The English will blame the illnesses etc. for the poor performance whereas the reality is they lack application, technique and good old fashioned bottle .. the game was lost as soon as Root put SA in to bat. As a captain he is proving to be the cricket equivalent of Teresa May
Big Vern's been absolutely stiffed of a MOTM award imo
In the context of the game, a player scoring 129 runs has to be King. In any event, Philander took 4 wickets in the first innings and was taken off wicket less in the 2nd innings whereas Rabada took 7 in total albeit at a price.
Said it before & I'll say it again. Root is not a captain. Great player, but not a captain. His field placements are all wrong, and has fallen out with his no 1 bowler.
Certainly not at the moment. This is biggest disaster of the Bayliss era. A few years ago Bairstow was our 2nd best batsman and was beginning to look solid and world class. Then everyone said to hell with test cricket and we will throw everything at winning the 50 over world cup. Bairstow's technique was changed so he became an effective one day player but a disaster at test cricket.
Philander scored 81 runs in the match though, bowled incredibly in the first innings and built pressure in the second. I guess De Kock's eight catches swung it, but they were pretty regulation
Philander scored 81 runs in the match though, bowled incredibly in the first innings and built pressure in the second. I guess De Kock's eight catches swung it, but they were pretty regulation
Fair point regarding Philander's runs. De Koch's 6 catches in the 1st innings also equalled the record for a South African keeper.
Equally, some players might argue that no catch is "regulation". Especially if his name happens to be Denly!
Buttler and Bairstow should not be in this side ffs.
Foakes and Pope.
Days like today I want to hear what Bob Willis would have to say.
Just to be clear, you would have picked, for this, First Test, one player who is not in the squad and one who is ill?
Here he is. WUM. Last time I engage you.
Clearly for this test their hands were tied with Pope. The point is, it's been obvious since last winter that Foakes should be pur keeper and even more obvious after the summer that he should have been on the tours.
Bairstow should be nowhere near the side. He was dropped after a shocking couple of years and tole he needed to go and play some red ball cricket in order to get picked again. Hes then recalled to the squad after playing exactly zero red ball cricket. Joke.
Crikey! That's quite an aggressive response. It just seems very odd to suggest that the failure of the team in their first innings would have been mitigated if only two players who were unavailable had been picked instead. It seems reasonable that six of the top seven places in the current team go to the six players who have scored the most Test runs for England this year. The one addition is the newish opener.
I would have no objection to Pope playing, were he fit. He's not. But I am not sure it's wise to drop one of your better players for a wicket keeper who wasn't chosen to tour.
WUM is strong with this one.
Did I suggest the failure of the team was down to 2 players? You know full well I didn't say anything of the sort. I simply pointed 2 players who have consistently failed in the side for more than 2 years and said they shouldn't be there. I also suggested the 2 player I want to replace them with going forwards (the same 2 players most people on social media are calling for).
You then did your annoying little WUM stuff twisting what had been said, ignoring a reasoned response and trying to shout someone down. It's boring and you ruin every cricket thread by picking someone to repeatedly do this to. Get back in your hole. Child
Why so angry?
Why so twattish?
I know of at least 5 posters who no longer contribute to cricket threads because of you constantly acting like this. You get away with it on the politics stuff because everyone acts like a child there but some of us want to just have a chat about cricket without some twat twisting every word that is said and turning it into an argument.
You've admitted to this in the past and I suspect you get some kind of kick out of it. Its childish you actually know very little about cricket but like to shout everyone else down all the same. You hate it when you get called out on it as shown by all the PM's you sent me last time you tried it on me. Grow up. Get over yourself and stop ruining it for others.
I for one wont let you push me from these threads but I'm just gonna ignore whatever crap you vomit onto the keyboard from now on.
Buttler and Bairstow should not be in this side ffs.
Foakes and Pope.
Days like today I want to hear what Bob Willis would have to say.
Just to be clear, you would have picked, for this, First Test, one player who is not in the squad and one who is ill?
Here he is. WUM. Last time I engage you.
Clearly for this test their hands were tied with Pope. The point is, it's been obvious since last winter that Foakes should be pur keeper and even more obvious after the summer that he should have been on the tours.
Bairstow should be nowhere near the side. He was dropped after a shocking couple of years and tole he needed to go and play some red ball cricket in order to get picked again. Hes then recalled to the squad after playing exactly zero red ball cricket. Joke.
Crikey! That's quite an aggressive response. It just seems very odd to suggest that the failure of the team in their first innings would have been mitigated if only two players who were unavailable had been picked instead. It seems reasonable that six of the top seven places in the current team go to the six players who have scored the most Test runs for England this year. The one addition is the newish opener.
I would have no objection to Pope playing, were he fit. He's not. But I am not sure it's wise to drop one of your better players for a wicket keeper who wasn't chosen to tour.
WUM is strong with this one.
Did I suggest the failure of the team was down to 2 players? You know full well I didn't say anything of the sort. I simply pointed 2 players who have consistently failed in the side for more than 2 years and said they shouldn't be there. I also suggested the 2 player I want to replace them with going forwards (the same 2 players most people on social media are calling for).
You then did your annoying little WUM stuff twisting what had been said, ignoring a reasoned response and trying to shout someone down. It's boring and you ruin every cricket thread by picking someone to repeatedly do this to. Get back in your hole. Child
Why so angry?
Why so twattish?
I know of at least 5 posters who no longer contribute to cricket threads because of you constantly acting like this. You get away with it on the politics stuff because everyone acts like a child there but some of us want to just have a chat about cricket without some twat twisting every word that is said and turning it into an argument.
You've admitted to this in the past and I suspect you get some kind of kick out of it. Its childish you actually know very little about cricket but like to shout everyone else down all the same. You hate it when you get called out on it as shown by all the PM's you sent me last time you tried it on me. Grow up. Get over yourself and stop ruining it for others.
I for one wont let you push me from these threads but I'm just gonna ignore whatever crap you vomit onto the keyboard from now on.
Canters calling someone childish.... Lol.
What do you even mean by that you absolute knob?
You're they guy who cried on the 100 thread because no one agreed with you and you actually couldn't come up with any coherent arguments and had no response to anyones criticisms. You started throwing out insults then claimed to be the victim
You only come on here to shout about 3 things.
B20 are better than CARD Charlton should move to the peninsula (ignoring the arguments that it's actually no longer possible) And the 100 is better than cricket
You haven't worked out yet that no one actually gives a shit.
Times headline today 'Root Blames Bowlers' .. well he's supposedly the skipper of this off course ship and it's up to him to get his bowlers doing what they are told if they want to retain their places .. and yes, I know he spent some time off the field ill etc. etc. To blame the bowlers alone however attempts to deflect from the performances of most of the batsman, including Root. Just grow a pair Root and sort out the indiscipline which is at the heart of recent useless performances in test cricket
Times headline today 'Root Blames Bowlers' .. well he's supposedly the skipper of this off course ship and it's up to him to get his bowlers doing what they are told if they want to retain their places .. and yes, I know he spent some time off the field ill etc. etc. To blame the bowlers alone however attempts to deflect from the performances of most of the batsman, including Root. Just grow a pair Root and sort out the indiscipline which is at the heart of recent useless performances in test cricket
Said it before Root should not be captain, he is not a good man manager and his tactics are often crap.
Times headline today 'Root Blames Bowlers' .. well he's supposedly the skipper of this off course ship and it's up to him to get his bowlers doing what they are told if they want to retain their places .. and yes, I know he spent some time off the field ill etc. etc. To blame the bowlers alone however attempts to deflect from the performances of most of the batsman, including Root. Just grow a pair Root and sort out the indiscipline which is at the heart of recent useless performances in test cricket
Said it before Root should not be captain, he is not a good man manager and his tactics are often crap.
Yep and just seems tactically unable to find a way to take 20 wickets.
Comments
Equally, some players might argue that no catch is "regulation". Especially if his name happens to be Denly!
Bang on
You're they guy who cried on the 100 thread because no one agreed with you and you actually couldn't come up with any coherent arguments and had no response to anyones criticisms. You started throwing out insults then claimed to be the victim
You only come on here to shout about 3 things.
B20 are better than CARD
Charlton should move to the peninsula (ignoring the arguments that it's actually no longer possible)
And the 100 is better than cricket
You haven't worked out yet that no one actually gives a shit.
Do one.
To blame the bowlers alone however attempts to deflect from the performances of most of the batsman, including Root. Just grow a pair Root and sort out the indiscipline which is at the heart of recent useless performances in test cricket
Sums up the year really... bit of a shambles.