Sri Lanka v South Africa, 1st Test, Galle, 16-20 July, 2014

Saw that admission's free for this test in certain parts of the stadium.

Tight lbw call that.

Two orthodox spinners. When was the last time Sri Lanka did that?

tricycle wrote:Tight lbw call that.

Two orthodox spinners. When was the last time Sri Lanka did that?

Since the chuckers were banned?

Aye, must've be a while since that happened. Maybe Herath and Randiv have played a few tests, if going by non mystery finger spinners.

1st session to SL.

horace wrote:Is the Snorkel some sort of Brezzylad/Instant Kharma equivalent?

Yarpie Harmi, we used to call him...

I like it

Steady start by SA. Elgar seems to be in good touch.

It was a mistake to send FAF in at 3. Why not send Amla or AB?

FAF has not played a competitive match in months and is batting way too slowly.

AB is not keeping so he might as well bat higher up?

Naeem wrote:It was a mistake to send FAF in at 3.  Why not send Amla or AB?

FAF has not played a competitive match in months and is batting way too slowly.

AB is not keeping so he might as well bat higher up?

Not sure about that. Looks like the long term strategy is Faf at 3. And seems to be speeding up a bit.

The new Dello?

red: "Maybe keeping these 2 at the crease is Angelo's cunning plan to lull Amla & AB to sleep before striking later in the day?"

First ton to Elgar. Fair play. Gets there tonking a six.

Brass Monkey wrote:First ton to Elgar. Fair play. Gets there tonking a six.

2nd Dan

Nicely set up at Tea

taipan wrote:

Brass Monkey wrote:First ton to Elgar. Fair play. Gets there tonking a six.

2nd Dan

1st is the new 2nd.

Shit way to get out for Amla again.

But it brings in AB, so all is not lost.

Good scores by Elgar (one of Red's favourites) and Francois. Well done them. Making solid bids to become fixtures in the team at 2 and 3.

Personally, I don't see how Faf's initially slow scoring is a problem. It's not a T20. The thing is he builds a position for his side. He has added runs faster - and so can his team - once the foundation is solid in what can be difficult conditions.

More worrying is Amla's looseness, as Trike said. He has to focus more, especially now he's skipper and in the pivot position.

Beginning to chuck away the advantage here.

tricycle wrote:Shit way to get out for Amla again.

Aye Trike, I posted a couple of years ago that he was getting loose and I copped some flak for it.

Aye, and I wouldn't have readily agreed back then either. But in hindsight, it did start immediately after his crazy highs.

Oh dear, if this is out, it's a bad way to go for de Villiers.

Not out

Late important strikes for Lanka.

Englandesque collapse makes it an even day, I'd say. Probably advantage Lanka.

It's still 268 on the board with 5 wuckets left, though. "I've seen worse situations." I'd say deuce, next session important.

Odd decision to use Steyn as a NW? Doesn't betoken great faith in JP. (I thought the real teams were supposed to sneer at the use of NWs?)