**Official** South Africa in England 2012

[Scaly piscine]

England only getting 315 in their first innings was where this game was lost. That was the opportunity to take control of the game and ensure you've only got 200-250 maximum to chase in the final innings - the runs are far easier to early in the match than during a chase on an older pitch. The two new balls along with the regulation donations was always likely to be enough to take 10 wickets today and last evening. It was the sort of game where if you got to the second new ball 3-4 down instead of 5-6 then you've every chance of facing the best part of another 80 overs - you still have something left after losing the odd batsman departs to a good delivery. You still have batsmen capable of cashing in against the old ball. England could have done that in their first innings.

 

[Jacknife]

Can't have missed more than a handful of overs all series.

 

[Jono]

Yeah, even when praising him I felt they were a little patronising though, as if they were always trying to explain why someone they deep down felt should be so utterly mediocre actually wasn't. Nasser kind of started from that position and ended up respecting him properly while Holding and Botham just bagged him early on and had to begrudgingly acknowledge his efforts as a "useful cricketer" towards the end.

Used to be a massive fan of the sky commentary team, and still am for the most part, but their general commentary about philander at the start of this series was nothing short of a disgrace.

 

[Viscount Tom]

Nah because SA were the better team.

Yeah they took all their chances that mattered the most. Difference between winning and losing.

Still say the article bashing Vern on crocinfo are just that a croc of ****.

 

[Jacknife]

England only getting 315 in their first innings was where this game was lost. That was the opportunity to take control of the game and ensure you've only got 200-250 maximum to chase in the final innings - the runs are far easier to early in the match than during a chase on an older pitch. The two new balls along with the regulation donations was always likely to be enough to take 10 wickets. It was the sort of game where if you got to the second new ball 3-4 down instead of 5-6 then you've every chance of facing the best part of another 80 overs - you still have something left after losing the odd batsman departs to a good delivery. You still have batsmen capable of cashing in against the old ball.

Yep the top order and the catching has been awful tbh.

 

[Prince EWS]

Amla will be MOTS by a mile. A triple and an important hundred in the final test to seal a good score.

English series, so they have to pick one from both sides. Amla's obvious but who to pick from England is more interesting. If not for Prior's relatively straight-forward drop he'd be a shoo in; will probably still get it tbh.

 

[Turbinator]

This is beautiful. So happy.

 

[benchmark00]

Yeah they took all their chances that mattered the most. Difference between winning and losing.

Still say the article bashing Vern on crocinfo are just that a croc of ****.

Crocinfo have never steered me wrong in the past though tbf.

Information About Crocodiles

 

[Prince EWS]

Crocinfo have never steered me wrong in the past though tbf.

Information About Crocodiles

Definitely a much better alternative to cricinfo than what I saw that time I accidentally typed circinfo. That was the day I put cricinfo in my bookmarks; definitely never wanted to make that mistake again...

 

[grecian]

Nah it's definitely not a flattering scoreline.

They played the better test cricket in this test by a margin, and if anything, only losing by 50 odd or whatever really flattered England.

Disagree TBH, fairly even last match, catching the difference, Tahir and Morkel bowled really poorly on this final day. Deserved to be punished as a main part of their attack.

 

[Spikey]

just loving tahir running straight to the stumps

 

[Spikey]

looking forward to a trademark Philander interview

 

[Jacknife]

Disagree TBH, fairly even last match, catching the difference, Tahir and Morkel bowled really poorly on this final day. Deserved to be punished as a main part of their attack.

Agree.

 

[Prince EWS]

looking forward to a trademark Philander interview

Obviously.

 

[NasserFan207]

What an awesome test match. Congrats to the Saffers, been mostly brilliant all series.

Prior played a gun innings, hardly unexpected.

 

[popepouri]

There was also this fine article for the first test:

Poor preparation means that South Africa and other touring sides are short-changing the English paying public - Telegraph

 

[Spikey]

attn umps:

those shoes don't go with those pants

 

[Viscount Tom]

Definitely a much better alternative to cricinfo than what I saw that time I accidentally typed circinfo. That was the day I put cricinfo in my bookmarks; definitely never wanted to make that mistake again...

Just saying but if you put crocinfo into google's I'm feeling lucky well it adds up.

 

[Jono]

just loving tahir running straight to the stumps

Lol it's hilarious

 

[Prince EWS]

Obviously.

Yesssss, loving it