England tour to South Africa December 2015/February 2016

[richowebbo]

Testify.

Compton before lunch firstly played himself in, then played for lunch. 3 from 32 was slow for sure, but not unduly so in the circumstances.

Nobody needed to have a word with him at lunch, the circumstances were obvious that it was kick on time, which he did well.

Some terrible analysis here from people who generally know better.

I'm pretty sure someone would have said to him at lunch "well done Compo, now time to kick on mate", or words to that effect. But I'm sure he knew what he had to do after a slow start. It's a pity he hasn't gone on to make a ton. I think as he plays more games, he will go on to make some important centuries. So pleased he's back in the side.

 

[bigred]

A strike rate of 50 in Tests, for a blocker, "adequate"? Behave. 50 in Tests is good going for anyone.

Exactly. I want him to score at around 50 on a flat pitch. He played much better after lunch. He batted for almost an hour before lunch, so I don't think it's acceptable to bat for lunch for over 50 minutes.

As Graeme Smith said, this issue with Compton is not that he should play more aggressive strokes. I don't want him to do that, as I'd like him to bat all day. His problem is that he goes through periods of facing a lot of dot balls, and then that starts to play on both his and his partner's minds. He has real issues with finding gaps. Cook and Root can work pretty decent balls to the leg side for a single. Compton doesn't seem to have that intent and when he does he hits a fielder.

Right now, he's doing pretty well for us, so I can't complain too much, but I hope that this is a part of his game he can bring to his batting at international level.

 

[richowebbo]

Not sure if anyone's following the Live Text on BBC, but it's worth checking out just for the doom and gloom of England fans!

Apparently losing a wicket or two is akin to a collapse nowadays. I don't think some England fans will be happy unless every innings is 700-0 declared. Whenever an opposing team takes a wicket, it's never due to good bowling, but the in-adequacies of the batsmen that are picked out.

 

[bigred]

Not sure if anyone's following the Live Text on BBC, but it's worth checking out just for the doom and gloom of England fans!

Apparently losing a wicket or two is akin to a collapse nowadays. I don't think some England fans will be happy unless every innings is 700-0 declared. Whenever an opposing team takes a wicket, it's never due to good bowling, but the in-adequacies of the batsmen that are picked out.

Agree on the BBC vibe, although 223-5 on this pitch isn't too clever. I hope Stokes and Bairstow go big so we can get to 400.

 

[richowebbo]

Agree on the BBC vibe, although 223-5 on this pitch isn't too clever. I hope Stokes and Bairstow go big so we can get to 400.

No it's not clever at all. That was just a general comment (about the BBC Live Text), it's the same for every game, but Taylor and Root have thrown away their wickets. No-one should be getting 0 on this wicket. I'm a big Taylor fan and I've been wanting him in the team for ages, but playing a drive like that when you don't have any runs is foolish. Compton may have started slow, but he got himself in before playing shots.

 

[bigred]

No it's not clever at all. That was just a general comment (about the BBC Live Text), it's the same for every game, but Taylor and Root have thrown away their wickets. No-one should be getting 0 on this wicket. I'm a big Taylor fan and I've been wanting him in the team for ages, but playing a drive like that when you don't have any runs is foolish. Compton may have started slow, but he got himself in before playing shots.

I know some England fans who want Bairstow to fail so that Buttler gets back into the team, so no negativity surprises me as far as 'England supporters' are concerned.

 

[richowebbo]

I know some England fans who want Bairstow to fail so that Buttler gets back into the team, so no negativity surprises me as far as 'England supporters' are concerned.

Seriously? That's terrible. I never wanted Bell to fail, I just didn't want him to be selected, but once he was there, obviously I wanted him to make a score.

I think people just like to moan. It's very odd because this is a young(ish) England side that people should be excited about, but the "fans" (mainly armchair ones!) seem to straight away be negative as soon as it goes wrong. Look at the Compton debate we had earlier. If he had scored 30 from 10 balls, but then lost his wicket, people woul have moaned about that. Had he made a ton, but taken him 350 balls, people would have moaned about it being to slow. It seems that the non-spectator fan has doomed this England team whatever they do.

 

[cricket_icon]

Great stuff from Stokes so far, good to see him looking his menacing best. Some 15 overs ago, I would have said honours were even on the first day but now, definitely England's day and with Ali still to come, England could be on for 400+.

 

[Markkkkk]

I promised myself I wouldnt watch or complain a lot but I've failed so here's a rant.

Imran Tahir got 12 wickets! What the hell. How does Dane Piedt keep him out the side he cant field and he is the Paul Harris of our team but we dont need a Paul Harris we have the 2nd best spinner IN THE WORLD (Lyon is 3rd IMO). Why cant SA show some flexibility and give him a decent run and use him as he should!

Bavuma is a fricken fungus holy crap the guy is in the team as a short leg can we stop looking at peoples colour for fricks sake why the hell are we incompetent of letting colour go?

Can Steven Cook stop batting crap and actually try show he deserves to be in the team? I mean 163* is obviously nowhere close to Van Zyl's 33 or however many Bavuma limped to in the last test match.

What the hell has Chris Morris done to leapfrog Viljoen, Paterson, de Lange? I could tell you 2 years ago he would go at over or near 4 an over and leak boundaries we've seen him in the IPL and as much as I like him he has 0 consistency.

Can the commentators shut up about Vernon Philander? Ive listened for five minutes and bloody hell he is way past his best and I'd be surprised if he's quicker then AB.

Amla is utter useless as captain. He cant be telling his bowlers to bang it short with a second new ball. Also who thinks Morris must open? He took Paterson's spot and now Rabada's slot.

Why did we drop Abbott? Please Abbott I beg move to New Zealand or England cause you're playing 1/8 of the international cricket you deserve...

Edit: Abbott is injured but I can garuntee you he will be replaced in the next match...

 

[MUFC1987]

Great knock from Stokes and well backed up by Bairstow. They've taken us back to about par for the day. Looks like the kind of pitch where you should be getting 400 if you bat first, so we've got a chance of getting there now.

 

[grkrama]

excellent knock from stokes really even if he gets going once in 5 matches he really takes the game quickly away form the opposition, while eng arent in the safe target territory yet, another hundred more tomorrow would definitely set it up for eng!
rabada looked excellent in bursts but the attack as a whole needs to pick up! Why is morris in over abbot doesnt make sense in the slightest, given piedt is not really bothering batsman, its like SA have gone in with a two man attack of whom one is 20yr old just getting his hang on the intl level!

while tahir may have been vastly inconsistent in india against ind batmsan, im inclined to think he would have a much better effect against eng batsman especially cleaning up lower order batsman with his googly! piedt just looks like tredwell to me safe spinner if you have a strong pace attack!

 

[stefan]

England on top. Some very questionable bowling changes by amla...Morkel should have bowled a lot more today.

 

[bigred]

I think today is a classic example of why 5 bowlers is quite important in a test match. I'm not sure Bavuma would score a lot more runs than Morris. Therefore, you could squeeze another bowler in. Admittedly it would have to be a bowler who is black.

 

[cricket_icon]

It's not race, it's not selection (these are still some good SA players), it's ultimately that England are better and the bigger names in SA cricket are under performing.

These same arguments pop up after every world tournament and any series SA are bad enough to not win (not often) and the first thing that is brought up is "well, there's this one white player who would have been better", na mate, they probably wouldn't if the whole team is under performing or if another team is better.

The only real big selection issue is, how the hell is Tahir missing out? Outside of Shah and a 2015 version of Ashwin, he's the best spinner going.

 

[grkrama]

I certainly understand that with regard to batting though qdk is certainly bound to improve things ,but SA are playing with just 2 proper test bowlers one who is almost a debutant ! people are not saying abbott would have ripped through but he would have been way better than morris! same with tahir, even if tahir doesn't take the top order wkts, he would be handful against lower order apart from may be moeen, i certainly remember bairstow struggling against spin! England have certainly had the upper hand of the two teams fielded! Match yet to go a long way!