It was the completely ineffective bowling that lost us this match really. The batting was just standard Bazball stuff that we're all used to by now. Not sure where we go with the bowling attack for the rest of this series or Australia. It's a real concern. Never seen an Indian side look so comfortable in English conditions, in both Tests so far.
south african captain wiaan mulder, playing in the current test match against zimbabwe, scored 367no in south africa's total of 626/5 declared. he faced 334 deliveries for a strike rate of 109.88 runs per 100 deliveries, and batted for 410 minutes. this innings has increased his average by 46.7% (to 38.43). before this innings his batting average was 26.20 and his bowling average was 25.60. i reckon a batting average higher than a bowling average makes for a genuine all-rounder, and the difference is now much bigger. the 367no is the 5th highest test score, marginally ahead of sobers' 365no and hutton's 364. this is the second test triple century scored at more than a run a ball, beating the rate of sehwag's 319 and 104.93. the only other 300+ test scores achieved in under 410 minutes were hammond's 336no in 318 minutes and bradman's 334 in 383 minutes. relegated to 4th place on time is harry brook's 317 which lasted 418 minutes. mulder reached the 300 mark itself from the second fewest balls (297), behind sehwag's 278. mulder scored 49 fours and 4 sixes. only john edrich's 310no contained more fours (52). edrich's triple included more runs from boundaries (238 - 52 fours and 5 sixes) than any other test innings. mulder scored 220 (196+24) in boundaries, which appears to be the second most ever. edrich's 57 boundaries and mulder's 53 are the two most. mulder scored 264no on the first day of the test. only bradman, with 309no, has scored more on a first day. zimbabwe were all out for 170 in reply and are 51/1 following on. at this point mulder has taken 2 for 20 and 0 for 8, lowering his bowling average a bit. as captain, the timing of the declaration was his decision and he decided against challenging lara's 400. his previous highest first-class score was 235no and his f.c. average was 36.61, ten more than his test average. zimbabwe need 405 to avoid an innings defeat.
Looking forward to Archer being broken into a hundred pieces again, Joe Root fully to blame for the last 4 years of his injuries.....bowled him for 42 overs in one innings and generally treated him like a kid who's got a new toy for Xmas whilst he was captain
