England v South Africa, 2nd Test, Old Trafford, 25-29 August, 2022

So, having been demolished in two days’ worth of cricket, England will get back up off the canvas and play the same track again. Need to win the toss this time.

A reality check but not one that’s likely to produce any major changes, though Tommy might come in for Spliffy. Crawley keeps his place on the grounds he’s capable of playing one substantial innings per year of Test cricket, or something like that (in which case we might as well open with Broad…) A Yarp win and the series is sealed.

Let's hope for five days of riveting cricket.

Or at least four…

england will have to play 10x better if the result is not to
be the same.

Yarps win the toss and bat, interesting call… obviously on commission from the Mancs to make it go to day 4.

Red wrote:Let's hope for five days of riveting cricket.

Or even cricket.

safys drop jansen, harmer gets a game, so i spose they had to bat first if you go with 2 spinners.

And the 'Drome' goes caught Fokes bowled Stokes to a joke of a shot....not a great morning for the Sths so far

Been tied up with the Rugby League and other things (yeah, sacrilege I know but it's coming to the pointy end to the season) so missed the first session.

Carn the Poms. With the Sith at 5-77, it's England's day so far.

Just gotta catch the wicket highlights.

Stokes got two quick ones with a long-hop and a double umpire’s call, so luck clearly with us, even if Tommy got a wicket with a noey earlier on. Need to run through the tail and make it count though.

Nice near hattrick to Jimmeh with 2 plumb lbws. Shame his 3rd ball was rubbish leg side tosh.

Belated credit to the remarkable career of the (unbelievably) 40 year old Jimmy Anderson. Still good enough to have a 3-fer against a top Test nation.

Let's make it a 5-fer, Jimmeh.

Lost Wombat wrote:safys drop jansen, harmer gets a game, so i spose they had to bat first if you go with 2 spinners.

Remarkable, after Jansen's excellent 1st Test with bat and ball. Smells of the Yarps trying to defend a 1-up lead.

Remarkable quote from Dickinfo...

ChrisH: "For the stats wizards... how many English Test players have started and ended their Test careers since Anderson began his? For extra points, what is the total number of Tests of those players?" Zillions, to put it mildly. Not least among them Andrew Strauss, who played 100 Tests, captained England to home and away Ashes wins, and has been retired for 10 years already!"

Dunno what the answer is but the fact that Andrew Strauss has been retired for 10 years (started after Jimmeh) is just an amazing comment on Anderson's longevity.

as if there wasnt enough going on, the bbc tells us to watch out for england players wearing rainbow laces

eh?

Anderson is shirt number 613, with most recent debutant Jamie Overton being 706. So that’s 92 players who have debuted since him, once we take out the fact that Alan Jones was retrospectively awarded number 696 for his appearance in the 1970 ROTW Test (rumours that Jimmy was a sub fielder in that match are slightly wide of the mark…)

Wikipedia highlights 33 of them as active, though in reality probably half of them are unlikely to play another Test. So that’s at least 60 and probably 70+ later-starting England careers he’s seen off. Number of Tests, that would be more work…

As for people he played with, that stretches back to caps 542 and 543, former captains Hussain and Stewart. He must have had well over 100 Test team-mates, even if he would have failed to coincide with a few who only appeared briefly.

Anyway, sounds like they’ve switched to bouncers at the tail again, so back the Yarps to top 200 and then a fired-up Phone to run through us after being Malcolmed.

It's been carp since 8-108. Short garbage, which Rabada has been playing with ease. Poor.

On the Anderson-Broad opening bowling partnership of 200 Tests, I note that Courtney and Curtly only opened the bowling in just 52 Tests with 412 dismissals between them. Pfffft - piss poor compared to Branderson.

I guess that must be 200 combined for them, as nobody bar Tendulkar has actually played 200? Whereas 52 does sound plausible for the Ambrose-Walsh combination opening, as they will have been change bowlers to illustrious predecessors in their early days.

230 Tests combined for the C & C Music Factory.

Only 52 opening the bowling together. Courtney got the new ball much later in his career.

RSA 130-8 and 2 tailender batters av 11 & 8,  so you dispense with all the slips.

skully wrote:230 Tests combined for the C & C Music Factory.

Only 52 opening the bowling together. Courtney got the new ball much later in his career.

How many have Jimmy and Sturat actually opened together in though? It definitely isn’t 200…

Tommy gets rid of The Phone… the Zak Attack can start preparing themselves for getting out there in the middle. As can the next few, to be honest!

Well, Lees didn’t last long, he must be on almost as shaky ground as his opening partner. Crawley still there, though Cheesy/Ricky Pontiff doing most of the scoring so far…

Not for long, re. Pope… This game won’t see day 4, weather permitting. We just need to find a partnership to help squeeze out a meaningful lead.