The Cricket thread

How much did that century mean to Bairstow, great to see.

All time test record for the 6th wicket-399,brilliant stuff. 629-6 declared, lets see what the Saffers have got after a long demoralising spell in the field-even De Villiers dropped a catch.

An incredible display of test match batting, albeit against some pretty lacklustre bowling IMO.

Disappointing that Stokes and Bairstows efforts will only end up securing a draw. I'd have given my right arm to be there on Sunday though. 10,000 England fans sat in the sun drinking beer and giving it to the locals. What a day.

You just can't buy days like that,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

England 79-3,only 81 ahead and lots of overs left.Should still be ok but.....

Who'da thunk it

85-4

Don't think any team in test history has lost a match after scoring 620 odd in the first dig.

South Africa 74 -1 at luncheon

117-2

Great counter attack from Root and Stokes,match evenly poised 162-4 plays 313 at tea but looks like there could be some bad weather on the way.Mind you,England score so quickly now that losing a bit of time probably won't matter,the match is well advanced already.

Bad light and now rain ended play early. Root and Stokes have dragged England right back in it. 238/5 - great recovery from 90/4.

Anyone's game still.

Czarcasm wrote:

Bad light and now rain ended play early. Root and Stokes have dragged England right back in it. 238/5 - great recovery from 90/4.

Anyone's game still.

Not any more it isn't.

Tea on day 3 - Saffers 71 - 8, lead by 61.

Broad 5 - 14. James Taylor with two of the best catches you'll ever see on any cricket ground at any time.

Saffers all out 83. England need 74 to win. Broad took 6-19

They should wrap it all up in the time remaining this afternoon

Geddon, what a turnaround.

7 wicket win,finished off very fittingly by a superb shot from Root-surely now to be ranked with the very top England batsmen of all time.Saffers not the team they were but still hard to beat on their own patch and England shredded them,all credit to them.Root,Stokes and Bairstow have been a prolific middle order,room for improvement at the top of the order but hey,wins in SA don't come along that often-great performance.

SA make a good start to the 4th test....137/1

England always tend to lose dead rubbers.

Yeah, I preferred the traditional 5 test series but that seems to be under pressure timescale wise from the 1 day and T20 format.

247/3

Cook out after scoring century on test debut age 33.It must run in the family because I saw his father Jimmy Cook score literally thousands of runs for Somerset in his spell there in the late 1980's. Superb player who was one of those whose career suffered badly because of the political situation in South Africa-past his best when SA were readmitted to the test scene.

SA 66/3

De Villiers bagged 'em,there's a turn up for the books-captaincy affects different people in different ways.SA still favourites though.

A monumental collapse, lost the last 7 wickets in 1 hour. SA win by 280 runs.

Utterly predictable. There seems to be a real malaise affecting Test cricket where the team on the back foot capitulates without any real fight.