***Official*** South Africa in England

[zaremba]

Pattinson's bowled pretty well today I think.

Mind you the SA batsmen are curiously defensive so he's been given the chance to find a good line and length.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Starting to look like we're bowling for the declaration now. All seems very flat out there.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Into the tail, I'm guessing some toothless left-armer will have his figures flattered yet again when I come back in an hour or so.

 

[Jnr.]

Loved seeing AB de Villiers ton up.

What a show of character after the character assassination by the commentators, press, and by those on this very board.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Loved seeing AB de Villiers ton up.

What a show of character after the character assassination by the commentators, press, and by those on this very board.

Jesus, sanctimonious much? I think most cricket fans take a fairly dim view of blatant attempts to cheat.

Nice ball from Monty, bowls Morkel through the gate. Scaly's reverse mockers working a treat.

 

[duffer]

Jesus, sanctimonious much? I think most cricket fans take a fairly dim view of blatant attempts to cheat.

Yeah, I'd go with that. Still it must've taken some ticker to pick himself up after copping the reaction he did and play as well as he has. Shame I missed seeing him bring up the century, what type of reception did he get from the crowd?

 

[Richard]

And on that note, I'm off to play... again.

Aaaaaaand a cancelled game later, I'm back to see this pointless waste of time.

WTF aren't England taking the third new-ball? Nothing worse than seeing tailenders (even with a batsman at one end) messing around. Either have a swing and get out or, better, just declare now and get on with bowling.

Looks like the new-ball has been taken at last.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Yeah, I'd go with that. Still it must've taken some ticker to pick himself up after copping the reaction he did and play as well as he has. Shame I missed seeing him bring up the century, what type of reception did he get from the crowd?

Roundly booed except the SA balcony.

Monty has to stop himself appealing for a ball that pitches fully 18 inches outside leg there.

 

[Richard]

Yeah, I'd go with that. Still it must've taken some ticker to pick himself up after copping the reaction he did and play as well as he has. Shame I missed seeing him bring up the century, what type of reception did he get from the crowd?

As was mentioned, roundly bood.

 

[duffer]

Ah, cheers for that. Nice to see him get a smattering of applause for his 150 though.

 

[Richard]

And 150 now.

Pretty obvious that England will lose this match, possibly by an innings. If they keep the same side they'll lose the series, simple as.

Wouldn't mind seeing this side in the next match:

Strauss
Cook
Vaughan
KP
Bell
Shah
Ambrose
Flintoff
Sidebottom/Jones/Hoggard
Anderson
Monty

Hoggard ain't going to play, I imagine we can safely say that. Can't believe another few days is going to make much difference on the Jones scenario, but given the complete lack of logic in so many selections of late, you'd not be that surprised if it did. Personally I'd prefer to see him left the whole season, but I can see why you might as well get him in in this series.

Really do hope we've seen the last of Broad for the time being after this game, but I've thought that before. Can only hope a loss will jog the minds more than his general toothlessness all career has.

Shah, just what England need - yet another soft mentally dodgy batsman...

Mentally soft comments are generally unfounded, but it takes some to start labelling players who've played a whole 2 Tests such.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Knew it, Panesar the master of flattering statistics while contributing very little. Rather similar to a lot of the batsmen unfortunately.

 

[Manee]

Knew it, Panesar the master of flattering statistics while contributing very little.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Show me a match where he has actually took signficant, match changing wickets through good bowling instead of being gifted them through bad batting.

Then I'll show you every match where his fielding and batting has cost England 20-30 runs minimum, plus plenty where you want your spinner to come on and break a partnership and he's failed miserably, and some more where he's had footmarks against left handers and he's bowled complete crap at them.

 

[Goughy]

Im glad they thought a lot about this bowling line-up to get something to suit Headingley and the conditions. Otherwise SA might have piled up the runs

 

[Richard]

Show me a match where he has actually took signficant, match changing wickets through good bowling instead of being gifted them through bad batting.

For you, pretty much every wicket-taking spell MSP has gained has been down to bad batting and nothing in the way of good bowling.

You seem incapable of realising that he has bowled well on wickets that help spin.

Yeah yeah - sure some %$£@ who thinks they're so clever will try to compare this to my own comments on Harmison. Well, try away. Harmison hasn't ever actually got batsmen out, his wickets HAVE been gifted only. Because he can't do much with the ball - MSP on a turning pitch can.

 

[Richard]

Im glad they thought a lot about this bowling line-up to get something to suit Headingley and the conditions. Otherwise SA might have piled up the runs

TBF, things haven't really suited England at all. SA have had overwhelmingly the best of the conditions. While selection for this match was abysmal, I don't think it being good would have made much difference once Smith made the right decision at the toss.

 

[Manee]

Show me a match where he has actually took signficant, match changing wickets through good bowling instead of being gifted them through bad batting.

Then I'll show you every match where his fielding and batting has cost England 20-30 runs minimum, plus plenty where you want your spinner to come on and break a partnership and he's failed miserably, and some more where he's had footmarks against left handers and he's bowled complete crap at them.

For someone who can bait people better than most others - you sure are easy to annoy with three characters

 

[Richard]

Harris will be happy he's been hit on his left-hand not his bowling-hand.

 

[Manee]

Harris will be happy he's been hit on his left-hand not his bowling-hand.

eH?

"It releases dolphins!"