I have been extremely quiet lately and I never expected that this would be the case. The main reason is my work which leaves me exhausted because of the physical demands of it but more importantly, it was my Father In Law’s first anniversary since he passed on. My wife and I have not got over the grief because we couldn’t go to his funeral or even see his grave because of Covid and the rise of the Indian variant ( or Delta if I have to be politically correct ) meant that we couldn’t go to India for his first anniversary. I have missed out on blogging about quite a few games but I can’t let the sixth day of the first World Test Championship go to waste.

Cricwiz is predicting a 73% chance of a draw, 18% to New Zealand and 9% to India. They are also predicting that India will make 172 which would give New Zealand a target of 140. I love the work that Cricwiz puts up but I have never given any credence to their Winviz modelling. I will make an exception in this case because 172 seems to be a nice number.

98 overs will have to be bowled today irrespective of the time it takes to complete them. A target of 150 makes it easier to calculate mathematically which would mean another 120 runs. The consensus is that India need to bat for 80 overs to draw the match which only goes to show how highly New Zealand is rated. I don’t think that the run rate if India will drop significantly below two while I also think that a score close to over 200 will be difficult to achieve.

The World Test Championship needs a winner and I don’t think it should be shared. I also would like to see an enthralling final day’s play. I think that New Zealand should get India out for about 180 runs within another 55 overs which would leave New Zealand to chase the runs in 40 odd overs which means that all four results are possible. Yes, I did mention four because no one seems to mention the possibility of a tie! To be honest, I would love to see a tie but I fear that New Zealand will end up boycotting England’s green and pleasant lands those feet in ancient times walked upon England’s mountain green. I hope a team wins and a draw ends up being outside the realm of possibility,