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I think Eng at 1/130 odd suddenly realized they weren't playing at home and promptly choked.....not sure how folk can say Root is in the class of Smith and Kohli....consistently fails to convert his starts.....if Eng lose this series his days as skipper surely must be numbered.....Gee I will be getting out before Jimmy and Broad retire too....

mikeh wrote: South Africa squeezed the life out of England today. Once Burns needlessly threw his wicket away it was a steady procession of dismissals and Ben Stokes innings was snuffed out before there was any thought of a repeat of his Headingly heroics.
I was impressed with one of their new fast bowlers Nortje. He was quick and got better as the match went on. He took the crucial wicket of Root with the new ball which broke Englands resistance IMO.

The SA bowlers are still good quality Mike with Rabada, Philander, Nortje (like you say bowled well and batted well as the nightwatchman), Pretorius & Maharaj.
The SA batting line up doesnt look as daunting without DeVilliers & Amla now and will rely on DuPlessis, Elgar & DeKock to score heavily.
The Pommy bowlers are just nowhere near as dangerous or damaging away from their confines & comforts of Lords, The Oval, Edgbaston, Old Trafford, Trent Bridge & Headingly.

Vern Philander set that one up on the second morning - he was unreal & near on unplayable at times
then got priceless runs in both digs
he will leave a huge hole in SA's bowling attack soon

Beasley Hutton wrote:

mikeh wrote: South Africa squeezed the life out of England today. Once Burns needlessly threw his wicket away it was a steady procession of dismissals and Ben Stokes innings was snuffed out before there was any thought of a repeat of his Headingly heroics.
I was impressed with one of their new fast bowlers Nortje. He was quick and got better as the match went on. He took the crucial wicket of Root with the new ball which broke Englands resistance IMO.

The SA bowlers are still good quality Mike with Rabada, Philander, Nortje (like you say bowled well and batted well as the nightwatchman), Pretorius & Maharaj.
The SA batting line up doesnt look as daunting without DeVilliers & Amla now and will rely on DuPlessis, Elgar & DeKock to score heavily.
The Pommy bowlers are just nowhere near as dangerous or damaging away from their confines & comforts of Lords, The Oval, Edgbaston, Old Trafford, Trent Bridge & Headingly.

Great Brits cannot handle the Kookaburra when it's in quality quicks hands - glaring in the first innings at Centurion mate

good post as usual: there is no getting a way from the fact that none of those English batsmen were bowlled out, this applies especially to the two yorshiremen and Buttler; all they had to do was avoid the big cover drives and they would have made the runs over two days pushing singles and hitting the straighter balls to the leg boundary. Was Stokes bowlled out by a good ball or did he also play a ridiculous shot?

eg., blundell in Australia on the same day

Stokes played on to the left arm orthodox spinner Maharaj AR.
Pity he didnt do the same at Headingly although if Joel Wilson was a competent umpire he should have been out earlier anyway.

BH --thanks-- it does not sound as if the shot was really on, fourth day pitch and all against the spinner. Seriously, BH, I don't think a bowlling combination even of the ilk of DKL, Marshall, Ambrose and Warne, would have got him out, it was his day. As you have always pointed out, he is a cricketer whom has a touch a class.

Ark the likes of Marshall, Ambrose and Garner would of got Stokes way before his century....they were fast and deadly accurate....Paine panicked big time that day....yep Stokes batted beautifully.....and Wilson's non lbw was ridiculous considering the circumstances...batters get enough perks these days without further protection from the umps.....yeah Aust earlier review was ridiculous....but that Lyon dismissal was mm close, the logical decision would of been to given him out, knowing Eng had a review to overturn any wrong decision by the ump completely....yet the wrong decision was given in the end and everyone knows it....

Freezin -- i think where actually agreed it was his day on a number of levels. Don't forget it was possible to have your day against your beloved WI side in their era. They were not that good. How did Dyson and Hilditch make centuries against them? how did Wayne Phillips do it? Are we seriouslly suggesting here that those three were better players then Stokes? In this light, Stokes would have gone alright against that WI team, having made a number of test runs in England, Africa and here against good attacks. As i have said before, old son, we lost that series in the mid 1980s,not because we could not bat or bowl, rather, it was because we could not field properly. We had the WI 5 or 6 down for under 200 in every test, including the dropped catches.

KC Wessels, whom I am assuming we both do rate, made the most runs of any batsmen in the series. This suggests that the WI bowllers were not super human.

Ark the Icc changed the rules to curve the West Indies fast bowlers. Sir Vivian Richards claimed it was getting defeated behind closed doors.He was talking about 90 overs a day in test cricket.
Clive Lloyd team use to bowl 55 to 60 overs a day.Keeping there 3 strike fast bowlers fresh all day.With a workhouse bowler like Walsh or Croft bowling huge spells.