**Official** South Africa in England 2012

[Cabinet96]

Reverse?

 

[Stumpcam]

Reverse?

Well, they are working very hard on the ball. The pitch is quite abrasive so it could be starting to reverse a bit.

Hope so.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Bowling ok though and giving them very little to hit and not doing it by bowling 4 feet outside off stump. Amla really is a class act, possibly beginning to like him even more than ABDV.

ABDV, Bell and Clarke are my favourite players to watch when going at present, so classy all of them in their stroke play.

 

[Stumpcam]

Calling Anderson on that no-ball was very, very fussy umpiring. I've seen lots of bowlers step outside that crease and not ever get called. Doherty did it loads of times in the Eng-Aus ODI series.

 

[MW1304]

Hashim is supreme.

Although if there was any time I wanted him to stop being awesome its now.

 

[smash84]

Amla

 

[grecian]

Really hate to say it but Pews was right, not enough pace in the pitch to cause too many problems, unless you bowl really well, or bat really badly, which happened earlier today.

 

[Stumpcam]

There's absolutely nothing happening in the air, or off the pitch. It's like the pitch has died.

 

[MW1304]

Mmm Bres in particular looking devoid of any threat. Mind you Swann is the only one who has looked like doing anything, he needs to have a few overs now.

 

[wpdavid]

Really hate to say it but Pews was right, not enough pace in the pitch to cause too many problems, unless you bowl really well, or bat really badly, which happened earlier today.

Yup. And after tea yesterday as well. To differing degrees, our 2nd to 6th wickets were all donated, and I just don't see the Saffers doing that. This is all looking obscenely easy for the batters right now. Class telling, and all that.

 

[wpdavid]

Mmm Bres in particular looking devoid of any threat. Mind you Swann is the only one who has looked like doing anything, he needs to have a few overs now.

Agreed. He needs more than a couple of overs before the close.

EDIT
Fair enough, he's on now, so we'll see what he can do.

 

[wpdavid]

Mmm Bres in particular looking devoid of any threat.

Odds on him averaging over 30 by the end of the series?

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Yup. And after tea yesterday as well. To differing degrees, our 2nd to 6th wickets were all donated, and I just don't see the Saffers doing that. This is all looking obscenely easy for the batters right now. Class telling, and all that.

They are still needing to bat bloody well though, won't be in front of England till deep into the last session tomorrow.

Who knows what will happen in the morning, conditions may help the bowlers.

 

[Stumpcam]

Odds on him averaging over 30 by the end of the series?

Yes, odds-on.

 

[wpdavid]

They are still needing to bat bloody well though, won't be in front of England till deep into the last session tomorrow.

Who knows what will happen in the morning, conditions may help the bowlers.

Yup. I think we're praying for cloud cover tomorrow morning. We certainly can't afford to have them less than 3 down by lunch, I reckon.

The other thing is they won't have to bat spectacularly well unless things change hugely. Just keep doing what they're doing, and we could easily be facing a tricky deficit.

 

[Stumpcam]

Yup. I think we're praying for cloud cover tomorrow morning. We certainly can't afford to have them less than 3 down by lunch, I reckon.

Yeah, we need both of these two early tomorrow so we can get Kallis in early and work on prising him out. That might well take all bloody day though.

 

[wpdavid]

Bopara may not be the worst idea at this stage.

EDIT
FFS Strauss - contribute something to this match.

 

[Stumpcam]

Tough chance it was, but catches win matches boys.......................

 

[Manee]

Bopara may not be the worst idea at this stage.

Wow. 134 FC wickets, impressive. Definitely thought he had about 50.

 

[wpdavid]

Tough chance it was, but catches win matches boys.......................

and we're missing far too many lately.