England Test series v SA

Thought I’d start a new thread reather than bloat the Ben Strokes himself thread

Sky Sports Cricket@ SkyCricket 15m15 minutes ago

STUMPS: SA close D3 on 353-3, with Hashim Amla (157no) the main man. Hosts trail @ EnglandCricket by 276. # SAvENG

Batting wicket innit. Shame we dropped a few catches today but draw looks very likely unless conditions change, which is not forecast

Lunch day 4, still no wickets, Amla reached 200

428-3

WTF, I go for a 30 minute meeting and I come back and they are 476-6

Hopefully we’ll bowl them out before tea then come out in the final session swinging the willow and giving them a decentish target to chase on the final day.

SA tail enders chaisng everything and getting some streaky boundaries.Stokes bowling not really helping things though. He’s bowling waaayyy too short for this wicket.

500 up for SA in short time, if only Amla and de Villiers had batted like this earlier on they might have had a lead by now.

50 up for Bavuma off of 52 balls, some nice shots and some streaky rubbish.

73 run 8th wicket partnership.

Gave them a bit of a scare there, but ultimately it’s still got draw written all over it.

525-6 at tea,

Sack the groundsman.

Morris 50 on debut. 587-6, 42 runs behind. 20 odd overs left in the day. They’re certainly going to have a lead by the end of it.

Surely, since England declared at 6 wickets, SA should have been forced to declare when they lost their 6th one.

10th dropped catch.

Morris out recently and Bavuma just scored his maiden test century with a streaky edge for four.

623-7, trail by 6 runs. The pundits were talking about SA declaring once they have a lead and putting the pressure back on England.

627-7 and the declaration comes, 2 runs behind.

An hours batting left tonight which will provide some very nervous England batsmen.

Stumps Day 4

Eng 16-0, lead by 18

I say go gung ho tomorrow and give SA something to chase.

Not an hour - it’s all done now. At 16/0 that’s 18 runs ahead and no wicket lost. It’ll peter out during tomorrow, which is a shame but (apparently) inevitable. SA have done a brilliant job of crease occupation and run gathering there.

Not sure whether or not Dale Steyn and the wonderfully-named Vernon Philander will be fit for the next Test, but if they are it will be more than a little tougher for our batsmen. Then again, no other pitch is likely to blunt Anderson, Broad, Finn and Stokes the way this one did.

85-4

Compton out for 15, Stokes in, if he can 50% replicate his first innings then we might have a chance of not losing this game.

Nick Compton, what have you done? After battling through, this is a horrible way to go. A little slower from Dane Piedt, but nothing threatening. Compton, though, is through the short too quickly and chipping straight to Faf du Plessis at short mid-wicket. It’s a soft, soft way to go and England, after a recovery of sorts, are back in the soup.

Well done England on proving me wrong and forcing a chance of a win. :angry:

Reinstate the groundsman, he obviously did some work overnight.

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Ffs