*Official* South African tour of England and Ireland 2022

[Socerer 01]

Bazball is dead is as stupid a thing to say as declaring England the best in the world after four amazing wins (which not even I did)

South Africa battered us. Will we adjust, or will our previous methods bounce us back next Test? Watch and find out. So tiring online sports forums these days where each individual match and outcome is treated by some as a complete endorsement of a team being ****/amazing, previous performances theories being proven/debunked, etc etc.

It's not that ****ing deep.

bazball is clearly not dead, all you need is Alex Hales in the test side as slippy suggests

 

[Spark]

Bazball is dead is as stupid a thing to say as declaring England the best in the world after four amazing wins (which not even I did)

South Africa battered us. Will we adjust, or will our previous methods bounce us back next Test? Watch and find out. So tiring online sports forums these days where each individual match and outcome is treated by some as a complete endorsement of a team being ****/amazing, previous performances theories being proven/debunked, etc etc.

It's not that ****ing deep.

The wild thing is that England didn't even get to the point in this game at any stage where "Bazball" as colloquially applied actually even came into question. They just got flat out outplayed at a basic, fundamental level, not out-tactic'd. Most of the dismissals today were to... loose defending outside off stump. Not exactly an indictment of "Bazball".

England didn’t even bat particularly aggressively, mostly because they were out before they got the chance.

Exactly. They just got thoroughly kippered by an excellent attack.

 

[GIMH]

The wild thing is that England didn't even get to the point in this game at any stage where "Bazball" as colloquially applied actually even came into question. They just got flat out outplayed at a basic, fundamental level, not out-tactic'd. Most of the dismissals today were to... loose defending outside off stump. Not exactly an indictment of "Bazball".



Exactly. They just got thoroughly kippered by an excellent attack.

Yeah. It could have been any England defeat from the past few years.

Anyway my haters, who are jealous fools, will be pleased to know I planned to sit down with a beer in an hour or so and catch a good hour of cricket and then enjoy the bulk of the play tomorrow aside from when watching Newport V Tranmere. Cheers England, weekend ruined, GIMH is crying now!

 

[StephenZA]

SA batting is:
Test Quality opener = Elgar
Batsman with potential = Petersen and Makram
Journeymen = Rassie and Erwee
Nuggety wickey = Verreynne.

They are carried by their bowlers but you can't take anything away from the batters here.

What about Jansen?

 

[StephenZA]

GIMH is crying now!

Not Mrs GIMH? Free day for herself all gone!

 

[honestbharani]

England didn’t even bat particularly aggressively, mostly because they were out before they got the chance.

Its not just that though. I feel the NZ tests were actual Bazball but against India, they batted well, like proper test match level well which would have been good test match batting almost in any era. They fought through tough spells, were playing and missing a lot even defending but ensured they stayed put and there were even soft hand nicks which, you would think, is the opposite of bazball. They started playing more positively and decisively but not exactly aggressively once they got their eyes in and the ball got old and the bowlers got tired. It was only after the target was less than 100 were they actually expansive. It was a properly well orchestrated test match chase in conditions that had gotten better for batting as the game went on. They took full advantage of the conditions like a good team would. To put all of this hard work, talent and merit down to something as simplistic as bazball is a disservice to how well they played that test and especially that innings.

 

[honestbharani]

Yeah. It could have been any England defeat from the past few years.

Anyway my haters, who are jealous fools, will be pleased to know I planned to sit down with a beer in an hour or so and catch a good hour of cricket and then enjoy the bulk of the play tomorrow aside from when watching Newport V Tranmere. Cheers England, weekend ruined, GIMH is crying now!

Happy New Year GIMH.

 

[artvandalay]

SA batting is:
Test Quality opener = Elgar
Batsman with potential = Petersen and Makram
Journeymen = Rassie and Erwee
Nuggety wickey = Verreynne.

They are carried by their bowlers but you can't take anything away from the batters here.

That's not all that bad tbh. As a team they all contribute just enough more often than not with potential to get even better. The tail is not something to ignore ether.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Innings defeat incoming.

I was right

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

I was right

Good.

Can you pick my lottery numbers for the draw tonight?

 

[kingkallis]

Lookslike England played without any plan or they failed to implement if there was any. Neither BazBall, nor anything else. I thought they would put in some efforts in the second inning but there was absolutely nothing from any of the English batters. Pope got lucky in the first and Lees in the second otherwise it would have been even more horrible.

I hope to see some good performances from both batting units in the 2nd test match.

And by the way, BazBall is the creation of the Media and I am tired of reading it. Firdose Moonda even termed Bouchball in one of her article! What the hell is wrong with these sports journos?

 

[honestbharani]

Cant wait to see WallBall

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Back to being minnows. Nice

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Cant wait to see WallBall

With Kraigg and Tage potentially opening the batting later this year, it'll be DotBall x 200

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

Been traveling today. When I left home, SA were still batting. Arrived where we're staying and find the match was over hours ago...

Well played SA I guess.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Not sure England have learnt anything new. The bowling is serviceable in home conditions, the batting is more or less completely reliant on Root (and currently Bairstow) so when they score about half a run between them we're buggered, Foakes looks very gun-shy against pace, and the decision to retain Crawley is increasingly quixotic.

Since WW2 the only specialist bats who've played 20 tests and average less are Mike Brearley (who brought something else to the table), Bill Athey and Willie Watson.

The latter duo's services were permanently dispensed with before they played as many tests as Zak has already managed.

 

[GRAB]

Not sure England have learnt anything new. The bowling is serviceable in home conditions, the batting is more or less completely reliant on Root (and currently Bairstow) so when they score about half a run between them we're buggered, Foakes looks very gun-shy against pace, and the decision to retain Crawley is increasingly quixotic.

Since WW2 the only specialist bats who've played 20 tests and average less are Mike Brearley (who brought something else to the table), Bill Athey and Willie Watson.

The latter duo's services were permanently dispensed with before they played as many tests as Zak has already managed.

But are they making plans for life without Broad and Anderson? There are a lot of quick, but fragile bowlers around, but can Archer, Wood and co. be available often enough?

 

[andruid]

bazball is clearly not dead, all you need is Alex Hales in the test side as slippy suggests

And Phil Mustard hasn't retired IIRC

 

[Xuhaib]

It's scary how easily Saffers have recovered from losing Steyn, Philander and Morkel that some scary bowling depth.

 

[trundler]

It's scary how easily Saffers have recovered from losing Steyn, Philander and Morkel that some scary bowling depth.

SA's bench strength must be crazy to support guys like Philander and Ngidi.