Boss - spot on

I know its a lost cause but wtf is du plessis doing taking a single off the first ball. What a complete dumb ass.

All out.... That 10 lead on first innings looking absolutely massive now

England 66 all out. Bookmark this

Back now after u2's strop 😂😂😂

what a performance from England.

South Africa BATTERED in their own back yard, comprehensively outplayed.

MOTM Broad

Looking forward to BOSS telling us how Steyn and Philander would have stopped South Africa collapsing today.

Brilliant from England

Got to love broad

Hope piers Morgan and kp have got the hump

This eng line up looks pretty solid now. Wondering how long Anderson has got. Could potentially retire after the home season , can't see him going for another one year.

Anyway India are finally the number uno ranked team. From 7 to no.1 within 2 series.

If Australia beat NZ we will go top but I don't think that anyone can claim to be the stand out team, I personally don't even believe that SA were that much better than everyone else for the last 5 years, honestly I don't think anyone has been undisputed number 1 since Australia lost the number one ranking in 2009.

Australia went to number one after beating SA at home 18 months ago and if we had won the Ashes a case could have been made that Australia were the best team in the world, currently I don't think anyone can lay claim to that.

Duncan the best team should be a team that can show fight in conditions alien to them. If aus had won the ashes it wouldn't have made any difference to their record in subcontinent. They have been one of the worst teams when it comes to playing in subcontinent. At least England can claim to have won a series in India and shown some fight against Pakistan.

The way Subcontinent teams get judged on how they play when they go away from 'subcontinent' is the same way all other teams should be judged when they come to subcontinent. To me conditions in aus and SA is pretty much the same. Aus have bounce and flat roads, SA have bounce and seam. It shouldn't be that difficult to adjust for an Aus batsman when batting in say SA as it would be for a subcontinent batsman. Same goes with all other teams.

But yeah there is definitely no true no.1 team now. England and Aus are probably the standout teams in WC cricket right now but every team has some sort of weaknesses.

If India had produced the pitches they did in the SA series against England they probably wouldn't have lost.

akistan.

The way Subcontinent teams get judged on how they play when they go away from 'subcontinent' is the same way all other teams should be judged when they come to subcontinent. To me conditions in aus and SA is pretty much the same. Aus have bounce and flat roads, SA have bounce and seam. It shouldn't be that difficult to adjust for an Aus batsman when batting in say SA as it would be for a subcontinent batsman. Same goes with all other teams.
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Fair point

While the point is fair to an extent, some countries are more and less guilty of altering the conditions to make it harder for the opposition.

Look at Australia, the pitches play almost exactly the same way no matter who comes to play.

Look at the pitches England produced for the 2013 Ashes (to help Swann and neutralise the Aussie pacement) compared to the India series the following year or the pitches India produced for SA compared to the pitches they produce when playing teams that have a decent spinner. England again tried this tactic in 2015 and it backfired horribly so they sensibly decided to actually produce the sort of pitch you would expect to see in England and it paid huge dividends.

As for the sub continent angle I think it's just as hard for Australian batsmen to bat on seaming English wickets as on a turner in India, they are both just as alien, it's just that Australia have good fast bowlers so they aren't at as big a disadvantage overall.

The home sides will always produce pitches that will favour the strengths of their bowling attack. Let's not kid ourselves Dunc, Australia did the same in the last Ashes down under, quick bouncy pitches which favoured Johnson and negated Anderson.

Fortunately for us, SA's bowling attack's strengths lay in the same area to ours, seaming pitches so we had more of a chance in SA than in the UAE or Australia for example where we are historically poor. Still a great achievement to win out there though, and it's good to see an away side being successful for once as almost all the time understandably it's the home side winning.

You are talking rot, the Australia pitches are always fast and bouncy, English pitches should be green and seam but the pitches in 2013 were dry abrasive and had absolutely no bounce whatsoever. The English commentators were even talking about this after the Lord's test last year. How exactly does bounce negate Anderson? Anderson has been poor in Australia because the overhead conditions rarely are conducive to swing.

Also, Australia have not lost the last 3 series played in SA and have won 2 of those so it it is actually quite common for Australia to win against the "best test side in the world".

To reiterate in Australia you will not get much convention or reverse swing, spin and very little seam movement, and this has been the case for at least the last 20 years, pace and bounce are what you get, always.

As a Pak fan - Im very worried about this summer Test series.

Pak will always try their best in challenging English conditions but looking at this England bowling attack as well as the vast depth in their bowling choice - it will be a very difficult challenge.

Im not trying to be a pessimist but with England playing regular tests matches & Pak not playing any until they face England in the summer, looks like a 4-0 win to England.

Pak need to play at least 4-5 matches against county teams to get up to the task even if its a 2-3 day tour match - its better than playing one or nothing.

Grand,

Agree, our batsmen will wet their nappies after seeing this. However, Pakistan bowlers always do well in England and so with the tests being played later summer, if the suns out and we get a very flat tracks, I reckon we can avoid a whitewash. Not beyond our bowlers to pick up 20 wickets in England. Batsmen are always the embarrassment

anything better than 4-0 will be good going.

Its very scary to think that by the time Pak play England - England will have won all their test matches this year.

Lets face it - Saffas are finished & are going down 3-0 unless Steyn makes a miraculous recovery

Sri Lanka are gonna get thrashed 5-1 or 6-0 when they play their 6 test matches with England this year.

Its been a long time since Pak won a test series in the northern hemisphere (20+ years & counting)

Don't know why we are panicking already. 3 tests are on known flat English tracks like Lords, Oval and OT (spin friendly).

Our bowlers will cause plenty of problems against what is a average English batting lineup with the exception of Root.

Average ?

This is not UAE or Lahore style pitches

I fear what happened in 2006 will happen again.

comment by Duncan1987 (U2291)
posted about 14 hours ago
You are talking rot, the Australia pitches are always fast and bouncy, English pitches should be green and seam but the pitches in 2013 were dry abrasive and had absolutely no bounce whatsoever. The English commentators were even talking about this after the Lord's test last year. How exactly does bounce negate Anderson? Anderson has been poor in Australia because the overhead conditions rarely are conducive to swing.

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Pitches in England aren't always green. You are also talking rot. Pitches here are usually green at the beginning and end of the summer, in the summer months it usually depends on weather conditions or ground. If it is particularly wet or humid, then you are more likely to see a green pitch, if we have a dry few weeks then it will be hard and abrasive.

The club I play for regularly has a hard, abrasive track if there is little rain. Shall we send you to talk to our groundsman, so you can tell him all about how pitches in England should be?

Every home team will produce pitches which they think favour them. It is all part of having home advantage. Australia will be no different. Unless you are telling everyone that the Australian cricket team are the pinnacle of sporting behaviour and fairness in the game.

comment by GrandeLicha! (U9988)
posted 3 hours, 4 minutes ago
Average ?

This is not UAE or Lahore style pitches

I fear what happened in 2006 will happen again.
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Other than Root who else stands out? Cook is vulnerable in England against the moving ball like he was last time. Our bowlers will have fun in England. Our batting on the other hand could be a concern.

Both Khan and Misbah will be out of practice unless they get a county stint.