The Cricket Thread 2016

[paul_e]

and there's the 4th, I don't think I've seen one like that before, commentators really weren't sure what had happened.

England's day now for me, getting Elgar as well this evening would make it clearly our game to lose.

[PaulWinch again]

Ah Cookie you've got to review that.

[Villan For Life]

On balance we are just ahead. The Saffers are suffering from a similar batting malaise to England so a couple of wickets early tomorrow and we're in the box seat.

The pitch is drying out and starting to spin. It will be a tough one to bat on come day five.

[paul_e]

On balance we are just ahead. The Saffers are suffering from a similar batting malaise to England so a couple of wickets early tomorrow and we're in the box seat.

The pitch is drying out and starting to spin. It will be a tough one to bat on come day five.

The inconsistent bounce is the worry for them.  They'd have wanted a big first innings lead to limit the fourth innings chase as much as possible, if it carries on deteriorating like it has today you wouldn't be confident of making anything more than 200 and even that will be tough.  If we can get them for less than 350 (which should be well within us from where we are) then 250+ on the board by Tuesday evening should give us a good chance of getting a result here.  If Cook had reviewed the Elgar lbw chance (I can understand why he didn't but given the time and situation I think it was worth the review) I think we'd be looking at them getting less than 200 because that would have been full on collapse at that point and even their big partnership had a huge amount of fortune to it, having watched it back I can't work out how that catch wasn't given.

[adrenachrome]

Good shot of Woakes after that dropped catch on Espncricinfo.

[Villan For Life]

Two early wickets this morning 150-6

[Villan For Life]

This stand is starting to get annoying. The New ball is due soon though so hopefully we should finish them off soon afterwards. 200-7.

[PaulWinch again]

Right we need to break this partnership.

[Villan For Life]

Right we have broken the stand now let's get the last two wickets sharpish!

The lead is 92 which is a good lead and the new ball is now due.

[Villan For Life]

Steyn out of the attack injured is a huge blow for the Saffers.

[PGW]

With Elgar showing great resistance this morning i thought England played with great 'Pomp and circumstance'
and Moeen Ali bowled some great ' Enigma Variations'.

With England now 22-1 with lead of 111 should be dreaming of victory....can't get Gerontius into comment anywhere!!!!

[paul_e]

This has been a better morning than I dared suggest, I'd expected them to get something between 250 and 350 so for me we've taken a bigger advantage than we'd ever have imagined.  Now it's a case of building the lead however we can (if that means 2-2.5 an over then so be it, we have time) up to about 250 and then see where we are, I doubt they'll even chase that.  The pitch is slow, has inconsistent bounce and seems to be offering a decent amount of spin and seam, 1000 runs across all 4 innings looks unlikely.

[Dave Cooper please]

I'm happy enough with the scoring rate as long as our batsmen don't get frustrated and feel they need to start moving the scoreboard along, as Hales seemed to do when he got himself out.

[paul_e]

I'm happy enough with the scoring rate as long as our batsmen don't get frustrated and feel they need to start moving the scoreboard along, as Hales seemed to do when he got himself out.

Yeah I agree, this isn't really the game for people like Hales, Ali and Stokes who do get frustrated if they're not scoring.  I'd think that Compton, Root and Taylor are enough to counter that though given the comparatively low targets.  Either way I won't be judging anyone for low scores on what appears to be a low scoring test.

[Monty]

I'm happy enough with the scoring rate as long as our batsmen don't get frustrated and feel they need to start moving the scoreboard along, as Hales seemed to do when he got himself out.

Yeah I agree, this isn't really the game for people like Hales, Ali and Stokes who do get frustrated if they're not scoring.  I'd think that Compton, Root and Taylor are enough to counter that though given the comparatively low targets.  Either way I won't be judging anyone for low scores on what appears to be a low scoring test.

There's so much time left, they should just focus on nice steady accumulation. Everyone these days wants to be Australia c. 2002, biffing their way through every situation - far better at this sort of moment to take your time, and allow the game to go your way rather than force it.