South Africa vs English 4th Test at Centurion, (which is near) Johannesburg

[knocky1]

First time I've heard the Barmy Army sing Stoke's song. Ben by the Jackson 5. How sweet.

 

[KZNSeagull]

All very reminiscent of this:

[yt]dWAjPDBl818[/yt]

Quite. The BBC text commentary has some good stuff on it - there is a wagon wheel of AB's last 3 innings and someone posted a chirp (not sure if this came from the England players or not) that "AB has got all his ducks in a row".

Duminy has just hit Moeen for 6 into the pool. New ball required.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Aggers just mentioned B&HA on TMS

 

[KZNSeagull]

Duminy gone. 106-4

 

[Beach Hut]

Aggers just mentioned B&HA on TMS

They were talking about the flags at the game, think it started with Horsham

 

[n1 gull]

I spotted the Horsham Seagulls flag - looks well smart

 

[BensGrandad]

We have got to hope they time their declaration too late and we can bat out 1 day + whatever of today.

 

[Uncle Buck]

The weather does not that clever tomorrow, at the moment.

Also the Safers will only have two seamers bowling in the second innings.

 

[Bold Seagull]

What are South Africa doing?

It's like they want England to get out of this with a draw. They've shown so little ambition to get on with this today, so little confidence, you can see why they haven't won a test for a year.

 

[KZNSeagull]

Raining now. Good.

 

[BensGrandad]

Raining now. Good.

Could make it easier for them to bowl us out on tomorrow.

 

[Pavilionaire]

Rain. Are South Africa going to make a balls-up of this? They've scored at shade under 3 runs an over in their second innings, now in its 84th over.

If England start the final day with no wickets down and only two bowlers to worry about they'll fancy their chances of batting out the day.

And having Ben Stokes in the line-up makes the opposition think twice when it comes to a declaration total.

 

[Exile]

Rain. Are South Africa going to make a balls-up of this? They've scored at shade under 3 runs an over in their second innings, now in its 84th over.

If England start the final day with no wickets down and only two bowlers to worry about they'll fancy their chances of batting out the day.

And having Ben Stokes in the line-up makes the opposition think twice when it comes to a declaration total.

Hales (if he scores at all), Stokes, Bairstow and Moeen are all capable of scoring very quickly.

 

[BensGrandad]

Hales (if he scores at all), Stokes, Bairstow and Moeen are all capable of scoring very quickly.

Unfortunately the required runs even if they declare now looks to be too many to be realistic for a 4th innings victory charge.

 

[Pavilionaire]

Hales (if he scores at all), Stokes, Bairstow and Moeen are all capable of scoring very quickly.

The lead is 381. If there's no further play today and the Boks declare overnight then is this score gettable? If England made it to tea tomorrow with half the runs made and, say, 3 wickets down then England would need 190 off 30 overs. I think that would be worth a dart.

 

[BensGrandad]

The lead is 381. If there's no further play today and the Boks declare overnight then is this score gettable? If England made it to tea tomorrow with half the runs made and, say, 3 wickets down then England would need 190 off 30 overs. I think that would be worth a dart.

Lot of IFS there

 

[Exile]

Unfortunately the required runs even if they declare now looks to be too many to be realistic for a 4th innings victory charge.

Indeed, but that's not really the point we were making. It is more that the presence of those players in the batting line up, makes the opposition captain scared of a generous declaration - meaning they bat on too long, and help us secure the draw.

 

[knocky1]

Starts at 3.10

 

[Mackenzie]

We've won the series, let's give it a swish and entertain the crowd.

 

[crabface]

A massive one run from Hales.