England International Cricket Summer 2022

Charger By Jove

Needs to be a very good player to captain a side with the gloves on.

Although let's be fair the Saffers have bowled superbly.

Sucked the life out of the innings. Bairstow has only come down the wicket once so far. Suffocated.

Strumms

Poor by Wiley, misses a straight one…took his eye off it….79/7…. Jeez…some hammering

Charger By Jove

My word this batting is terrible.

Shamsi on a hat-trick.

I mean, Shamsi for goodness sake.

Charger By Jove

Full disclosure - I've turned over to the lady footy....🤣

7 wickets for Saf’s spinners, England afraid to bowl theirs while SA milk the leggie for an easy, unthreatened 33 runs.

Agree on Buttler, he seems to have fallen into a trap of being over analytical and trusting it all on the matchups and data. Seeing how valuable Morgan was as captain alone now.

Will they drop Roy? His 8 off 15, or 18 off 20 performances are putting serious pressure on the rest of the batting unit. I’d probably throw Malan up there, he wastes a few balls as it is. The bowling attack lacks teeth, can’t blame the injured fast bowlers forever. Topley has done well v India, but Curran, Jordan, Willey, Glesson all samey samey.

Strumms

Roy isn’t in the squad. I’d say his days as a test player are behind him. Played 5 tests, averaging 18.70…

no surprise, he’s played in the last 12 years, for 12 different teams across the planet, 5 or 6 different countries… no regard given to anything apart from making £$£$£$£$….so it’s no surprise he is being paid no regard by those picking the test team, he hasn’t performed and he isn’t dedicated.…Stuart Broads test average is higher…

id guess this is tomorrow’s 11.

Lees

Crawley

Pope

Root

Bairstow

Stokes

Foakes

Broad

Potts

Leach

Anderson

Tom Mann Centuria

Stokes saying the opposition have been talking a lot about England's style.

He's making a mountain out of a molehill, Elgar was asked directly what he thought of England's current style, simply said it can go South very quickly (which it obviously can) and he doesn't think there's longevity in brave cricket. Hardly a terrible slight on England's methodology or players.

boccy23

SA win the Toss and will bowl

Strumms

25/2 after 9

Crawley thick edging to the boundary and next delivery, just hangs his bat and thick edges to the slips… playing again like a goofy tail ender.

as I type Pope survives an lbw shout by two inches.

Strumms

55/4.. Bairstow livid with himself… smashing the top of the advertising with his bat as he exits the field..having missed a bolt straight delivery one that was 94 mph fair enough but bolt straight, into middle stump a third the way up… can be no excuses, tail ender-esque ..again…

Root unlucky with the lbw before him, bad shot but only clipping the top of off.. a millimetre or so doing for him.

ball swinging around corners here…

VillaMad

Unusual that's Pope's LBW shout was more out than Root's but yet Pope continues whilst Root is back in the pavilion.

The 6 week break from test cricket has obviously not done any good for Jonny Bairstow who was seeing it like a football back then. Always vulnerable to getting bowled early on. Crawley gone again the same way as usual and is stealing a living at the moment albeit that it has been incredibly tough for batting.

Pope has looked a cut above the others at the moment and interesting to see how Stokes goes about his innings after his ultra gung-ho nonsense in the previous test matches this summer.

Easy to see how South Africa are top of the Test Championship table. Their bowling attack is quality here. Jansen is quite the find for them and has been swinging the ball around corners this morning. They pretty much have all bases covered and we haven't seen Harmer yet who has terrorised county cricket line-ups for years. Their batting looks average on paper and I'm intrigued to see how they will get on against Anderson and co.

Strumms

Captain goes last ball before lunch… a lazy looking, unfocused, disinterested shot… like he was distracted thinking about his Caprese salad that he’d be having for lunch. The partnership was beginning to motor… 100/5…

Strumms

Ben Foakes with an ungainly prod, drags the ball back onto his stumps 116/6.

8 batsmen have taken the field, just 2 have attained double figure scores.

Strumms

Pope might as well play himself in for two overs and then throw the bat at it…Broad, Leach, Potts and Anderson …. On current form you’d be lucky to get 50 runs total from…

VillaMad

England getting a bit of a tonking so far from South Africa here.

Root looked out of sorts while Pope and Crawley both missed straight ones from Maharaj. Surely the end of Crawley now which should have been done before the summer but yet they have dragged it out for some unknown reason.

South African bowlers are well on top and apart from Pope in the first innings, no English batter seems to have looked comfortable at all.

Strumms

Root too, getting himself out to a shot that Alan Mulally would have winced at.

Bairstow gets a good one as I type, line and length beat him.. gone.. 81/4

Taxes, death and England batting collapses the three certainties in life. Will Stokes save England's bacon yet again?

Tom Mann Centuria

England given a lesson by the South Africans, not just in the super helpful conditions of their first bowling innings but in this one as well. Outplayed and out thought England from minute one. I'd imagine Elgar will be pretty pleased about things at the moment.

Strumms

England...So far with one wicket to fall and only 9 scores of 10 or more runs... over two batting innings.

Cause for worry.

nice bit of green

A poor 3 days play from them but I let’s hope they win the 2nd the make the 3rd test interesting.

Strumms

Wonder will the management and captain have the nerve to ring the changes ? My guess is no.

Stokes I’d say is a ‘back our lads’ kind of leader…

back getting results before backing the lads.

Strumms

Speaking of backing, the bookies are really not following any consistency… some are backing England and some SA.

one thing not being backed is a draw. Forecast is favourable with rain unlikely during any of the scheduled play and only the possibility of a shower or two overnight or before play. 22/23° the average temp…. Perfect conditions.

VillaMad

Strange decisions from South Africa this morning. They have gone for two spinners and so have picked Harmer instead of the impressive Jansen which presumably is for later in the match but the conditions in Old Trafford today are overcast and look good for bowling and so their hand was forced somewhat because of two spinners to bat first when they won the toss.

And so at lunch they are 77-5 in tough conditions and now have Harmer in at number 7 who you could argue is already the start of the tail.

England picked Robinson instead of Potts and despite no wickets for him, he has bowled alright. Crawley once again got picked despite averaging just 16 this summer.

Strumms

SA could be or should be 6 down...Ben Foakes dropping one off Leach...

77-5 really in all sorts of trouble..

byronbay2

It’s looking like an awful decision by Elgar to bat first. Stokes said England would have chosen to bowl. The ball is seaming all over the shop! England in a strong position but they will have to bat on this pitch too. 😱

byronbay2

Confirmed awful decision by Elgar! Pitch has slowed down, not seaming half as much since lunch. England should get a big 1st innings lead now.

Strumms

SA 151 all out on day 1…

England don’t have to do anything risky, just try get to close 120 runs or so on the board and max 2 wickets down, they’d be immensely satisfied with that..

a sorry looking scorecard from SA, Rabada top scoring with just 36..

Strumms

Lees goes early, surviving 7 balls to score 4 runs. Probably no shame getting out to what was a really good delivery from Ngidi..but Lees sure could do with a score..4,9,6,56,5,35,4… not impressive.

VillaMad

Pace again from Nortje does for Pope. 34-2.

Crawley survived a lbw shout in the previous over. South Africa very much in the game here.

Strumms

England close the day out 111/3.

They’ll be hopeful of knocking off the 40 run deficit without conceding more wickets. That would be a nice platform to attain a healthy 120 plus run lead… some batting to come but a long tail after..