1st TEST: England v South Africa at Lords July 6-10, 2017

[TheParraboy]

England won toss and decided to bat

4/98
Root 45no

 

[Twizzle]

poms 5/357, Root 184 no

 

[Bazal]

Gee that's a reasonable recovery....

 

[Tronald Crump]

Why do England keep recalling Gary Ballance? He is shit.

 

[Twizzle]

Gee that's a reasonable recovery....

bit of a one man effort though, if they got Root early Saffas would be batting by now imo

 

[Bazal]

Why do England keep recalling Gary Ballance? He is shit.

You could say that for any number of plodders they've cycled through to bat around Cook, Root and Stokes though, to be fair. Ballance killed it in the county season I believe....seems they've got an endless supply of blokes like Ballance who go really well at county level and turn to absolute plod when they get a test call up.

 

[Das Gupta]

Why do England keep recalling Gary Ballance? He is shit.

Because Bayliss doesn't watch county cricket.
Ballance scored at an average of 100 this season and Bayliss looked at the average and threw him in. Despite his inadequacies at test level.

He should have gone for Stoneman.

 

[hineyrulz]

Somehow Ali has picked up his 100th test wicket, is he Englands GOAT????

 

[TheParraboy]

poms well on top

Steyn must be close to retirement you would imagine
is 34yo now and shoulder injury has forced him out of the champions trophy as well as this test series
maybe a final home summer over there as his swansong?

 

[Bazal]

poms well on top

Steyn must be close to retirement you would imagine
is 34yo now and shoulder injury has forced him out of the champions trophy as well as this test series
maybe a final home summer over there as his swansong?

Steyn has been on the downslide for a few seasons now tbh. Still got moments of that brilliance but also periods of plod within a game that release pressure.

This is a pretty ordinary SA side actually. No Faf makes their middle order very flimsy on top of the continued absence of ABDV. The the three quicks, Amla and De Kock are class and Elgar is a tough bloke but there's a lot of plod in between

 

[TheParraboy]

It also doesn't help when they have up and comers take up lucrative county deals and will never play for SA again. Abbot was a huge loss he was becoming world class

 

[Bazal]

It also doesn't help when they have up and comers take up lucrative county deals and will never play for SA again. Abbot was a huge loss he was becoming world class

Abbott was quality but would he realistically be in this attack anyway? Morkel-Rabada-Philander is a healthy pace trio. But yes, it's nice to have those guys around the scene when the top guys break down. And honestly Rilee Rossouw might not be a world beater but would probably be a slightly better option in the middle order than De Bruyn who seems reasonably ploddy.

 

[AlwaysGreen]

England doing well.

Source: http://m.bbc.com/sport/cricket/40545300

 

[Tronald Crump]

Rabada suspended next week's test for swearing.

South Africa fast bowler Kagiso Rabada will miss next week's second Test against England after his verbal abuse of Ben Stokes during the series opener at Lord's, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced Friday.

Rabada, 22, uttered an audible obscenity after dismissing all-rounder Stokes on the first day of the first Test on Thursday, his latest offence triggering a one-Test ban.

"South Africa's Kagiso Rabada has been suspended for next week's Trent Bridge Test after his accumulated demerit points reached four within a 24-month period following his latest breach of the ICC code of Conduct for which he received a 15 percent fine and one demerit point," said a statement issued by the global governing body.
http://www.cricket.com.au/news/kagi...ca-england-icc-verbal-abuse-stokes/2017-07-08


Gotta be kidding. Nampy pampy ICC

 

[AlwaysGreen]

Not just for that incident, he had another incident against sri lanka.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england-v-south-africa-2017/content/story/1109789.html

Which is fair enough.
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/fair+enough

 

[Twizzle]

Players swearing on a cricket pitch, geez I hope they dont umpire any of my games

 

[Bazal]

Players swearing on a cricket pitch, geez I hope they dont umpire any of my games

I was gonna say, telling a batsman to f**k off is worth a one match ban?

Then again the lawmakers have been getting softer and softer, that Ferguson fine or whatever last season was a joke, so I suppose it's not surprise they're shocked by relatively mild profanity.

 

[AlwaysGreen]

Again, he is not being suspended for saying f**k. That is his fourth demerit point for the season having picked up 3 more shoving a player in sri lanka.

Source: same as the original posted above.

 

[Fufu Andronez]

Again, he is not being suspended for saying f**k. That is his fourth demerit point for the season having picked up 3 more shoving a player in sri lanka.

Source: same as the original posted above.

I reckon it's a bit stiff to get a point and a fine for the sweating thing. Surely a fine could suffice.. It's not like he called him a merkin

 

[Fufu Andronez]

England with a bit of a collapse here 8 wickets down for sub 200. Exciting finish coming up hopefully