S. Africa v. England Tests

[K]

England 269 & 8/391d
S. Africa 223 & 2/126 (56), chasing 438.

Stumps, day 4.

Wow, should Root have waited till they got 400 to declare, just to get their 400+ drought off their backs?


An Oz 'record' is riding on this: "only Australia have won at Cape Town since readmission, and England's last victory here came back in the 1950s" (cricinfo).

[K]

Scyld Berry, The Telegraph:

"Stuart Broad was the first to respond to Root’s rallying call by hitting the cracks outside the righthander’s offstump when bowling from the pavilion end. Sam Curran found the same spot when bowling round the wicket in that normally fallow period before the second ball.

South Africa could not locate this spot in England’s second innings. Broad, with shrewd geometry, had bowled wide of the crease to hit those cracks and will doubtless do the same in South Africa’s second innings. But Kagiso Rabada in his opening spell, when an immediate impact was required before the game was gone, preferred to have the wind behind him rather than the cracks in front of him; nor could Vernon Philander access the cracks when bowling close to the stumps. Maybe, too, those cracks did not widen as it was the coolest day of this Test with mist shrouding most of Table Mountain.
...

Crawley did not play within his two limitations: he did not get into a position to hook downwards when the ball was short, or bend his front leg into the drive, which led to his being caught behind. But, as with Sibley, his temperament is excellent and it was a fine effort by England’s rookie pair to camouflage the absence of Rory Burns, who is expected to miss the tour of Sri Lanka as well."


[Did not bend his front leg into the drive? Caught behind? It sounds like Crawley is a Khawaja clone.]

[K]

This Elgar edge is pretty thin!

https://media.fyre.co/eM9JSbeQiwK0juostM0Q_elgar.JPG

Good decision by Reiffel.

[Donny]

SA 4/171.

Pieter Malan is 84*.

[Donny]

5/174. Malan 84.

[Pies4shaw]

5/225. 30 overs remaining. And the last wicket fell about 29 overs ago.

[Pies4shaw]

England won.

[K]

"Burns underwent surgery in London on Monday and is expected to be out of action for four months."

[K]

It makes me think English cricketers are too unathletic. How can they be so seriously injured playing a casual soccer game to warm up?

[K]

Mark Nicholas:

"Root's delight at the moment of victory yesterday, and the convincingly positive sense of self at the interviews that followed, signalled a change. For all of Stokes and Dominic Sibley, Anderson, Ollie Pope, Sam Curran and Broad, this was Root's triumph, and all the more beautiful for it: a triumph carved from good, intelligent captaincy, slick batting and sharp catching. He got what he wanted from his leading men and from the support cast too. Indisputably he was the boss. In an interview of his own after the second day's play, Broad said as much, paying tribute to his captain in a manner that suggested the old guard was finally under instruction from the new. Not that Root is new, of course, just that a long journey of trust and compliance is over."

[K]

"Jos Buttler has escaped serious punishment for his expletive-laden sledging towards Vernon Philander on the final day of England's Test against South Africa at Newlands.

Stump microphones picked up and broadcast Buttler calling Philander a "f***ing knobhead" after the bowler stood his ground rather than get out the way of a return throw from Joe Root at mid-off, before adding "get past that f***ing gut", an apparent reference to Philander's weight. Sky Sports apologised on-air for the outburst shortly after it was broadcast.

But Buttler was only found to have breached Article 2.3 (Use of an audible obscenity) of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, rather than Article 2.13 (Personal abuse of a player).

Buttler was fined 15 percent of his match fee and handed one demerit point..."

(cricinfo)

[K]

"Cricket’s anti-corruption unit is investigating 50 cases of possible wrongdoing...

Ahead of the 20th anniversary of one of cricket’s darkest days - the fixed Centurion Test between South Africa and England, which led to Hansie Cronje being banned from the sport for life - the revelations from Alex Marshall, the general manager of the International Cricket Council’s ACU, are a reminder that the sport’s fight against corruption is far from won.
...

Cronje was the clean-cut, deeply religious and widely admired captain of South Africa when his side took on England in a dead rubber at Centurion on January 14, 2000. Rain left a draw looking the most likely result until he offered Nasser Hussain, England’s captain, an attractive run chase of 249 on the final day.

The move was widely hailed as a triumph of sportsmanship but in April that year it was revealed Cronje had accepted money and a leather jacket from his bookmaker contact to guarantee a result in the game. A massive scandal unfolded and Cronje was unmasked as having taken thousands of pounds from bookies in previous years."

(The Age)

[K]

"The board's press release on Saturday, reaffirming their commitment to transformation and denying that the recent ream management overhaul is a whitewash, may not have been intentionally about Bavuma, but it was.

It came two days after Faf du Plessis said the team does not see colour, which sounds like a nice statement but is naive in the South African context. This country has, since 1652 when the Dutch East India Company arrived on its shores, seen colour. It saw colour through slavery, colonialism and Apartheid and sees colour even more in democracy. But the rainbow nation is not without shades of grey."

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/28420447/absent-bavuma-highlights-south-africa-ever-present-transformation-issues

[K]

"In the wave of change that has broken over South African cricket in the last month, one thing has stayed the same: the captaincy. But that does not mean Faf du Plessis' leadership has escaped scrutiny.

The skipper, who last scored a Test century more than a year ago and has not crossed 30 in his last seven innings, will be in the spotlight at St George's Park...

It's not entirely unexpected that South Africa have to start their succession planning. Du Plessis is 35, has played international cricket for nine years and has identified this year's T20 World Cup as a potential swansong.
...

Form will have to come into the conversation at some stage. It already has by those who took offence to du Plessis saying Temba Bavuma had to force his way back into the Test XI by weight of runs when du Plessis' own load has been fairly light. Du Plessis' last seven innings have brought 79 runs with a top score of 29; Bavuma's last seven have brought 102 runs with a top score of 38.
...

Those tactical errors have nothing on the shot du Plessis played on the final day, when South Africa needed him to be at his most defensive in an attempt to save the game. Minutes before lunch, with a second new ball due in under four overs, du Plessis swept hard at a Dom Bess delivery and sent it straight to square leg."

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/28462644/faf-du-plessis-pump-third-test

[K]

"Joe Root has been forced to miss training in Port Elizabeth on Sunday due to illness...

It is unclear ... whether the episode is related to the sickness bug that decimated the team during the first Test...

...

With [Wood and Archer] remaining doubtful for the Port Elizabeth Test, however, and James Anderson having returned to home due to injury, Chris Woakes could well be in line for a recall."

(cricinfo)