What conclusions could be drawn about the Headingley pitch ...?

Question

... based solely on the large clump of soil that was ripped out when Monty Panesar had his off-stump knocked out of the ground in the 2nd innings yesterday?

Would these conclusions be justified if the match as a whole was considered? i.e did it play the way it would have if your initial conclusion was correct?

Answer 1

boring.

Answer 2

Yeah I always felt on the first morning if there was cloud cover who ever won the toss should bowl and the ball did a bit but the English helped too with their shots and then the pitch was good enough to be able to score 500 but SA batsmen were very disciplined when they batted because the ball was always offering a little bit to the fast bowlers and the surface then became a little uneven but not enough to trouble the batsmen really SA had to work for all the second innings wickets and the surface still looked pretty good on day four for batting so all in all I think the pitch played pretty well it offered movement to the faster men but you could also scores runs it was a good pitch fair battle between bat and bowl and SA handled conditions better in the end

Answer 3

Trio has offered an accurate match analysis.

The area around the stumps is often watered to keep the soil pliable which enables the umpires to 'firm' the stumps into the ground and in no way reflects the pitch condition.

Answer 4

By the time Monty had been bowled by Steyn late on the 4th day the pitch was cracking all over, i too noticed the huge clump of soil which was lifted up after Monty's off stump got smashed! and i wished that we batted more sensibly in the 1st innings of the test match, because batting in the 4th innnings of a test match at Headingley on a cracked pitch is a very tough assignment. If England had a lead of over 120 i think we would have had a shot of winning.

Headingley played exactly like it normally does mate, it will always swing of there is cloud cover, and it will always be a flat track when there is no cloud cover. I was there on the 1st day and when England were batting the sky was dark, but by the time England had been skittled out, the sky was bright and good batting conditions.

The Headingley pitch has changed over the last 3 years! It is now a drier pitch, which means it will crack later on in a test match, so by sending England in to bat 1st, South Africa did take a slight risk! Anyway the pitch was a good test match pitch! England just didnt use it right. Rash strokes outside off-stump wont win you test matches (do you know 9 of the 10 dismisalls were caught behind the wicket). South Africa batted well and defensively, and deserved to win the test match!

Answer 5

i think u try to give excuse of England Lost....

Answer 6

I for one am not sure what you trying to say.  I think you are trying to be too clever. Call a spade a spade.