***Official*** South Africa in England

[zaremba]

Cook gets a genuine edge to a full ball that falls short.

Slow pitches FTL.

FTL?

 

[Richard]

Haha, sorry. It means "for the loss". Grammatically very poor (ditto "for the win") but basically a term used on CW to mean "I like" (FTW) or "I don't like" (FTL).

 

[tooextracool]

Its amazing how much better a bowler Morkel looks today now that hes started to pitch the ball up a lot more. Certainly got more out of this lifeless pitch than Ntini and Nel combined.

 

[Jakester1288]

Very slow pitch here. Why would the bowlers bowl short? Every time you bowl short, it is pretty much a god given boundary to the batsmen. England have made a solid start, except Cook looks very shaky when he recieves full balls in off stump. He seems to try to flick them to the leg side, and is always edging them to slips and occasionally leading edges to the point region.

 

[Zinzan]

I would think that zip is used to refer to pace off the wicket rather than anything else. However, as you said, i dont think anyone truly knows the definition of the term and its often wrongly used to provide an explanation bowlers that are out of form.

Thats always been my interpretation

 

[Zinzan]

Very slow pitch here. Why would the bowlers bowl short? Every time you bowl short, it is pretty much a god given boundary to the batsmen. England have made a solid start, except Cook looks very shaky when he recieves full balls in off stump. He seems to try to flick them to the leg side, and is always edging them to slips and occasionally leading edges to the point region.

Did you manage to get the BBC commentary working ?

 

[tooextracool]

Cook has so many technical issues that its really not funny. He plays around his front pad alot, has poor footwork and goes very hard at the ball. Its just really surprising that hes managed to not be a dismal failure despite all fo these flaws.

 

[Jakester1288]

Did you manage to get the BBC commentary working ?

Nah, I couldn't. I had live streaming for a while, but it's gone now. I am looking for some more links to watch the match.

 

[Richard]

Cook has so many technical issues that its really not funny. He plays around his front pad alot, has poor footwork and goes very hard at the ball. Its just really surprising that hes managed to not be a dismal failure despite all fo these flaws.

And hopefully, that's an indication that if he could manage to fix said faults, he could be very, very good indeed.

 

[Zinzan]

Cook has so many technical issues that its really not funny. He plays around his front pad alot, has poor footwork and goes very hard at the ball. Its just really surprising that hes managed to not be a dismal failure despite all fo these flaws.

He does seem to play and miss more than most

Rubbish bowling that by Nel on such a slow wicket

 

[tooextracool]

Not sure how on earth Cook managed to do that.

 

[GIMH]

decent first hour anyway

 

[Richard]

Rubbish bowling that by Nel on such a slow wicket

Nel (like Ntini) is not the best on a slow pitch. He is getting the ball to go away from the left-hander, but not getting it straight enough and the wicket's far too slow for the out-and-out Bouncer to be effective.

It is annoying how several times recently Nel has had 1 Test per series on a very slow pitch.

 

[Richard]

Not sure how on earth Cook managed to do that.

Can't remember the last time I saw anyone do such a thing indeed.

 

[tooextracool]

Yeah Nel and Ntini have been rubbish so far this morning. Its not just the fact that the pitch is so slow that short balls are rarely going to trouble anyone, but both players are actually fairly good at playing the short stuff and have a few issues with the fuller ball

 

[GIMH]

Are you two talking about the bottom-edge to cover that I just read about?

 

[Richard]

Another half-century opening stand for these two.

 

[tooextracool]

The first hint of swing we've seen all morning and its dismissed for 4.

 

[Zinzan]

Nel (like Ntini) is not the best on a slow pitch. He is getting the ball to go away from the left-hander, but not getting it straight enough and the wicket's far too slow for the out-and-out Bouncer to be effective.

It is annoying how several times recently Nel has had 1 Test per series on a very slow pitch.

Agreed and simple advice I'd give to any batsman against Nel would be to just keep smiling at him

 

[Richard]

Are you two talking about the bottom-edge to cover that I just read about?

Yuppers.