Cricket fred

[Galfon]

More bad luck - Burns out of tour following a football injury (ankle) in training. Not the first one to suffer this fate - could well be the last eh..

[Banquo]

How come Leach has fallen out of favour? We don't seem to have any patience with spin bowlers, certainly compared to some batsmen.

[Puja]

How come Leach has fallen out of favour? We don't seem to have any patience with spin bowlers, certainly compared to some batsmen.

He's genuinely not that good of a bowler. His turn is practically non-existent on anything but a helpful pitch and he's neither accurate enough to hold down an end nor has enough tricks in his locker to present a threat.

Genuinely, Root is a better spin option.

Puja

[Banquo]

How come Leach has fallen out of favour? We don't seem to have any patience with spin bowlers, certainly compared to some batsmen.

He's genuinely not that good of a bowler. His turn is practically non-existent on anything but a helpful pitch and he's neither accurate enough to hold down an end nor has enough tricks in his locker to present a threat.

Genuinely, Root is a better spin option.

Puja

Their test records to date dont agree- Leach is going at less than 3 an over and is taking wickets at less than 30, not bad for starting a test career on flattish pitches.

[Mellsblue]

Ffs

[Banquo]

Ffs

yep. Broad should bat at 15.

[fivepointer]

Poor to have so many starts but only one batsman getting to 50. Some of the dismissals were incredibly soft.

At least Broad provided a comedy turn.

[Banquo]

Poor to have so many starts but only one batsman getting to 50. Some of the dismissals were incredibly soft.

At least Broad provided a comedy turn.

its sad that Broad has gone from being a decent bowling all rounder to being a comedy batsman.

[Digby]

How come Leach has fallen out of favour? We don't seem to have any patience with spin bowlers, certainly compared to some batsmen.

He's genuinely not that good of a bowler. His turn is practically non-existent on anything but a helpful pitch and he's neither accurate enough to hold down an end nor has enough tricks in his locker to present a threat.

Genuinely, Root is a better spin option.

Puja

Their test records to date dont agree- Leach is going at less than 3 an over and is taking wickets at less than 30, not bad for starting a test career on flattish pitches.

He was genuinely not well, as in I don't think they even knew if he'd be able to train ahead of this match. And I assume they just weren't confident he would last a 5 day match given low energy levels. I also assume he simply had the virus the was going around, I did know what was wrong with him and simply cannot remember now

At least we picked a spinner, though how much use when our batsman are clearly better at football than cricket I don't know

[Banquo]

He's genuinely not that good of a bowler. His turn is practically non-existent on anything but a helpful pitch and he's neither accurate enough to hold down an end nor has enough tricks in his locker to present a threat.

Genuinely, Root is a better spin option.

Puja

Their test records to date dont agree- Leach is going at less than 3 an over and is taking wickets at less than 30, not bad for starting a test career on flattish pitches.

He was genuinely not well, as in I don't think they even knew if he'd be able to train ahead of this match. And I assume they just weren't confident he would last a 5 day match given low energy levels. I also assume he simply had the virus the was going around, I did know what was wrong with him and simply cannot remember now

At least we picked a spinner, though how much use when our batsman are clearly better at football than cricket I don't know

I'd heard a pundit- maybe Agnew- say they'd lost confidence in Leach.

[Digby]

Their test records to date dont agree- Leach is going at less than 3 an over and is taking wickets at less than 30, not bad for starting a test career on flattish pitches.

He was genuinely not well, as in I don't think they even knew if he'd be able to train ahead of this match. And I assume they just weren't confident he would last a 5 day match given low energy levels. I also assume he simply had the virus the was going around, I did know what was wrong with him and simply cannot remember now

At least we picked a spinner, though how much use when our batsman are clearly better at football than cricket I don't know

I'd heard a pundit- maybe Agnew- say they'd lost confidence in Leach.

That might also be true, but I do know there were doubts he'd be ready to train on Wednesday or Thursday this week. And with the side likely to have been missing Archer you'd think they'd want Leach not Bess at least for this game

I wonder if Anderson has missed walking out to bat with no runs on the board?

[Galfon]

Very ordinary total, no shock there.
Good riposte early doors by the quickies - Elgar playing with a degree of pomp, under the circumstances.

[Banquo]

Very ordinary total, no shock there.
Good riposte early doors by the quickies - Elgar playing with a degree of pomp, under the circumstances.

enigmatic batsman, not much variety though.

[Mellsblue]

Elgar playing with a degree of pomp, under the circumstances.

Very good. Very good, indeed.

[Mellsblue]

Don’t worry chaps. Root reckons it will only take 8 years to sort out this mess.

[Banquo]

bowled like sh@t since lunch compounded by a no ball `wicket'
Pietersen is an unwelcome addition to commentary

[Banquo]

wtf is going on- tons of no balls bowled and not spotted

[Digby]

We were more threatening with Hoggard, White and Giles in the attack, and that taking into account it's a flat overseas surface where our medium pacers don't carry much threat

[Banquo]

We were more threatening with Hoggard, White and Giles in the attack, and that taking into account it's a flat overseas surface where our medium pacers don't carry much threat

well Broad and Anderson threatened plenty; back up was just average til after tea

[fivepointer]

Good fight back from our bowlers today. Tough days cricket but we have nosed just ahead. The match is finely balanced.

[Galfon]

Nose to a head - JA grabs another five-fer & lead up to nearly 60 with all wickets intact.
Good position for once.

[Digby]

It's a very good position, for now

[Digby]

They're not just in a good position they're showing competence, this is a weird way to start the year. Decent bit of bowling that saw off Crawley

[Banquo]

South Africa being disturbingly competent, wicket seems to have died.

[Banquo]

Quite hard to figure out why Anderson and Broad bowled relatively few overs after tea, esp Anderson.