England Cricket

They are woeful. One of the richest countries in the sport and cannot give a country a game that because of quotas and kolpak cannot put out anywhere near their strongest team.

Root again fails to get at least a half century, throws his wicket away and thought it would be a good decision to go in to the game without a proper spinner. The plus side to Bairstow not taking his opportunity with Pope ill is Yorkshire will have him for the county championship.

Sibley and Burns we need to be patient with, but Denly we must have better out there.

 

They have all been ill haven't they.? Good bowling by Curran too.

 

Why the hell did Root put them in to bat first? That surely shows a lack of confidence in the batting line up to start with. That decision was all the more baffling given a a number of our bowlers have had the lurgy. Surely it was better to give them an extra day's rest?
This is the poorest South African team for many a year and we can't compete with them. The batting is an utter shambles, god help us on the next ashes tour down under, I'll say right now it's going to be 5-0 to the Aussies.

 

Those 2 openers you mention scored 13 runs and survived 4 and a half overs between them. Denly was in the middle prematurely, dug in and was the only England player to make a half century, facing more than twice as many balls as any of his teammates. It seems a little unfair to be singling him out for criticism today.

 

Looking better now. 29 - 3

 

I'd say not when you've given a 100 run lead away on the first innings...

 

To be fair to Burns, he seems to have a bit of ticker. Technically he's incredibly suspect, but he's got the temperament for the battle.

 

Win the toss, bat first, unless it's an absolute green top. Hence our batting is so poor we have to bat first .

 

We lost seven wickets for thirty odd runs. We could bowl them out for 200 to be set around 300. Then we would have best part of two and a half days to go at less than two runs a over to win but would be all out for 150 trying to go at four an over as they don't have the mentality to dig in.

Root wanting a bowl first was Nasser in Brisbane 2002 all over again. First morning of the first test and you don't trust your batters to get you in a strong position and you open your fragile batters up to having to bat on a breaking down day 3 and 4 surface to try and win.

 

I don't know if it’s just me but whenever BD3K has an opinion on cricket I find myself about as polar opposite to it as can be.

 

Woeful batting on both sides - 24 wickets fallen in 2 days. Batsmen aren't programmed.any more to build an innings- one day day has taken away their technique

 

I think he's coming around. He's just suggested we lack the mentality to dig in. Like Denly did today, presumably.

 

It's one innings. He's nearly 34 so doesn't have time on his side for the 30 average he has over ten matches for someone batting so high up the order. You can have more patience with the younger guys who can come good and be in the team for the next decade.

 

There's not exactly a queue to bat at number 3, is there? I take your point about his age but given this series is now underway and at the start of a period where we're supposed to be focusing on red ball cricket my personal opinion is that having someone in the team who is showing the way and digging in makes him worth his place. When he gets a duck playing a wild shot in the second innings, feel free to bump this.

 

only caught the last 2 hours live today, some awesome bowling by us, and by theirs looking at some of the wickets to fall,
we have 2 frail batting teams with some decent bowlers, they were probably more aggressive or proactive,
at 111-5 no way should they be getting near 300 same as we shouldn't be 142/3 and all out for 181 but it was,
always think batting last chasing 275+ anywhere is daunting but it may be starting on a 2 and 1/2 day old pitch needing under 2 per over
mental strength is needed now, 4 top international batters getting 50+ or 250 between them should be a given, don't think we have enough though,

 

A poor start to the day to let the night watchman get 40 and only take three wickets. A lead of 300 is already more than enough for South Africa. It's sad we can't compete at test cricket when you think of the cash the ECB make from charging upwards of 100 quid a ticket for games over here. Nobody should want to pay anything like that to watch this current team when it gets to our own summer matches.

It's no wonder test cricket is dying when England only bowled 82 overs on the first day, short changing paying customers of eight overs they had paid for. ICC should clamp down on slow bowling and make a bowling team stay out on the pitch until they bowl 90 overs regardless of how long they take.

 

Probably doesn't help they're all falling foul of this sickness bug either!

 

Al say it again Root is a great batter but a poor captain , but seeing there s no other option s where stuck with him

 

agreed, it might be better to let stokes have a go for a while, he’s single handedly doing everything else!