test cricket is boring 🙁 😉
that stokes inning might prove to be a Ronnie 147 moment everything after just a bit "mleh"
Can't share the image but a great incentive to put a few down in the sun #DrinkBeerSaveRhinos
the squeeze is on
It's almost as if the camera crews have a seating plan with dots on it to fill the short intermissions with...
Come on new ball and time to get on with things
Guessing you lot are all working, finally some movement on the ball
At last!
Your about 20s up on my feed flashy, come on time to get amla and up them... Near on midnight here get a move on
Yawnnnnnn........
De Villiers scored his 88 in more time / balls than Stokes took to score 3x as many!
Still - get one, get two, then we're in their dodgy lower middle order and tail, and they still need another 150 to avoid the follow on*
(* although if the Chef asks Broad and Anderson to go straight back out there again I suspect he'll be fielding with his trusty Gray Nicholls wedged somewhere)
Enjoying the chortling on TMS about Boucher enjoying the bush 😀
Aaaargh! FFS! Another one dropped. Kicking the table round the room here. Where the heck is the fielding coach. I bet Jonty Rhodes is pissing himself at England's expense.
Aaaargh! FFS! Another one dropped. Kicking the table round the room here.
Meh, I'm not sure they care any more. Whoever prepared this pitch should get a kick in the nuts.
Aaaaargh!
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Bravo, Bravuma!
And a declaration, too.
At least something interesting has happened...
Game on!
One day moving ball can we get a result
Aaargh!
Hell of a catch... Could be a good day for the neutral
Oh dear Morne.
Balls
I hope someone can steady the ship, its not looking good at all.
As much as I hate to say it an England collapse is their beat chance of winning, as they just said on the commentary England took 17 wickets in the first innings if you count dropped catches.
20 minutes of Ben Stokes, 300 lead and then a session and a half to bowl them out
<already biting fingernails in anticipation of us french connection UK-ing this up>
6 down. Could we actually lose this?
😯
England finding another way of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory....
Apparently, no team has ever lost having scored 600+ in the first innings. Gulp.
Nor when a batsman has made in excess of 250. History makers.
It's a test match in which all manner of records have been broken.
The plus side is it's moving, stokes will be getting warmed up and we have some bowlers who can cause trouble, SA chasing a winable total may work for England
I'm still inclined to think we won't lose it. However - from a position of no hope, record breaking, massive totals, etc., who's going to be favourite into the next test now.
momentum counts.....
So Adelaide 2006 remains the highest total declared in the first innings by a team who went on to lose the match... 😳
Momentum? Given England's form in the last year, with that sort of momentum I'd expect them to thrash SA next match!
Gosh. Hashim Amla has resigned, De Villiers takes over. I thought he'd keep going until the end of the series after that.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/cricket/34403995
Didn't see that coming!
Score potentially match-saving 150. Then resign. Massive two-fingered salute to team bosses there.
[quote=CaptainFlashheart ]Didn't see that coming!
No and yes. No surprise at all that Amla doesn't want the job - a surprise to see AB take it on, which given the lack of any other [s]obvious[/s] candidates is why it's a surprise for Amla to go. He was kind of captain by default because of the retirement of all the other senior figures and the apparent reluctance to overburden AB - who was after all talking about lightening his load. It does I suppose give him a sure fire excuse to avoid the gloves if he needs that in future.
I suspect in the short term this will be good for SA, but possibly not in the longer term.
Why did you dock him 50 runs?
I suspect he gave up captaining on Sunday when Stokes and Bairstow were going bananas and he looked completely lost in terms of ideas how to stem the runs or in terms of how to motivate his team. Mind - There's a few might have struggled with that at that time.
From thereon - his mind was clear as he knew he was jacking and all he had to do for himself and for the team was to bat and bat. And bat and bat. And then bat some more.
At that point - he's free to do what he is bloody good at unencumbered by worrying about anything else.
Captains who can compartmentalise captaincy from their own game are very few and far between.
SA are like most teams who have made number 1 with a great group of players on top of their game. They then decide to tail off or retire. The rest are left with the weight of expectation and status but not always the right team. Amla as said appeared to be Captain as everybody else took that one step backwards..
Probably highlights the need to bring leaders through, Australia with Warner as VC and England with Root, both get used by their captains when needed and it shows in the way the teams are doing.
Rashid is doing well in the BBL - warming up nicely for the T20 WC.
de villiers back in the hutch relatively cheaply
another one, 185-5
Much, much better in the field today. Great work from Bairstow.
235-7 and Jimmy has a shiny new conker
I think they could have done without the new ball tbh. Shame they let that partnership get away a bit as otherwise a very good day for england.
Englands turn - SA 313 all out
I think bowling machines have made a hell of difference to the batting abilities of tail enders, even if it's not being so afraid of the quick stuff and keeping in line makes it much more difficult to run through a side on a half decent pitch especially late in the day.
I have a feeling this isn't go to go well.
I thought Mike Selvey in the Guardian was a bit pessimistic - to lose the toss and have them 267-7 was a good effort. I should think they'll be pretty pleased to have them all out for 313.
oh dear
The search for a decent opener continues...
blowers in summer dress 😯
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[quote=ransos ]The search for a decent opener continues...
Cook is looking in poor form, isn't he?
1009 no !! 8)
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Tejas Misar went for 4 a ball !! 😯
1 and 3 also made hundreds and didn't get a mention!
Well done Root!
(Again)
Thank goodness for a strong middle order.
root to the rescue again
Nod to stokes as well
Sounds like that's probably it. Top quality counter attack that - kept the field moving, didn't get pegged back. If England had bowled better at the tail then they'd be close to parity.
If the SA's hadn't all got in and then got out we could still be bowling. If my aunt had balls......
Tails getting runs is all part of cricket nowadays (TMS text had it right, oh for the days when they didn't know which end of the bat to hold and used to swing it like a Somerset yokel threshing corn......) 313 is competitive without being a match defining total for either side. Promising to be a good test match this one.
Top of the order worries me still though; I'm a huge Cook fan and he's shown time and again that he has the ability and concentration to play massive innings. And on one hand you can say he's England's top run scorer despite getting his fair share of bad luck over the years (how many times out strangled?) on the other for some reason I never feel comfortable until he's been in for 25 overs.
Cooks main issue is that he must fell like he is carrying the entire bottom order - he is so hardly surprising
To play as he does with that pressure is pretty admirable
he does take a while to look like he is in though.
And on one hand you can say he's England's top run scorer despite getting his fair share of bad luck over the years (how many times out strangled?)
I've never thought that being strangled down the leg side is bad luck - if you play at it there's always a chance of feathering it.
I suppose because it's a 'bad' ball that should be leg glanced for runs (ideally 4 of them in proper cricket where fine leg isn't fine because the WK doesn't need a backstop!)
Akin to slapping a full toss straight to cover. Yes, both are 'mistakes' but one's clearly incompetence.
or inside edging a drive ball.........
Tough day ahead, come on Mo.
or inside edging a drive ball.........
...And again. Seems like there's a little bit of something in the pitch today.
looks like it's going to be a tight match
Enthralling game, two evenly matched teams and a proper test match style wicket.
Added spice added by being married to a South African.
Man of this match regardless of the result should be the head groundsman.
another dropped catch 🙁
luckily wasn't too costly
SA 28(18)-2
broad is on fire
De Villiers out for a duck 🙂
Amla back in the hutch
31 - 4
what a catch 🙂
Broad 4-1 in 24 balls
By all accounts an unbelievable catch by Taylor, will look forward to seeing that.
bowled him
was listening to it in the car on the way back from my daughter's sports club. Classic commentary...
"I'm speechless. Which is a major handicap given my occupation!"
I'd just stopped paying attention for half an hour and though I wouldn't have missed much 😯
A Broad series deciding spell - those seem to be coming along rather more regularly now, almost one every series!
Broad has 5-1 in 31 balls
Damn I missed it but awesome performance from him.
45-6
another great catch of a rank bad ball 🙂
Catches win matches !!!!
Just got in and som was showing me replay of first catch and bang an even better one!!
the wheels are off !
46-7
7 - they're all getting in on the act
In the context a 10 run lead suddenly seems quite significant!
Got up early, did the chores and thought ah, I'll have a look a the cricket, lunch has just finished…. 😯
Still sat here 😀