Test Champs final, Oz vs SA at Lords, June 11-15

[andy]

Rickelton looks in great nick! Few nice drives down the ground now if he stays for a while the scoreboard will motor

[andy]

Mulder at the other end is struggling...1 from 23 balls and all bowlers going past the edge with regularity....SA really should have a genuine number 3 batting there...surely Stubbs is good enough to bat there!

[andy]

Rickelton goes! 19-2

[mikesiva]

Australia 212 all out

Webster 72
Smith 66

Rabada 5-51
Jansen 3-49

[andy]

Mulder goes for 6 from 43 balls! 25-3

[mikesiva]

212... that ended quickly.

South Africa in the box seat, but can their batting back up there bowlers?

The South Africa batting has been extremely fragile this last couple of years.

[andy]

Stubbs goes! 30-4!

[sussexpob]

Be over tomorrow at this rate

[Red Devil]

I'm off to Lords today for the Test, is anyone else going today?

[sussexpob]

looks a really poor score on what seems to be a very good batting pitch

Not sure the pitch is that great to bat on, definitely a high proportion of balls keeping lower than expected, and Webster particularly got one ball that grubbed outside his off stump. It's not a minefield, but if you pitch it up on the stumps you always have a chance on a wicket like this. Having said that Travis Head, Smith and Alex Carey got out to terrible shots.

[andy]

It's a better pitch than what both batting sides have made it look....both batting line ups showing that they haven't played red ball for a long time and bowlers exploiting that well...yes there's movement for the bowlers but it's not exaggerated movement

[sussexpob]

With one eye on the Ashes coming up in winter, I think England will be encouraged with what they saw yesterday from Australia's batters.

Steve Smith's innings was intriguing, because I cannot honestly remember a batsman making a 50 against a bowling line up of this quality with footwork as catastrophic as that. Smith has never been a textbook player and has always compensated for bad footwork with generationally brilliant hand-eye instincts, but he's never been that bad. At the start of his innings he was playing chest on, legs wide open and planted either side of the stumps, and flicking the ball into the air on the leg side with absolutely no control (I have no idea why after 3-4 shots, SA didn't put a leg gully and leg slip in)... and then later he kept backing away to the leg side and hit at least 2, if not more, drives into the offside while almost falling backwards and just swinging wildly at the ball. Not really sure how you critique such an innings. Part of me thought I was watching a guy who had totally lost the plot, the other part of me thought isn't this exactly why Smith is so good? Despite everything working against him, those hands still have the ability to get him out of jail time and time again. If he can sort out his movements at the crease and stay still, there is clearly life in that old dog yet....

Marnus on the other hand has totally lost his off stump, and I really do not understand why Australia have got him opening the batting at a point in his career where he desperately needs a break and some confidence. You can see he wants to get bat on ball so much that he can be drawn towards balls outside his off stump when moving across, and he turns balls that are misses into ones that challenge his edge. I think at this point its hard to see how he breaks this funk, he seemingly wants to bat long and big and make the right choices, but his judgement on line is shot to hell.

Webster played ok I thought. Looks a limited player in strokes, but he was content to block good balls and wait for the one in his slot. Plays the backfoot drive very well, think you need to get it fuller to him as he has a back-foot bias. Head will always play bad, play well. Carey played a terrible shot. Cameron Green remnds me of Shane Watson in the way he just plants his foot and plays around his pad, always be vulnerable to movement

[andy]

I'm off to Lords today for the Test, is anyone else going today?

Enjoy red! Should be a good day's play! No suprise starc to open up this morning

[GarlicJam]

it is very strange to see a team sitting in the (from my view) left hand side dressing room that is not England.

[Red Devil]

I'm off to Lords today for the Test, is anyone else going today?

Enjoy red! Should be a good day's play! No suprise starc to open up this morning

Decent start from SA - need this pair to put on 100+ more and bat till mid afternoon