South Africa v England, 1st Test, Durban, 26-30 December, 2015

All those years in Elsinore left him jaded?


Congrats to Elgar. Started his Test career shakily (as do many), but looking the part now.

Looks a nuggety knock by Elgar, but advantage England.

Something around a 300+ lead will make for a very interesting Test.

England needed to step things up a bit (they can't just let Piedt bowl with South Africa already a bowler down), but that was a dreadful shot from Hales with long-on back.

Morkel having no luck with Elgar putting down a sitter off Compton and AB grassing a chance off Root.

Interesting Bavuma's test average is in the mid-twenties after half a dozen tests and he has a first class average below forty. The selectors must see something in him though.

Red wrote:Interesting Bavuma's test average is in the mid-twenties after half a dozen tests and he has a first class average below forty.  The selectors must see something in him though.

I wish Linda would share the insight with the rest of us.

What's with AB de Villiers anyway? Advanced hair restore? Toupee?

The fielding this innings has been utterly horrendous.

Brass Monkey wrote:What's with AB de Villiers anyway? Advanced hair restore? Toupee?

I have been watching for a while. I am guessing the Shaney/Kallis option. Or it could just be the fact he doesn't play long innings anymore.

taipan wrote:

Brass Monkey wrote:What's with AB de Villiers anyway? Advanced hair restore? Toupee?

I have been watching for a while. I am guessing the Shaney/Kallis option. Or it could just be the fact he doesn't play long innings anymore.

It's dulled his ability to catch with gloves on. Poor old Morkel!

Brass Monkey wrote:

taipan wrote:

Brass Monkey wrote:What's with AB de Villiers anyway? Advanced hair restore? Toupee?

I have been watching for a while. I am guessing the Shaney/Kallis option. Or it could just be the fact he doesn't play long innings anymore.

It's dulled his ability to catch with gloves on. Poor old Morkel!

Yeah, well, I have never rated him as a keeper, but it was a shocker.

Great day for England. Couldn't be more in charge, really. If we don't win this, we're very naughty.

Brass Monkey wrote:Great day for England. Couldn't be more in charge, really. If we don't win this, we're very naughty.

Totally agree. Outplayed SA for all three days.

Thought we'd be all-out by now, in typically English 'we're doing too well here, let's lose our heads' fashion. I guess it's not a complete surprise that a team without Bell at 3, and a team without Bairstow at 5 (I know he's in the team, but he was batting at 5 two Tests ago, as a specialist batsman), looks more solid. Our 3-4-5 becomes more defensively solid with the addition of Compton and Taylor, which is surely what you want in Tests.

Chivalry Augustus wrote:Thought we'd be all-out by now, in typically English 'we're doing too well here, let's lose our heads' fashion. I guess it's not a complete surprise that a team without Bell at 3, and a team without Bairstow at 5 (I know he's in the team, but he was batting at 5 two Tests ago, as a specialist batsman), looks more solid. Our 3-4-5 becomes more defensively solid with the addition of Compton and Taylor, which is surely what you want in Tests.

Compton? Whodathunnik.

Well ... Hales deserves the long boots, red nose and bushy-sided wig after trying two (or three?) times in succession to get out, and succeeding despite AB's best attempts to keep him in.

But you can see how valid beamer's objection to Compton was at the time. If he'd been amidst Trott, Cook out of form (is he again?), Bell or Ballance, England might not have moved on at all! As it is, despite Hales throwing the bat in premature despair, Compton among strokemakers (Root, with the rest to come) looks a different proposition. Valuable attrition. Well knocked.

Root (reprieve notwithstanding, and the odd judder) and Taylor look England's best batsmen at the moment. Or should I say, source of runs.


Desperate day, by and large, for South Africa. Elgar (with bat, not hands) & Piedt apart, it could hardly have gone much worse. So England have the advantage in this match. If they can press it home before Steyn and Philander get back, De Kock takes the gloves, and AB takes over the captaincy from a clearly struggling Hash, they'll have some credit in the bank.

Brass Monkey wrote:Great day for England. Couldn't be more in charge, really. If we don't win this, we're very naughty.

You're very naughty anyway.


btw: Have you turned into Swann? That's just the sort of way he speaks.

Beamer was totally wrong, sad as I am to be proven right.

He always looked a test batsman who could grind out vital runs, and as important, take time out of the game. If he had been persisted with, England could have had a solid opening partnership as opposed to the musical chairs of the past couple of years.

taipan wrote:

Chivalry Augustus wrote:Thought we'd be all-out by now, in typically English 'we're doing too well here, let's lose our heads' fashion. I guess it's not a complete surprise that a team without Bell at 3, and a team without Bairstow at 5 (I know he's in the team, but he was batting at 5 two Tests ago, as a specialist batsman), looks more solid. Our 3-4-5 becomes more defensively solid with the addition of Compton and Taylor, which is surely what you want in Tests.

Compton? Whodathunnik.

Not I. I'd probably drop him and stick Joe Root up to 3.

PeterCS wrote:

Brass Monkey wrote:Great day for England. Couldn't be more in charge, really. If we don't win this, we're very naughty.

You're very naughty anyway.


btw: Have you turned into Swann? That's just the sort of way he speaks.

Graeme Swann wishes he was me

Naw. He wishes he was cool as Warney, and didn't have to keep talking of Nottinghamshire as his county.

England totally on top. SA's dropped catches have proven costly. AB an offender. Making him keep again was a masterstroke.

Yoiks, Stain gawn with a bad shoulder then. And rumours about ABdV giving Tests away seem to be increasing in volume.

England 261 to the good, 7 wickets in hand. This might take some digging by Amla and ABdV to avoid defeat here.

Root needs 103 more runs to get the most runs for the year title. 

You'd think England would have declared before then.

JGK wrote:Root needs 103 more runs to get the most runs for the year title. 

You'd think England would have declared before then.

Oui, he was reprieved by fielding lapses.