First day of Joe Root’s Test captaincy, and it’s looking remarkably like Cook’s captaincy so far. 49/3, 90/4 and then a recovery up to the close at 357/5. It would have been a different day if they’d caught Root with either of their chances. Or not overstepped on the two occasions they took wickets with no balls.
Good position though, eventually. And still some batting to come to hopefully get past 450!
Not so hot this morning - Root out early, and Dawson in the same over. (And SA could have had Broad if they’d appealed, apparently). A classic case of “add two wickets to the score and see how good it looks then”.
Starting the next day after a big score seems to be tough for England captains. I remember reading that Strauss had a particularly bad record there. I imagine it’s generally tough - a certain amount of expectation, the break in your rhythm and reading of the pitch, the tension between needing to get your eye back in vs kicking on, the bowlers that bit fresher than they were at the end of the first day - anyone got any stats on this?
Hopes of getting well over 450 have faded somewhat, but while Ali’s in England can be hoping for around that, I think.
From yesterday, still questions over England’s top order. It’s been an issue for a long time now.
Why do I even say these things?
A bit of an Eric Morecambe innings this one - about the right number of runs, just not necessarily in the right order.
We continue to look very frail in the top order. Weight of runs in the SCC demanded Ballance’s inclusion, but he has been tried twice and continues to have weaknesses against Test match quality bowlers. Jennings is right at the beginning of his career, so the jury has to be out on him until he’s played a bit more. But if you’ve got two question marks and the opposition can get Cook and/or Root cheaply, we’re back to what has been the case for some time - the middle and lower middle order bailing out the top order.
I read somewhere that, in 2016, the top run producing wicket for England was the 6th or 7th. Essentially when Mo comes in and one of the middle order is set. We must find top order batsmen, if we’re going to make progress.
Yeah. It was a shame to see Cook go early when he’d been in form, but you’re going to lose an opener cheaply every so often. That’s why number 3 is such a tough role, and why Ballance isn’t a safe bet for it. Dunno who though. Hameed looked good in India but has had a pretty shocking county season - don’t know if that’s a wobble, or if greater scrutiny has highlighted a weakness he needs to fix.
I think if Hameed had shown any sort of form in SCC, Ballance wouldn’t be in the side and Jennings would be at 3. Going back to the well on Ballance smacks of desperation.
I have seen Hameed, very briefly, a couple of times this year. He looks very tentative outside off stump and every county has had a look at him last year, so they’ve got more developed plans. He’s also still got a plate in his hand from the winter that needs to come out at some point, so he might be having trouble with his grip.
In general, this is an interesting time for England. I think we’re in transition - especially with the bowling stocks, given the rate at which we’re accumulating injuries and the age of Anderson - and we need to blood the right players soon. 2 and 3 in the order are also key positions we have just not got right and I think Mo has shown himself to be more capable than a number 7 (I’d consider playing a different wicketkeeper at 7 - someone like Ben Foakes maybe - taking the gloves off Bairstow and pushing him further up the order).
Got 450 in the end. Like I said, all the right runs, just not necessarily in the right order.
Bit of last wicket hitting, and Broad’s first half century for years, gets us over 450.
I personally think the answer to our top order batting lies in our frequent savior - Moeen Ali. Bairstow at 3,Root at 4, Ali at 5,and bring Buttler in to 7 below Stokes.
I really wouldn’t be against that - I think Mo is a 5, has always been a 5, and is the second spinner. Buttler is an interesting one. Bags of talent and a lower pressure position where he can come in and try and bash (especially when Woakes is at 8 as a bit of extra protection) might kick start his red ball career. He’s in danger of being shuffled off to be a white ball specialist otherwise. We’ve got a lot of decent wicket keeper bats knocking around in the SCC too, so it would be easy to tell him to concentrate on LOIs and bring someone else in, which might be a waste of his ability.
I like the thought of an “Eric Morecambe” innings Cumbrian, I’m stealing that one.
Thoroughly entertaining both yesterday and this morning. There were a couple Moeen Ali cover drives yesterday that were worth the admission price alone, I think I may have actually “purred” in appreciation.
Root was lucky on a couple of occasions but his consistency means he keeps putting himself in high scoring situations in order to take advantage of that luck, it was a lovely knock overall. The one thing I think he has as a batsman is an instinctive feeling for when to push and how much to push. It’ll be interesting if he can translate that talent to the team in general.
Steady start by the sithifricins before lunch, I think our bowlers will be able to extract movement late this PM and early tomorrow. If Broad has his tail up after his 50 then he could be due another crazy session.
Good day for England so far. Hundred run lead, Philander of off the attack and the openers currently resisting the pressure.
They showed the incident that Rabada got his 3 demerit points for previous to this game ,that add up to four thanks to his send off of Stokes on Thursday, and frankly that should never have been an issue, never mind one that gets you 75% of the way to a suspension.
South Africa 28/4 chasing 331 to win, and the loss of Amla puts paid to any remote hope they may have had.
England’s collapse earlier in the day has actually turned into a positive, as it has taken the draw out of the equation.
Honours even after the first day of the second test, with a lot depending on this next session. England will want to be batting by lunch, and with fresh bowlers and a ball that’s still new they’ll like their chances. But these two batted well yesterday, and if South Africa can bat beyond lunch and another 100/150, they’ll think they’ve got the better of it, especially after that afternoon session yesterday.
Narrator: South Africa got the better of it.
340 run victory, a result of good (but largely not unbeatable) South African bowling and some pretty inept England batting, in both innings. We open weak (Cook is fading and Jennings and Ballance just aren’t strong enough) and have a middle order which can dash runs out fine but can’t grind them out. And sometimes in Test cricket, grinding out is what you need to do. Reading the over-by-over of the collapse, it felt like Bairstow, Stokes, Ali and Broad were getting out because they literally didn’t know what else to do. “Play your natural game” is fine as far as it goes, but if your natural game doesn’t include making 33 from 220 ballsthen you’re going to need an artificial game you can bring out in situations like this.
That was some first test for du Plessis (following your link), wasn’t it?! And yes, great example of a usually explosive batsman (de Villiers) reining it in when required.
Most of England’s players today (Cook and Root excepted) batted like Root had said to them this morning something like: “Look, if we lose a couple of wickets early, we’ve no chance in this match, so just go out and smash it if you want, we’ll have the day off tomorrow then come back and try again next time.” Do you think there’s a chance that was in fact the case? I don’t know much about Root’s mindset but I think it’s possible. Or perhaps the batsmen just worked it out for themselves. Disappointing for the fans, though, especially any who fancied watching tomorrow. It’s also a missed opportunity to practice that sort of batting for when you really need it, like when there are (say) 30 overs to survive rather than 180.
It was also some poor batting in their first innings that put England in trouble in the first place. In fact, they’re more culpable for that than their second innings performance, when two good balls did for Root and Cook, their best batsmen at the moment.
One day, a side in Test cricket will chase north of 450 to win a Test match. In order to do it, they’ll need to have a pitch that, though wearing, isn’t misbehaving too much (this one had a bit of low bounce but was otherwise reasonable), plenty of time to get the runs (England had a touch over 2 days to get this total) and conditions that suit batting rather than bowling (it was warm today and is forecast to be warm and sunny tomorrow, so less chance of swing and potentially sapping for the seam up bowlers). That’s what makes this folding so abject. It would have been damn difficult to win this match but if you’re going to chase a total that big, this was the situation to do it in. And they failed utterly.
Prior to lunch SA bowled brilliantly, helped by Jennings and Ballance continuing to exhibit technical frailties. The ball that got Cook was a snorting bouncer that surprised him (he’s had down times before, I’m not ready to write him off) and Root got an absolute ripsnorter.
After lunch, we batted like absolute twats. Bairstow, Stokes and Mo all gave it away (I am a big defender of Mo - since the start of last summer, he averages 44.7 with the bat and 37.6 with the ball in 16 Tests - good figures - but that wicket was him at his worst, just brainless). The lower order weren’t going to do much - maybe they could have put a respectable face on it, but they looked like they wanted to put their feet up. It was terrible.
Overall, this was a team failure though. SA should not have scored as many on Day 1 when the overhead conditions were in England’s favour. Drying up the scoring rate would have been very useful but Wood and Stokes were very expensive (the latter took a couple of wickets but his econ rate was terrible; Wood, I think we should get into our heads, doesn’t have a body that can play two back to back Tests and bowl at maximum lick in the second one - they probably should have rotated him). Dawson can’t bottle an end up, so going to the spinner was not an option. It appears Root only remembered Mo bowls after Amla got out in the SA second innings. That first innings was Jimmy and Broad versus SA and you aren’t going to get far that way. Then we batted poorly twice. The SA second innings doesn’t warrant much analysis - the horse was already out of the stable door by that point.
We’ve been carrying at least two empty shirts in our batting line up and have had no settled front line spinner for the last two years at least. They must find solutions. Ballance does not have the technique for Test cricket, has been found out and needs getting shot of. They might even do it. I can’t see Jennings going before the end of the series - but he must be on thin ice. Selection/management/coaching cannot be absolved either. England very rarely back a win up with another win at Test level these days. Invariably, if they win, the next result is a loss (Ashes 2015, Pakistan 2016, Bangladesh 2016). Preparation, consistency and selection. Everyone needs to do better.
It’s the problems highlighted in the first test (and have, in fact, been highlighted in these threads and everywhere else for the past few years) come home to roost. The batting today was appalling, but the batting in the first innings wasn’t much better - I actually thought we’d done quite well in limiting South Africa’s total to below 350 in the first innings, but responding to that with 200 meant they were never going to get back into the game.
There’s a video on cricinfo of cuts from the post game press conference, where Root says he “can’t believe” Michael Vaughan’s criticism of his team’s batting. I’m not sure what he was expecting.
EDIT: Gary Ballance is having a scan for a broken finger. If he misses the next test through injury, I doubt he’ll be back.
I can imagine it now - like the scene from “Escape To Victory” where they break the goalkeeper’s arm for the good of the plan.
Knowing the ECB though, I fully expect them to follow through on this and have Sly Stallone batting at 3 for us at The Oval.
Here is Nasser Hussain on England’s recent selection policies.
Cumbrian, I’m going to take this opportunity to say that it’s always a pleasure to read you on cricket, and thanks for another insightful post. You’re point that the conditions were there for a successful or at least close run chase is well taken - certainly getting to Day 5 was well within our reach.
It’s no coincidence that Root and Cook fell to great balls. That’s what it took to get them out. They were coping with good bowling just fine. But everyone else just seems to lack…I’m not sure if it’s vision or confidence or willpower. But if you say to e.g. Stokes: “Go in there, bat for hours and score 250”, then he’s your man. If you say: “Go in there, bat for hours, score 40” then he’ll not just fail. He (and the rest of the middle order) won’t even know how to try. Sooner or later they get bored and try to go at 12 an over - with inevitable results. I don’t know how to solve that, but we need to produce and select batsmen who have shown they can bat all day to save a match.
This is just another expression of England’s big problem, which can be summed as “Yes, but who would you pick instead?”
Give 'em fair due.
How many instances in recent county cricket can you recall that a batsmen had an opportunity to 1) learn such skills or 2) demonstrate that they possessed them?