20s.

Not sure India are going to have the batting nous and skill to survive this, but before all that they need some early wickets this morning to try and restrict Australia to below 450. Smith on the cusp of his 31st test century, which will take him past Hayden and Chanderpaul, and into outright 12th on the list of most test centuries scored. Smith already has the best batting average of anyone to score 30+ test centuries.

The reserve day concept could have been flexible enough...
Draw should mean shared title in my view.
Or else, considering its a test match, the team that has left more balls should be given the title!. India making a great play for that as Pujara follow's Gill's example!

Don't think we need to worry about the reserve day...

First Gill , now Pujara with a horrible misjudgement. 50/3 and the follow on target is a long way off.

Game is moving on , you might say

Might not even need day five...

Extra bounce accounting for Kohli, superb catch by Smith on the jump.

In the words of Sir Geoffrey a few years back, ''Starc goes for a few but he gets a few''.
He'll still do for me, Joey. 

Brute of a delivery. That's what a bowler of Starc's height and pace can do. He goes for runs at times but having a left-arm quick with his skills is such a useful weapon.

Cummins with a few problems with his run-up, potentially costing him his team's 5th wicket.

Indian fans bizarrely celebrating like they've won something.

Duty281 wrote:Cummins with a few problems with his run-up, potentially costing him his team's 5th wicket.

Indian fans bizarrely celebrating like they've won something.

Very good and clear third umpiring once more from Kettleborough to rule against Rahane's lbw on account of Cummins' no ball.

You can be critical of the two Indians out leaving the ball, but Rohit got a pretty decent ball and (much as I don't like being fair to Kohli, I will be this time) Virat got one that his best hope was getting enough of the shoulder of the bat on it to clear the slips. Sometimes you have to trust to luck, and he didn't have it.

guildfordbat wrote:

KP_fan wrote:Indians came out decided they will play positive
& they did
until Rohit overdid and played across the line instead of hitting with straight bat down the line

and Gill had a brain fade shouldering arms to one on the middle stump
Desi media is trying to build him as the next tendulkar +Kohli rolled inot one

Sure, it wasn't great batting by Gill but lovely bowling by Boland. More than the fatal inswinging delivery, I adored the cunning build up to it which ultimately foxed the batsman.

It was nothing but horrible brain-fade to shoulder arms to a delivery coming on middle stump 3/4th the height of stumps
it looks spectacular....but all batsman's horrible misjudgement

Meanwhile Only one of the top 4 Oldies got into 20s....if one more wicket falls...the tail will start

guildfordbat wrote:

KP_fan wrote:Indians came out decided they will play positive
& they did
until Rohit overdid and played across the line instead of hitting with straight bat down the line

and Gill had a brain fade shouldering arms to one on the middle stump
Desi media is trying to build him as the next tendulkar +Kohli rolled inot one

Sure, it wasn't great batting by Gill but lovely bowling by Boland. More than the fatal inswinging delivery, I adored the cunning build up to it which ultimately foxed the batsman.

It was nothing but horrible brain-fade  to shoulder arms to a  delivery coming on middle stump 3/4th the height of stumps
it looks spectacular....but all batsman's horrible misjudgement

Meanwhile Only one of the top 4 Oldies got into 20s....if one more wicket falls...the tail will start

Very tame dismissal Jadeja...Bharat comes in and will struggle to get past 20s
Happy if he provses me wrong