***Official*** South Africa in New Zealand 2012

[Scaly piscine]

England

Its not a free-flowing wicket so its only a matter of time before you get yourself out coming too hard at the ball. We are setting the base and then a slight acceleration will happen.

Then you knock it for 1s and 2s. Without wanting to keep bringing England into it Matt Prior regularly scores run a ball 50s which include virtually no boundaries on 'awkward' pitches like this. You adapt to the conditions and show intent above all else. It's not about trying to slog everything for 6.

Have to say this is exactly the sort of thing I expected from South Africa. Allowing Williamson to bowl 6-4-6-1 in this spell at this stage of the game is diabolical. Run-rate of below 1 for this partnership. If I was supporting them I'd be tearing my hair out.

I forgot about the extra half an hour, but I still think South Africa will bat well towards tea - unless rain intervenes.

 

[SeamUp]

Then you knock it for 1s and 2s. Without wanting to keep bringing England into it Matt Prior regularly scores run a ball 50s which include virtually no boundaries on 'awkward' pitches like this. You adapt to the conditions and show intent above all else. It's not about trying to slog everything for 6.

Have to say this is exactly the sort of thing I expected from South Africa. Allowing Williamson to bowl 6-4-6-1 in this spell at this stage of the game is diabolical. Run-rate of below 1 for this partnership. If I was supporting them I'd be tearing my hair out.

I forgot about the extra half an hour, but I still think South Africa will bat well towards tea - unless rain intervenes.

Pakistan 3 England 0 on foreign pitches that were slow and low and you didn't even get yourself into winning positions?

Rudolph tried to accelerate for a period but a lot of stubs into the ground.

I think we are about 10-15 runs behind but we could have been past that if AB didn't go out when he did but the minute AB went to hit big on this wicket he mis-cued it. Just take an understanding of this pitch.

Make no bones about it, I fancy a draw here because this pitch has become almost dead. Tough to score and tough to take wickets.

 

[Howsie]

Hmmm, so New Zealand's quickest and best performing bowler today only gets five overs whilst also having to bowl into the wind. Makes sense I suppose

 

[Scaly piscine]

Hmm what's happened in the last few overs or so for South Africa to go from slightly better than evens to 2/5 on?

 

[BeeGee]

Sun's Forecast
Rain easing to a few showers by afternoon. Light winds.

SA really are batting on too long. They have more than enough runs.

 

[Days of Grace]

Come on, rain!

 

[straw man]

Now for the more interesting and probably painful part - our batting. Against SA attack who will be full of confidence. We are generally terrible in this situation.

Nicol 80% chance to be out for under 10

 

[Prince EWS]

Now for the more interesting and probably painful part - our batting. Against SA attack who will be full of confidence. We are generally terrible in this situation.

Nicol 80% chance to be out for under 10

Location: optimism

...

 

[Burgey]

Then you knock it for 1s and 2s. Without wanting to keep bringing England into it Matt Prior regularly scores run a ball 50s which include virtually no boundaries on 'awkward' pitches like this. You adapt to the conditions and show intent above all else. It's not about trying to slog everything for 6.

Have to say this is exactly the sort of thing I expected from South Africa. Allowing Williamson to bowl 6-4-6-1 in this spell at this stage of the game is diabolical. Run-rate of below 1 for this partnership. If I was supporting them I'd be tearing my hair out.

I forgot about the extra half an hour, but I still think South Africa will bat well towards tea - unless rain intervenes.

Yeah. Saw him doing it so often when he was under the pump in the UAE recently. Way he just milked the Pakistan spinners brought back memories of Sinpson and Lawry running between wickets. Or maybe not.

 

[Burgey]

Will be tough for NZ to win from here, with the lead looking to be 350 or so. Perhaps hoping SA set them too much and they can scramble a draw and hope for wet weather intervention.

NZ about 80-1, maybe longer. 400 to win is a big ask at any time, let alone against this attack.

 

[TT Boy]

If you don't slog Philander he will get you out.

 

[TT Boy]

Nicol looks to be on a different level to the likes of Ingram, How, Papps, Cumming, Redmond etc. He looks far worse.

 

[Howsie]

I must say I quite enjoy watching Philander bowl, seriously good bowler. He might only be in the early 130's but I bet he feels a lot quicker then that out in the middle.

 

[SteveNZ]

Nicol looks to be on a different level to the likes of Ingram, How, Papps, Cumming, Redmond etc. He looks far worse.

I had a good giggle at this.

Philander is the reason I don't concern myself too much with speed guns. It's pretty irrelevant what pace he bowls at - he hits impeccable lines with a gun barrel seam, he'd be scary on a green wet one.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Nicol is hideously compelling to watch. Looks so badly equipped in terms of technique, but is showing some ticker.

Didn't think I'd see a test opener with a worse technique than Hughes, but here he is. With about 25% of the generously nosed New South Welshman's hand/eye to boot.

 

[DriveClub]

Think Morkel should be replaced by De Lange. Morkel is horribly inconsistent.

 

[Mike5181]

Lol @ Morne Morkel. What an idiot!

 

[BoyBrumby]

Another entry for "worst ever review". McCullum's missed that by literally a foot and a half. It hit him flush on the friggin' shoulder. Staggering.

 

[Pothas]

Jesus that one is going straight in the hall of shame.

 

[Mike5181]

I wish we would get rid of this stupid stat chat. There's some interesting cricket on at the moment.