**Official** South Africa in England 2012

[Daemon]

Show some appreciation ****s, he just rescued you from 4-50..

 

[Prince EWS]

Morkel is the worst choice of all the bowlers to bowl at Prior IMO.

 

[Stapel]

We have to see, this much vaunted England tail hasnt exactly done anything this series

Maybe, but Prior is most certainly not part of the tail!

 

[CWB304]

Good knock by Bell. England needed him to grit his teeth and support the senior batsman. And he did so, admirably,...until he ran out of talent. Now let's see whether Prior can help Bairstow mount a real counter-attack.

 

[MW1304]

Frustrating in this type of situation though. We need to win this match, its not much good getting 50 and out, we really need some kind of decent lead. Admittedly he's much less at fault than his fellow snr batsmen but its been a common problem for him recently, and a lack of real matchwinning innings has always been a problem of his, something he seemed to have gone a long way to reversing in the last couple of years.

 

[Daemon]

Morkel is the worst choice of all the bowlers to bowl at Prior IMO.

Well Tahir's poo and I don't think Kallis is the right choice if you want to have a go at the batsmen before the close of play. Unless of course you're thinking of something technical which I have no idea of.

 

[Jacknife]

Obviously we need to finish the day with these two still there but it would be nice to knock some more of this deficit off, Prior the right man for the job as well, bit of a balancing act.

 

[Prince EWS]

Well Tahir's poo and I don't think Kallis is the right choice if you want to have a go at the batsmen before the close of play. Unless of course you're thinking of something technical which I have no idea of.

When Morkel bowls poorly it usually manifests itself as completely unthreatening crap outside off that the batsmen don't have to play at. He usually gets away with it without it costing much even if it makes him unpenetrative though because batsmen just leave him alone, but that's Prior's main scoring area. He loves the width and will hammer you if you 'do a Morkel' so to speak. He'll be punished if he's off his game, even though it's nearing close. The easiest way to get Prior early is to bowl full and straight before he gets set, and target bowled/lbw.

 

[Jacknife]

I know it's been said once or twice over recent months but how this series isn't at least 4 tests & preferably 5 is criminal, it just feels like we're just getting into it still.

 

[Daemon]

When Morkel bowls poorly it usually manifests itself as completely unthreatening crap outside off that the batsmen don't have to play at. He usually gets away with it without it costing much even if it makes him unpenetrative though because batsmen just leave him alone, but that's Prior's main scoring area. He loves the width and will hammer you if you 'do a Morkel' so to speak. He'll be punished if he's off his game, even though it's nearing close. The easiest way to get Prior early is to bowl full and straight before he gets set, and target bowled/lbw.

Didn't really know that, haven't observed enough of him.

Reckon if they can get a bit of movement off the surface they should be able to snag him, he's pushing hard at everything and playing on the up a lot. Middling it all though.

 

[Jacknife]

Jonny's shut up shop it seems.

Well done Jonny, good fight back by England but we need these two to see out the new ball in the morning if we're going to win this game.

 

[Stumpcam]

A good day of Test cricket. With England's innings mirroring SA's in many ways. After 72 overs SA were 217/6, so England are virtually level having lost one less wicket.

As Jacknife said, it's crucial that Bairstow and Prior don't fall early tomorrow but go on and post a lead over SA's total. They'll need to do it quickly though, as it won't be easy to get SA out relatively cheaply for a scond time.

 

[NasserFan207]

I know it's been said once or twice over recent months but how this series isn't at least 4 tests & preferably 5 is criminal, it just feels like we're just getting into it still.

Yep, particularly from South Africa's POV, they don't play enough test cricket IMO.

Anyway this sets up the rest of the game nicely. Good cricket

 

[Jacknife]

At least tomorrow Bairstow and Prior will have a few overs of the old ball to get their eye in before the new one's available, going to be so so important though for these two to get through the first hour.

 

[Manee]

Love how perfectly poised this match is and how wonderful the weather forecast is.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Taylor really, really doesn't look likely for me.

Yeah, always been an agnostic on the Taylor front, myself. Looks a great player of mediocre bowling (and he sees a fair bit of that at domestic level) but has never struck me as having something extra whenever I saw him on telly before his debut. Some chaps just look the goods (Buttler, whatever the mediocre FC figures say, has something special about him and will play test cricket soon) but Taylor isn't one of them.

Encouraging signs from Bluey today. Pleased for him because he's patently a good lad and is pretty easy on the eye when he's in too.

 

[CWB304]

Broad's due some runs, too. Have a good feeling about tomorrow...

 

[Jacknife]

If ever there was a time we could do with one of Broad quick fire 70's, it's tomorrow.

 

[NasserFan207]

SA have been really good against the tail, don't think Broad and Swann will do much here.

 

[Viscount Tom]

Depends how much they face of Tahir, at least in Broad's case.