Cricket (part dix)

[ramAnag]

[QUOTE=macstheman;40105490]

Well someone should’ve snapped that up. Just back from Old Trafford after one of the best and most enjoyable days of cricket I’ve experienced for a long time. Perfect weather, great stuff from the bowlers and well played Zak Crawley...determined, gutsy performance and looked like a Test opener at last

Crawley ...17 off 77 balls, a strike rate of 22! I like it but he's now been given 100 lines to the effect... 'I'm a naughty boy, I must play bish bash'!
Glad you enjoyed the day rA, it rained most of the morning here some of it very heavy! Let's hope we avoid the customary collapse tomoz and we might build a score!

Thanks mac. Just couldn’t understand them opting to bat first. It was typical Old Trafford weather yesterday morning...overcast with a hint of mizzle. When I heard they’d won the toss I thought they were guaranteed to have a bowl, but no....sun didn’t show till just before lunch by which time they were fortunate to be just five down in conditions Jimmy would have prayed for.
Let’s hope it’s bright and sunny from the off today and Crawley and Bairstow can carry on where they left off.

[Geoff Parkstone]

Or that the skipper isn't out slogging in his 20s again. I'm liking the Bazball approach but sometimes, like today, a little more circumspection is called for.

[ramAnag]

Or that the skipper isn't out slogging in his 20s again. I'm liking the Bazball approach but sometimes, like today, a little more circumspection is called for.

Exactly...compromise time...if they could get a lead of around 150 sometime between tea and close this afternoon I think it’ll be match winning and the South Africans are doing their best to help...think they bowled approaching twenty extras out of England’s 111 yesterday.

[macstheman]

Hadn't realised they'd won the toss, suppose they followed the 'bat first' principle in Test Cricket. Still close if we lose a couple.
Oops, just lost Bairstow to the quickie. Could get interesting!

[macstheman]

Another one bites the dust!
They don't like it up 'em and they certainly don't like Nortje, I don't like saying it but they look a tad frightened! Can't say as I blame them.
There's nowt like real pace!!

[macstheman]

Shame Bairstow didn't make his fifty but Stokes and Foakes did well. Shows the importance of Nortje to SA.

[ramAnag]

Another one bites the dust!
They don't like it up 'em and they certainly don't like Nortje, I don't like saying it but they look a tad frightened! Can't say as I blame them.
There's nowt like real pace!!

I’d have been more than a ‘tad frightened’. Indeed my whites might well have been in jeopardy! Nortje looked genuinely quick yesterday. Good job he’s not taller, but the number of times the ball left his hand yesterday only to almost simultaneously smack into the keepers gloves was scary. I think we sometimes forget quite how fast and hostile the top quicks are so well done to all so far.
Useful lead against a team who seem much better with ball than bat...imo.

[macstheman]

Excellent Ist Innings by England, a bit of resistance from the middle order and suddenly we're in the box seat.
The wicket is probably easier for batters now so the bowlers will have to graft away to get wickets but the pressure is now on SA. The weathers set fair now but the first hour tomorrow should favour England.

[macstheman]

What a couple of balls Jimmy Anderson, first one misses the edge by a gnats cod then the next one whips out the off peg! Take a walk Elgar!

[macstheman]

Two down, well bowled Robinson!