England v South Africa, 3rd Test, The Oval, 8-12 September, 2022

Yarps have to fly home on Tuesday, so it will be a three-day Test. Will we see a “sporting” declaration or two if it isn’t the wicket-fest of the first two, or does the more dubious history of this rivalry preclude that?

Curiously, Prince William has replaced his father as the Oval’s landlord since the toss was made for this Test… the ground is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall which belongs to the heir apparent, and leased to Surrey. You learn something new every day (quite a lot of things, when there’s a new monarch on the iron throne! )

Cheers for the updates, beams.

beamer wrote:Resuming tomorrow, but no decision yet on an extra day. You couldn’t make it up…

no extra day

Nath wrote:

beamer wrote:Resuming tomorrow, but no decision yet on an extra day. You couldn’t make it up…

no extra day

Recent evidence suggests it won’t be needed, weather permitting…

Well, 16 wickets so far… will do well if it even makes “day 3”!

Lordy, 17 wickets in a shortened 1st Day???

Was it a greentop??

Looks a decent knock by Pope.

If England can scratch up a 100 lead, it might be gold.

I think just a bit of movement combined with two teams who can bowl but can’t bat. They’d struggle to go 5 days on a Sri Lankan dustbowl.

at 84-2 it was looking good for england, but a few t20 shots later..
and another weird innings from stokes..
safys were a lot better after the rainbreak
their quicks went through our tail v quickly, whereas their last
4 wkts added 82.  now rsa are back in the match.

Looks like Elgar is playing the one sensible innings required to win this match.

130 to win then. Openers not pissing about, Lees could have seen his Test career end with a run-out there.

Only one fifty was made by South Africa’s batsmen in this whole series (Erwee’s 73 in the opening match). England’s four leading seamers each have 10 or more wickets at an average of under 17.

Meanwhile, Crawley showing his worth at last?

This sport doesn’t help itself at times. Why exactly did they take light calls away from the batting side, meaning less play?

Wow. I went to bed last night with the Yarps at 1-70, expecting the SAf 2nd innings to be far more substantial than their I1.

But no. The English bowlers crashed through them again. And a resolute start by Lees and Crawley has left England needing only 33 for a famous series victory.

A very poor SAf batting display all series.

This is going to be the shortest 3 Test series (by balls and with 3 results) since the late 1800s.

Can anyone in world cricket bat any more?

I blame the IPL.

Not sure I’d call it “resolute” from our openers. Lees offered three or four chances, and Crawley made one of the top 10 fastest 50s in England Test history.

This series has been played with Dukes balls on helpful pitches, in humid late season weather and between two top class seam bowling teams with fragile batting line-ups. Wouldn’t expect a lot else really. Maybe they’ll just have to start preparing roads to avoid refunding a day or two’s ticket holders every time. As it stands, can’t imagine the Ashes being much different.

I suppose the Ashes being in June/July might change it a bit, then again, we won’t necessarily get a summer like this year!

Lees dropped again in the first over!

Looks like two openers averaging mid-20s are going to cement their places for the winter here, a bit like a modern-day version of how Ian Bell used to do so with a 60 not out in the last innings of a dull draw.

So Creepy helps his average with 69* to help England to victory. Well done them.

Can’t complain about 6 Test wins out of 7, something unmatched since the 2004 home clean sweep, though still questions to be asked about elements of the batting and whether matches ending inside 150 overs is really good for the game.

Bigger tests to come but there’s certainly a positive feeling around the side again.

A great summer for England.

At 909 legal deliveries, this was the 12th-shortest completed Test of all time. It is the shortest completed Test in England since 1912 (same opponents, ground and outcome!) and takes the post-war English ground record from the 2000 Headingley Test v WI (32 balls longer).

Almost lost in all the chaos… Broad has overtaken McGrath. And Jimmy is only 41 behind you know who. He could, you know. In next year’s Ashes, perhaps…