*Official* England in South Africa 2019/20

[MW1304]

Good Lord he's having some fun here.

 

[Stapel]

Good Lord he's having some fun here.

One away from his high score. Century coming up?

 

[Daemon]

Maharaj has always loved slapping around the oppositions spinners. Fun to watch.

 

[Groundking]

What a load of **** we've bowled this past hour or so.

Just attack the stumps ffs.

 

[mackembhoy]

Why do so many sides not bowl at tailenders.

Resort to short pitch bowling and hoping they sky one.

 

[MW1304]

Curran is soooo hittable.

 

[harsh.ag]

Partnership: 95 runs off 65 balls. Amaze.

 

[Daemon]

Currans figures

With each boundary his average goes up by like .2

 

[MW1304]

Of course it took a run out.

 

[StephenZA]

What a terrible ending to a fun partnership.

Well done England.

 

[Bijed]

Run out a fitting end as none of the bowlers deserved the last wicket there

We won so yay, but I would be spewing if that had happened in a match that was remotely alive. As it is, kinda like that Southee onslaught from 08

Mind you, some impressive shots from Maharaj and Paterson

 

[sunilz]

Excellent performance England. Have England lost a test series to SA in SA this century? This is extremely impressive.

 

[honestbharani]

Yeah, I fully expected RSA to mount a comeback but I guess Gibson was on to something with the spicy tracks. Maybe they need them to even be competitive at home.

 

[Howe_zat]

Excellent performance England. Have England lost a test series to SA in SA this century? This is extremely impressive.

We lost the 1999-2000 series so... kind of?

Since then England have won two series and drawn one, and will either win or draw this one.

South Africa in England over the same period have won two, drawn one and lost one.

 

[StephenZA]

Yeah, I fully expected RSA to mount a comeback but I guess Gibson was on to something with the spicy tracks. Maybe they need them to even be competitive at home.

He really was not, it is the reason half/all our batting line up lacks confidence. And why Maharaj went totally off the boil.

 

[Heboric]

He really was not, it is the reason half/all our batting line up lacks confidence. And why Maharaj went totally off the boil.

Thing is most of the batters werent in the side when Gibson was doing those things

 

[StephenZA]

Thing is most of the batters werent in the side when Gibson was doing those things

You mean the new guys who have barely had more than 5 tests? Elgar, Faf and QDK, the seniors, all struggled, like most of the batsmen, during those tours. Gibsons priority was clearly the fast bowlers, he neglected that batsmen and Maharaj. It certainly did not help build the team for the future.

 

[Gremlin]

There are positives and negatives for England in this performance. For example, whilst the top order played well and took the shine off the ball they rather gave their wickets away, the middle order were allowed chance to play their natural game, the spinners bowled well although the Saffers made them look like Murali, the seamers were aggressive but were still guilty of bowling slightly short, Curran is not an opening bowler and I still don't think Buttler is the right man behind the sticks. It was exciting to see young players making a case for themselves at this level and by and large they have been well handled by the skipper. But the most impressive thing is that England are looking more like a team again rather than a collection of individuals as has been the case at times. They will still have inconsistent failures due to their relative inexperience and we need to caution ourselves celebrating Pope as one of the big four far too soon and allow him time to develop as an international but the signs at the start of the Silverwood era are promising.

Don't forget, due to circumstances beyond their control, this has been the poorest prepared side to take a tour and of course two bowlers and an opening bat have gone down injured. Those circumstances may yet have the effect of unifying the squad.

 

[BSM]

imo England should look towards promoting Pope to 5 as quickly as possible, and have Stokes at 6. Stokes is the better batsmen at this stage obviously but I like the balance of having the all-rounder at no.6 a lot more, and especially if they are going to bowl crucial overs in the game as Stokes is likely to do. If Pope is going to be our most exciting batting prospect at this stage then we need to get him used to batting higher in the order. I would like him to bat 5 now for England, and on the rare occasion that he bats for Surrey, he can hopefully bat at 3. Its a unique circumstance where our best young batting prospect has almost no experience batting in the top 4 at professional level

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Seen a few gutless displays from England over the years but I have to say that this one from SA ranks up with the best of them. We aren't a good side but comprehensively beat them.

Wouldn't rule out a 2-2 draw even without Rabada though as we are just as likely to play crap as they are.