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England Cricket 2015

Broad for me. As you say SA never really recovered from those early wickets and he ensured England went past 300 in the first innings.
 
Man of the match contenders?

Broad -- glued together the first innings at a crucial time and then put SA on a back foot they never recovered from with an amazing spell of bowling, taking four of the top six wickets of the SA first innings for 20-odd.

Compton -- take Compton out and England's innings don't look so clever. Gave England the platform that the bowlers could build on.

Moeen -- consistent excellent bowling, 4 in the first innings, 3 so far in the second.

Finn -- similarly consistent excellent bowling, 2 in the first innings, 4 so far in the second.

No single standout. Compton's innings probably most significant in hindsight esp with openers failing. Good to see wickets shared around.

Best individual contribution from Elgar tbh.
 
Big win in the end, excellent team performance from England.

Confirmed that Steyn is out for the second test so SA with some serious problems.
 
Good strong no-messing about performance with everyone covering for everyone. I read elsewhere that's out first stumping since 2012, whilst pakistan have 10 alone this year.
 
Yep all good really. Only Hales still with something to prove. Good to win without relying on cook and root for runs. Be nice to have Anderson back but not scared of not having him.

And SA in something of a mess. :cool:
 
Nah Moeen all the way for me. He performed beautifully. Kept it tight and got vital wickets. He's come a long way.

Very pleased for Compton as I drunkenly repeated to my in laws on Boxing Day.
 
Anderson in for Woakes, and Cook's won a toss for once, so England batting on what looks to be a good pitch (and in hot weather).

Duminy dropped and Abbott not fit, Rabada could be exciting.
 
Root out 223-5. I'm not that worried. I have a feeling that our batsmen are flattering their bowlers.
 
Got out of jail a bit there. 317-5 - will take that, but want to push on to 400+ tomorrow. Still no century for England in this series, but enough 50s, I guess. Still not convinced by Hales, but at least he scored something.
 
Duminy dropped and Abbott not fit, Rabada could be exciting.
I'm not sure why Rabada wasn't playing in Durban instead of Abbott. consistently over 90mph, decent control, can also bat apparently, good fielder. There is a lot of talk recently about politics and quotas - the unspoken 'four non-whites in the team', but if anything I see white players being treated pretty generously. How much does that 'four non-whites' unspoken rule represent a maximum as well as a minimum?
 
Got out of jail a bit there. 317-5 - will take that, but want to push on to 400+ tomorrow. Still no century for England in this series, but enough 50s, I guess. Still not convinced by Hales, but at least he scored something.
I am more than happy with an opener with an average of 35+
 
Is this series not on terrestrial TV at all? Not even on 5? Test cricket is dying because of this IMO.
Yes it is. Been like this for 10 years now. Not one ball of professional English cricket is live on free tv.

crictime and cricfree offer relatively reliable, if rather low- resolution, live streams.
 
I am more than happy with an opener with an average of 35+
I'm happy he scored, hope he's learning, and am sure he's booked his place for the rest of the series now. I'm still not convinced by him.
Played loose shots and got away with it today.

Stokes got England out of jail, imo. Great stuff, and shows the value of England's super-strong 6-7-8, but needed.
 
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Yes it is. Been like this for 10 years now. Not one ball of professional English cricket is live on free tv.

crictime and cricfree offer relatively reliable, if rather low- resolution, live streams.

Low res streams are pants with cricket. You need to be able to see what the ball is doing. I'm not paying for sky though. I'll try watchcric later when the Aussies play cheers kabbes
 
If you go to watchcric.com on a tablet or phone, it takes you to smartcric.com instead, and that gives you the option of low, medium or high resolution. Not sure why. Not tried it on a computer though.
 
This is Gilchrist-esque. It's all proper cricket shots but brutal.

Honourable mention to Bairstow as well, playing the supporting role to perfection.
 
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