SA tour of Eng, July 19 - Sept 12

[Arthur Crabtree]

Yes, I thought Broad might be first to make way.

Apparently very humid and Broad says bowl first.

[Arthur Crabtree]

SA win the toss and bat.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Harmer comes in. Gives them a longer tail. Interesting pick though.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Yes, I thought Broad might be first to make way.

Apparently very humid and Broad says bowl first.

2-3 for Broad so far. Seems he was right.

[sussexpob]

Yeah it was inevitable Broad was going to be on fire. Elgar probably regretting the decision to field so far

[Arthur Crabtree]

Two for Stokes now. Looks like catches behind and in the slips. SA wondering about the second spinner?

[sussexpob]

I wonder if a team has ever been 90-7, with a new ball bowler getting clogged for 0/43 ff 9 overs.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Keep seeing England wickets have gone down and expecting Crawley to be dismissed, but still there. 11 off 60 balls.

[Durhamfootman]

survived to close of play. 77 balls, so it's a start along the road. Didn't take YJB long to get going, but he seemed quite watchful until the ball was 20 overs old. Crawley had a big part in getting the ball to that point, which is half of an opener's job, but he's got to do it all again in the morning before tackling the other half

[bigfluffylemon]

Well, well. It's not often that a decision to bat first can be criticised as plainly wrong (that's usually reserved, fairly or not, for captains who chose to bowl first), but you've got to say this was one time where the adage of 'weigh up the conditions, then bat first' was wrong. If South Africa got in among England in those conditions you'd think the scores could easily be reversed.

Of course, England have to make a decent start count tomorrow, and probably gave South Africa more runs than they should have with the bizarre insistence on bowling short to tail enders, even on a day where the ball has been doing all sorts and they got the top order out by line, length and movement (you'd think if that's good enough for a number 3, it's also good enough for a number 9).

Like others, I remain baffled by the chopping and changing of bowlers when the batting fails. It seems that it's acceptable to change bowlers around for tactical reasons - horses for courses picks, if you will - but rarely do you see a batter come into the side because they are considered particularly good in certain conditions or against a certain style of attack. You do see it very occasionally when 'spin specialists' are picked to play in India (Australia have had reasonable success picking Khawaja in that role, for example - the less said about England's attempts with Jennings the better), but in general batters are supposed to be able to adapt to all conditions, all attacks. We throw around the pejorative 'flat track bully', but there is a skill in having the patience to accumulate big runs when the ball isn't doing much, a skill the likes of Cook and Vaughan had, but most of England's current line-up (save Root) lacks - they get bored, start throwing the bat around and make a mistake. Yes, it's easier to make 200 on a flat deck in Asian than in May at Trent Bridge, but it's still not easy to have the application to make 200 in a test match, or everyone would be doing it. Why not accept that some of England's batters will be better suited to grind when the ball is moving, and others are better at cashing in when the ball does less?

[bigfluffylemon]

I ran the numbers a while back, and England were one of the worst teams in the world at bowling to the tail - the average stand for wickets 7-10 is something like 26 runs globally, but England have a bowling average of around 30 against them over the last 6-7 years.

That hasn't got any better, it seems.

[bigfluffylemon]

Jimmy becomes the first player to play 100 home test matches

[alfie]

There are a number of reasons why bowlers tend to get popped in and out of the team more than batsman. Conditions of course : we can argue about SA's choice of two spinners for this one ; but obviously there are times when the balance of an attack needs to be changed. The need for rest : again , a fast bowler is far more prone to fatigue in these back to back Tests than a batsman. And different pitches may well be thought to favour , say , a big swinger of the ball over a pure pace man - though I suspect a lot of those choices are a bit more like guesswork !
But equally , it is generally considered better for a batting order to be "settled" , rather than switched about week to week. Arguably wouldn't really make a huge difference if one player was swapped ; though you wouldn't really want to be shuffling the order if you can help it.

Of course the main truth is that batsmen rule the game and the poor old bowlers always get shafted :as Freddie Trueman declared : "the last bowler knighted was Sir Francis Drake "

Anyway I think the move of Robinson for Potts is paying off. He didn't end up with great figures ; but he bowled far better than that , and the pressure he exerted on the SA top order certainly contributed to the success of the chaps at the other end. I fancy he may be pretty handy in the second innings - but I hope he stops bowling no balls !

[alfie]

I found that last session quite fascinating. More like old-fashioned Test Cricket. SA really applied the pressure to England's bats - getting Root cheaply for the third time in a row a big plus for them. They lost the plot a bit , perhaps trying for extra pace , as the Bairstow/Crawley stand developed... were very generous with extras ! I guess that is one of the things you get with Nortje : some real killer balls - but also some loose stuff that leaks runs quite quickly. I found it a little odd at one point , to see that the scoring rate was around four per over as it looked as if the batsmen had just been hanging in rather than scoring - 13 in wides and no balls helps it along...

England should be pleased with the situation at the close ; but they will need to be on the ball tomorrow as that tail still looks very wobbly so a couple of quick wickets would see SA right back in the hunt. I understand the weather is set fair (though it is Manchester so who knows ?) so we can look forward to a result.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Fifty from Foakes. Should be a match winning hand from him and his rhyming captain.