**Official** South Africa in England 2012

[Agent Nationaux]

Will he bat?

 

[Prince EWS]

I'll be happy with that as long as his bowling average goes above 40.

You think he's going to concede 1165 runs in this game?

 

[fredfertang]

Will he bat?

He'll belt a quick 50 after tea tomorrow to take us past 600

 

[Prince EWS]

Will he bat?

He will probably hit 20* in each innings. Suicide watch on AN.

 

[Jacknife]

Had a good day at the cricket today. Bad and good deja vu today for me having been in Brisbane to see Strauss out in the first over of the ashes in and having watched Trott and Cook bat together for hours on end in that series. Cook was impressively disciplined and back to his stellar best levels of concentration today even if his run scoring completely stalled in the last hour. Good position for England to be in.

 

[Agent Nationaux]

You think he's going to concede 1165 runs in this game?

LOL, I didn't think anyone would actually go and do the math.

 

[Prince EWS]

LOL, I didn't think anyone would actually go and do the math.

You obviously don't know me very well.

 

[amanuensis]

Like I said before, it was a poor ball and it should have been smashed to the stands, 9 out of 10 times he would of, it was the timing more than anything that could of caused problems but a chest high, medium pace attempted bouncer down leg side should have been dispatched.

It's funny no one mentions Trott's which was a equally bad shot, had a wild swipe at a wide ball and edged it.

Probably because Trott is rather less likely to toss away a start.

 

[Agent Nationaux]

According to the ICC Test predictor, If England wins 2-0, we go ahead of South Africa.

 

[hazsa19]

Did Philander's late-afternoon bowling remind anyone else of Praveen?

 

[flibbertyjibber]

According to the ICC Test predictor, If England wins 2-0, we go ahead of South Africa.

You best start getting behind Bresnan then.

 

[Cabinet96]

Was at the ground today. Thoroughly enjoyable day. Went there thinking a lot of the day would be lost to rain, and left slightly sun burnt! (pasty git)

Didn't think South Africa bowled too badly. The pitch was pretty flat but England couldn't fly away with things. None of the seamers ever lost control and started leaking runs for extended periods.

Honest to god, as solid as this pair is, they are mind boggling boring to watch. I'm literally falling to sleep watching this.

I feel asleep watching Cook bat 3 times during the Ashes. Was never out when I woke up though

I like the pain their slowness causes to opposition fans.

What worse than four hours of some **** scoring a ton against your beloved team?

Watching the **** draw it out for twenty hours.

Massive AWTA

Hahaha, crowd's reaction to Philander's tantrum. So gun.

I think the 09 pitch was deliberate.

TMS speculating that England may have ordered up this dry pitch. If it crumbles Swann is in basically.

Maybe England don't rate Tahir and are backing Swann to win it?

Yeah this. I wanted us to prepare these sort of pitches as we have the better spinner and I don't think a lot of the Saffa players are any better players of spin than we are (we've played spin pretty well in England regardless) so I think Swann could be the key weapon. Somewhat blunts their attack as well.

Of course WW wouldn't be pleased with me saying this

Like I said before, it was a poor ball and it should have been smashed to the stands, 9 out of 10 times he would of, it was the timing more than anything that could of caused problems but a chest high, medium pace attempted bouncer down leg side should have been dispatched.

It's funny no one mentions Trott's which was a equally bad shot, had a wild swipe at a wide ball and edged it.

Yeah this. The guy I was next to at the ground today couldn't help but curse at Pietersen for his shot, and call him a dickhead, but I didn't hear him say anything when Trott got out. Too much judging the player and not the shot in isolation for me. Also especially ironic as several drunken idiots were slatting Pietersen for net getting the hurry up earlier.

 

[Jacknife]

Probably because Trott is rather less likely to toss away a start.

LOL that's all he's been doing this past 12 months, ftr averages 34.

 

[amanuensis]

LOL that's all he's been doing this past 12 months, ftr averages 34.

It would be fair to say that his standards have slipped since Cardiff last year, but he isn't comparable to Pietersen. The latter has always been profligate, but the level of wastefulness has risen in recent years. Since his injury hiatus:

51 innings
27 scores of 30+ (reasonable definition of a "start")
16 scores of 50+
4 tons

 

[Viscount Tom]

That's far from terrible for someone who plays with the level of aggression though.

That's only 7 starts where he gets out below 50.

 

[Burgey]

You think he's going to concede 1165 runs in this game?

Hey could channel Krezja.

 

[amanuensis]

That's far from terrible for someone who plays with the level of aggression though.

That's only 7 starts where he gets out below 50.

27-16=11 actually - that's a fair drop. 4 tons from 16 50+ scores is also poor, particularly for someone who was a very good convertor earlier in his career - he had 16 hundreds & 15 fifties at the time of his injury ().

 

[Jacknife]

It would be fair to say that his standards have slipped since Cardiff last year, but he isn't comparable to Pietersen. The latter has always been profligate, but the level of wastefulness has risen in recent years. Since his injury hiatus:

51 innings
27 scores of 30+ (reasonable definition of a "start")
16 scores of 50+
4 tons

For a player who plays in the way he does and scores his runs as fast as he does, I don't see the problem, he obviously went through a relative lean spell for a year when he came back from his injury but has gradually got back to his best. From about the Ashes in 2010 he started to look something like and has averaged 55 since that time .

You can't have it both ways imo, everyone wants to see KP play attacking risky shots but bitch when he gets out doing so. He's not like Cook and Trott who plods along at their own pace and England as a team don't want him to be like them. England needs a player like KP to push the run rate up, attack the bowlers, spread the fielders. He's that kind of batsman and accept he's more likely to get out because he's a chancing his arm and pushing the scoring along.

When he scores tons they usually win matches also, you say 4 tons but 2 have been match winning doubles and a another 170 odd and then that freak of a innings he played against SL

 

[Pup Clarke]

Reaction to KP's dismissal a bit OTT for me. Just saw it as a short ball that got big on him - credit to Kallis.

 

[tooextracool]

Don't have too much of a problem with KP's dismissal, Kallis can be quite nippy when he wants to be and that ball came on to him much quicker than he expected. KP's t20 shot from earlier which hit him on the grill was an appalling shot for a test match especially off a below average bowler. It is these kinds of strokes that tend to ruffle people's feathers because they really don't serve a purpose other than to show off his brash and arrogant side.

SA weren't terrible with the ball but they were clearly lacking a bit of spark. Philander bowled okay IMO and so did Steyn and Morkel. The more I watch of Tahir, the more mystified I am with regards to his flattering FC record, the guy is closer to Ian Salisbury than he is to a quality spin bowler. His record seems to be inflated by the fact that he has a well disguised googly, with not much else going for him. I suspect the rest of the bowling attack is a little undercooked, with the exception of Philander who has been playing CC for the past few months.

Trott's dismissal was easily more embarrassing than Pietersen's and he threatened all day to get out playing a silly waft at a ball outside the off stump that he should have been leaving alone.

Cook was head and shoulders the best player out there today and he deserves all the plaudits and the * to his name.