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South Africa v England - live

Page 13 of 49

posted on 6/1/20

comment by Phendombele (U20037)
posted 2 minutes ago
get a job
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Got one m8. Not a fan

Oh well, safe to say Stokes did his job

posted on 6/1/20

What a brilliant morning for us. Sibley just being allowed to bat at one end with Stokes blasting away at the other. No disrespect to Bess as he can play some nice shots but it would have been a much slower start if he had survived last night. Not that we needed to accelerate so early but it is a nice position for Root to be in thinking about when to declare now.

Fantastic knock by Sibley and I'm sure he won't mind Stokes trying to steal the headlines with this innings. Gone now but the lead is over 350 with Pope next on the back of an unbeaten 60 odd.

posted on 6/1/20

LWE will be here shortly to criticise Stokes for being too rash.

comment by Phenom (U20037)

posted on 6/1/20

comment by Amanda Hugginkiss (U11574)
posted 1 minute ago
comment by Phendombele (U20037)
posted 2 minutes ago
get a job
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Got one m8. Not a fan

Oh well, safe to say Stokes did his job
----------------------------------------------------------------------
i know

yes what a man

38 days younger than Dom

posted on 6/1/20

comment by TCM (U8959)
posted 1 minute ago
What a brilliant morning for us. Sibley just being allowed to bat at one end with Stokes blasting away at the other. No disrespect to Bess as he can play some nice shots but it would have been a much slower start if he had survived last night. Not that we needed to accelerate so early but it is a nice position for Root to be in thinking about when to declare now.

Fantastic knock by Sibley and I'm sure he won't mind Stokes trying to steal the headlines with this innings. Gone now but the lead is over 350 with Pope next on the back of an unbeaten 60 odd.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Just think how much our whole batting lineup stands to benefit if we have an opening pair that can routinely see off 30-40 overs before one falls. Might even help Root's average start to go the right way again...

posted on 6/1/20

Pope out for 3.

comment by Phenom (U20037)

posted on 6/1/20

im very happy with current top 3 recently (Burns, Sibley, Denly) its our middle order than needs to stick in there a bit more.

comment by Phenom (U20037)

posted on 6/1/20

comment by Blue Heaven (U20912)
posted 37 seconds ago
Pope out for 3.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
dunno why Buttler wasnt brought out instead to swing for the heavens

posted on 6/1/20

comment by Phendombele (U20037)
posted 16 seconds ago
comment by Blue Heaven (U20912)
posted 37 seconds ago
Pope out for 3.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
dunno why Buttler wasnt brought out instead to swing for the heavens
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Perfect opportunity for Pope to have a bat too, tbf. There's no rush here, we've got all the time in the world to bowl them out so we might as well make some hay while the sun is shining. Even if Pope had stayed in a bit longer there still would've been time for Buttler.

posted on 6/1/20

Aggers is constantly banging on about Sibley playing more quickly. Shut up man, how long have we been crying out for a 2nd innings century like the one he's just scored? You can't bang on about the decline of Test cricket in one breath and then pine for a quicker run rate in the next.

comment by Phenom (U20037)

posted on 6/1/20

True that

comment by Phenom (U20037)

posted on 6/1/20

lead over 400, hopefully declaring soon

posted on 6/1/20

Bit of a frustrating knock from Buttler, that. I guess that's the risk with having in the team for this situation - it's rare enough to be in the position to let Buttler loose in the first place, and it's not gonna come off every time (or even most of the time, necessarily) - and if it doesn't, like for example him coming in and bashing 23 then getting out, then it's all a bit pointless really compared to having a more reliable bat in place who can build innings more reliably in more common match scenarios.

In short, I'd still pick Foakes over Buttler.

posted on 6/1/20

with having him* in the team

posted on 6/1/20

As for declaring... might as well let them have a bash now. Curran can score a few, and even an opportunity for Sibley to carry his bat assuming we'll be done pretty soon after lunch anyway, and Broad and Anderson are largely useless anyway

comment by Phenom (U20037)

posted on 6/1/20

comment by Amanda Hugginkiss (U11574)
posted 34 seconds ago
As for declaring... might as well let them have a bash now. Curran can score a few, and even an opportunity for Sibley to carry his bat assuming we'll be done pretty soon after lunch anyway, and Broad and Anderson are largely useless anyway
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what i mean, that we shouldnt be letting Broad and Anderson come out tbh when they will be bowling soon. Next wicket then we should be declaring.

posted on 6/1/20

You're not wrong, but how often does the chance to carry one's bat in tests come along...

posted on 6/1/20

The aggressive thing to do would be declare over lunch and get at them.

The cautious and/or sentimental thing would be to bat out our innings and let Sibley carry his bat.

They do say there's no room for sentiment in top-level sport, but...

posted on 6/1/20

I expect England to bat a bit longer but not to bat out the whole innings (unless wickets tumble fast).

posted on 6/1/20

Strange tactics from SA this morning but you can do curious things when the game gets away from you and that's exactly what Stokes did after the foundation set by Sibley.

I imagine we'll look to bat for an hour or so after lunch. Sibley doing his thing at one end with Curran and Broad swinging at the other before finishing with a Burnley Lara master class.

posted on 6/1/20

Curran went quickly unfortunately. It's not ideal to have your main bowlers facing their bowlers.

posted on 6/1/20

comment by Amanda Hugginkiss (U11574)
posted 1 hour, 19 minutes ago
comment by TCM (U8959)
posted 1 minute ago
What a brilliant morning for us. Sibley just being allowed to bat at one end with Stokes blasting away at the other. No disrespect to Bess as he can play some nice shots but it would have been a much slower start if he had survived last night. Not that we needed to accelerate so early but it is a nice position for Root to be in thinking about when to declare now.

Fantastic knock by Sibley and I'm sure he won't mind Stokes trying to steal the headlines with this innings. Gone now but the lead is over 350 with Pope next on the back of an unbeaten 60 odd.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Just think how much our whole batting lineup stands to benefit if we have an opening pair that can routinely see off 30-40 overs before one falls. Might even help Root's average start to go the right way again...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It'd be a dream to have a solid opening pair. We've probably not had that for a decade as Strauss declined a bit once he was made captain although we did have the dependable Trott at 3.

Denly getting a run at 3 is looking promising too. Root will be disappointed he didn't cash in and get a hundred but if he gets more opportunities to come out and bat in these situations then he should be regularly getting 50s again.

posted on 6/1/20

This does feel a bit pointless, handing back a bit of momentum to RSA. Oh well. I guess the confidence boost for Sibley, if he carries his bat, will be worth it hopefully. But then again his confidence should be pretty boosted already at 125no, even if we declared

posted on 6/1/20

England declare 437 ahead. Sibley 133 not out. Well played.

posted on 6/1/20

Of course, we were aiming for that milestone figure of 391 (lead of 437) before declaring. It all makes sense now.

Page 13 of 49

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