**Official** South Africa in England 2012

[Woodster]

An excellent day for England after a terrible start losing the skipper in the opening over. The patience and discipline showed by these two never fails to impress. I appreciate a lengthy stand between these two doesn't exactly empty the bars or have the neutrals tuning in in anticipation, but their importance in this England side cannot be over-estimated.

After Morkel struck early, Cook and Trott were calmness personified, afforded the luxury of being able to leave plenty of deliveries up to the lunch break, and be selective when picking the bowling off with cuts from Cook and deft deflections through the leg side like only Trott can. He will be disappointed with his dismissal though, he got a touch lazy on the drive but good pitch it up bowling from Morkel.

KP threatened to dominate SA and take the game away from them, but his innings never quite took off despite the odd glimmer. The timing of his dismissal was far from ideal, and with the new ball so close maybe it was the kind of high risk shot he could have put away for a few overs.

As for SA's attack, at times they looked as flat as the Oval pitch and lacked any real spark. They may grow into this series but of course with only three Tests they have very limited time to do so.It's not often Steyn will go wicketless throughout the course of an entire day including 21 overs.

 

[Jacknife]

That's very generous of you - I'd say averaging over 70 (as of tonight) over your last 40 test innings counts as something a tad better than "doing alright", but I suppose someone will want to debate that. His best batting in that time was probably at Trent Bridge last summer, ie. not down the order.

That was the same Indian attack last summer that KP was smashing all over the shop and we already have Trott batting at 3.

I think one of the big things is that with 3 plodders up the order and KP at 4 it enables England to up the run rate and put us in declaration positions we otherwise wouldn't be if Bell was there. We could see just from today that when he bats, how much the field spreads for him and how much that helps the bloke at the other end.

I don't want to pull Bell's achievements to bits at all, I like what he brings to the side but then again I don't feel the need to do it to KP either, I think they are a good 4/5 combination, so I'm not sure what you're going to get with moving them around, apart from all the things you said abut Bell would be the same for KP.

 

[Furball]

Granted I only watched the morning session but the South Africans reminded me an awful lot of the Australian attack we repeatedly pummelled in 2010/11. Morkel and Philander bowled some absolute garbage with the new ball.

 

[amanuensis]

That was the same Indian attack last summer that KP was smashing all over the shop and we already have Trott batting at 3.

I think one of the big things is that with 3 plodders up the order and KP at 4 it enables England to up the run rate and put us in declaration positions we otherwise wouldn't be if Bell was there. We could see just from today that when he bats, how much the field spreads for him and how much that helps the bloke at the other end.

I don't want to pull Bell's achievements to bits at all, I like what he brings to the side but then again I don't feel the need to do it to KP either, I think they are a good 4/5 combination, so I'm not sure what you're going to get with moving them around, apart from all the things you said abut Bell would be the same for KP.

Pietersen's already rather good at tossing it away.

 

[Jacknife]

Pietersen's already rather good at tossing it away.

LOL,nothing to say about the rest, seems to me this about KP the personality not the player, so I'll leave you too it.

 

[jan]

Not impressed with SA today, Morkel and Kallis taking wickets instead of Dale and Vernon. Really expected bit more...explosive start?
Môre!

 

[screamingfields]

Not impressed with SA today, Morkel and Kallis taking wickets instead of Dale and Vernon. Really expected bit more...explosive start?
Môre!

I did say it would be a batting game though Cook getting a century. So let's see how good SA bat now.

 

[Woodster]

I did say it would be a batting game though Cook getting a century. So let's see how good SA bat now.

Hopefully England have got a lot more batting to do before SA get their turn.

 

[jan]

Hopefully England have got a lot more batting to do before SA get their turn.

I am looking forward to watching Bopara and Prior (and hopefully Bresnan) bat tomorrow

 

[amanuensis]

LOL,nothing to say about the rest, seems to me this about KP the personality not the player, so I'll leave you too it.

Not at all - he's made plenty of starts in recent years (certainly since his 2009 injury hiatus), but been sh*t at converting them.

 

[MW1304]

Granted I only watched the morning session but the South Africans reminded me an awful lot of the Australian attack we repeatedly pummelled in 2010/11. Morkel and Philander bowled some absolute garbage with the new ball.

I wouldn't say Philander bowled particularly badly, thought we just played him really well. He seamed it about like usual, had decent control but not quite the mind-numbingly consistent line. Morkel was awful. Steyn was surprisingly toothless but may not be fully fit/rusty.

Be interesting to see how our bowlers compare next innings with a bit more game time behind them.

 

[Psycho Macaque]

KP's shot to get out was ridiculous and pathetic. 'That's the way he plays' I suppose, but it was awful. Typical, too. Oh well, he's only punishing himself. There was runs to be had.

 

[uvelocity]

Honest to god, as solid as this pair is, they are mind boggling boring to watch. I'm literally falling to sleep watching this.

thats what happened to me

 

[Agent Nationaux]

My favourite moment of this test match will be when Bresnan gets out.

 

[Prince EWS]

My favourite moment of this test match will be when Bresnan gets out his tenth victim.

 

[Jacknife]

KP's shot to get out was ridiculous and pathetic. 'That's the way he plays' I suppose, but it was awful. Typical, too. Oh well, he's only punishing himself. There was runs to be had.

Like I said before, it was a poor ball and it should have been smashed to the stands, 9 out of 10 times he would of, it was the timing more than anything that could of caused problems but a chest high, medium pace attempted bouncer down leg side should have been dispatched.

It's funny no one mentions Trott's which was a equally bad shot, had a wild swipe at a wide ball and edged it.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

My favourite moment of this test match will be when Bresnan gets out.

Will he bat?

 

[Jacknife]

My favourite moment of this test match will be when Bresnan gets out his tenth victim.

 

[Agent Nationaux]

My favourite moment of this test match will be when Bresnan gets out his tenth victim.

I'll be happy with that as long as his bowling average goes above 40.

 

[theegyptian]

Had a good day at the cricket today. Bad and good deja vu today for me having been in Brisbane to see Strauss out in the first over of the ashes in and having watched Trott and Cook bat together for hours on end in that series. Cook was impressively disciplined and back to his stellar best levels of concentration today even if his run scoring completely stalled in the last hour. Good position for England to be in.



oh and can't believe we got a full day's play.