Off Topic England v S Africa Test Series

Here we go again - Jennings gone for 0. Don't see why he was picked again.

 

6 but one green light ffor a guess, well most we're guesses

 

Some very good bowling today, Malan got a bastard of a Yorker, reminiscent of Joel Garner.

 

A fine innings from Col's mate Stokes, and with Roland-Jones looking handy with the bat, England are probably just ahead in the game at 310-7.

 

Quite a day. Stokes gets a hundred, hitting three consecutive sixes, and now SA are 47 for 5, with Roland-Jones getting 4 wickets (so far) on debut.

 

Well this is working out rather nicely.....

If you'd offered 350+ before the start of play they'd probably snapped your hand off and now reducing SA to 51/6 effectively 7 down with Philander in hospital, could have them following on in an hour or so......

 

Yep he did very well.
Getting knocked around now by a tail ender bowling his usual mix of long hops, half volleys and the odd decent delivery.

 

You must have been gutted when he got a wicket.

 

You should know by now that, unlike you leftie types, I am hugely patriotic, so I was immensely pleased when he got the wicket. I wasn't so pleased when he continued to leak runs to a tail ender.
He has huge talent, especially as a batsman, but I question his bottle when the pressure is really on and I don't particularly rate him has a bowler.

 

If it's humid and overcast again today could see a lot of wickets, particularly if we can get the last two quickly and make them follow on.

Anyone remember Terry Alderman bowling in conditions like these? Unplayable.

 

He's a batsman that bowls. A better bat than Botham, I would say, but not nearly as good a bowler. He's fourth seamer though, so not necessarily expected to perform great feats with ball, just come on and nick a wicket now and then. His innings yesterday was the perfect answer to those who were saying that England's batsmen lacked the application to build an innings. I don't really get your point about him lacking bottle. I can only guess you are referring to the 20-20 final when Brathwaite took him apart, but I don't think that one failing should be held against him forever. He's a top all-rounder and should be appreciated as such in my view.

 

If he's a batsman who bowls then you can't call him an all-rounder surely? Let alone a top all-rounder?
Shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath as Botham imo. He has a long way to go to be even a good all-rounder with his present bowling imo, let alone to be compared with one of the greatest of all time.

I sincerely hope he proves me wrong and I do enjoy watching him bat.

 

Every all-rounder has one discipline better than another, though. Botham, Hadlee, Imran, Kapil Dev were all bowlers that batted. Stokes is primarily a batter so shouldn't be judged too harshly on his bowling. And no, I'm not saying he is as good as any of those greats, but he is ranked fifth or sixth in the world currently.

 

Do you class Moeen as an all rounder?

 

Yes, I do. He could bat at number three.

 

Me too, and I'd pick him ahead of Stokes. Higher in the international averages with both bat and ball.

 

Yes I know. Nothing wrong with having both in the side is there?

 

Absolutely not. I think Stokes gets more attention because he is an explosive type player.

Jennings living dangerously yet again.

 

We're lucky to have two such good all-rounders. A true world-class all-rounder could be picked either as a batsman or a bowler independent of the other discipline, but they are extremely rare. Sobers was one and maybe Kallis in recent times, but it's hard to think of many others.