***Official*** South Africa in England

[wpdavid]

Well you'd hope Harris won't be bowling on the opening morning under these circumstances.

Kallis must be a likelier bet today

 

[Manee]

This is not great bowling from the South African attack. None of the bowlers are working up any consistent pace or accuracy.

 

[Richard]

not even one six yet.

I hope that's an ironic comment, of course?

Must say though that the quality of bowling hasn't been what it might be, but the batsmen have played it very well so far.

 

[_Ed_]

Quite a flurry of runs this.

 

[Richard]

Kallis must be a likelier bet today

Obviously you'd hope so. He and Steyn should be SA's best bowlers under these circumstances. Would actually hope Kallis would get a go with the newer ball before it loses too much shine.

Both Ntini and Morkel, bowling currently, should get nothing out of this and if the batsmen play well cannot really be dangerous.

 

[Richard]

And sure enough, Kallis on. Good move.

 

[Kweek]

BTW I wonder if, on his 3rd tour, Boucher has finally got the hang of keeping wicket in England?

9.4 Ntini to Cook, no run, superb take from Boucher! Wide of the off stump, left alone by the batsmen and it cut away markedly. Boucher snaffled it with his left paw in front of slip

it seems so ?

 

[Richard]

Yeah he's gone well so far (hence that post) so I'll be hoping he's going to keep this up throughout the tour.

BTW that delivery was extraordinary.

 

[Manee]

Perhaps I am unestimating the quality of Test bowlers but I think they are all struggling against left handers whereas I think they will be much more successful against right handers.

 

[Kweek]

''I'm getting bored of writing "too wide". Come on, South Africa.''

can anyone confirm this? (stuck at work and no sky anyway...bring back the BBC!)
if so ; shocking saffies

 

[Manee]

94.2mph!!!

 

[Manee]

''I'm getting bored of writing "too wide". Come on, South Africa.''

can anyone confirm this? (stuck at work and no sky anyway...bring back the BBC!)
if so ; shocking saffies

They are not making England play enough, so, yes, bowling too wide.

 

[pasag]

You'd think they'd get a lot better as the match and series wears on. People might have been expecting a bit too much from them, to come on and just take bags, though as has been said this isn't the greatest bowling.

 

[Richard]

Oddly, the relatively few out-and-out poor deliveries so far have almost all gone to Cook, after the 1st went to Strauss.

 

[Richard]

FFS, Steyn should be bowling here. Completely insane not to have your best swing-bowler on when the ball is newest.

Mind, that said, Kallis (he of the generally superlative seam-position) has so far got it to do precisely sod-all.

Blimey, Mike Brearley is out-and-out white in the hair these days. And Edward Dexter is in superb shape for an octagenarian.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

WoW! Just noticed this series is on Sky Sports (2)!! Oh yes. Thumbs up to the Sky boys for broadcasting another non-NZ test series.

I've probably just increased the viewing figures by about 10% by tuning in, mind.

 

[Richard]

I guess at 11PM there's not going to be all that much Kiwi viewing?

 

[Manee]

Shocking stuff from Morkel.

 

[steds]

Oddly, the relatively few out-and-out poor deliveries so far have almost all gone to Cook, after the 1st went to Strauss.

By "out-and-out poor" you mean "hit for four", right? Would say myself that anything wide enough for the batsman to leave in complete certainty is a poor ball. And from what I'm reading, there's a hell of a lot of them.

 

[Manee]

Morkel back up to 92.9mph.