Oh well, ICC pitching the idea of 4 day tests. They do have some solid points behind this though, let's see how international community (Cricketers) reacts on it in coming days.
ICC to consider mandatory four-day Tests
Topic: Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod] - page 1059. (Read 167680 times)
It was a disappointing match for England, after all the hard work they put in to bowl out South Africa for less than 300 in both the innings. The decision by Joe Root, to send South Africa to bat first was wrong.
How can you blame a single player for the bad performance of the majority of the team? Completely disagree. South Africa outclassed them plain and simple. Philander was awesome.The current England Test squad lacks the experience to play the long version and more over the technique to play longer innings and the moving ball creates all the issues for the England batsman, Burns played a good innings and he gave a good start in the second innings but none of the other batsman could play a long innings and the fate of the series depends upon how the England side recovers from the illness and perform and they need to find quality Test players.
Exactly. England is not a great test team at present(They barely drew the Ashes thanks to some heroic performances) while South Africa recovered spectacularly thought they are still very inconsistent at present. 
It was a disappointing match for England, after all the hard work they put in to bowl out South Africa for less than 300 in both the innings. The decision by Joe Root, to send South Africa to bat first was wrong. They should have batted first and built a score around 300. Anyway, the next match will start on 3rd January and England may be still hoping to win the series and improve their ranking in the ICC Test Championship table.
Losing wickets too early on a test match shows how inexperienced players were playing for them which is the team found the cricket.They need to have experience along with skills to play longer format of the cricket hope they will swap the team on next match and will find the better combination.
The current England Test squad lacks the experience to play the long version and more over the technique to play longer innings and the moving ball creates all the issues for the England batsman, Burns played a good innings and he gave a good start in the second innings but none of the other batsman could play a long innings and the fate of the series depends upon how the England side recovers from the illness and perform and they need to find quality Test players. SA deserved to win the match because they played well right from the start of the match and England failed in the first innings which caused them this match. Though England came back and played well in second inning then the first but it was still not a match winning game for them.
If you neglect the performance of the openers for England in the second innings, then none of the players performed other than Joe Root who managed to score 48 runs and some are single digit scores and the turnaround was when they took the new ball Rabada bowled a wonderful spell taking all the wickets, before that i thought there is a possibility that England can win the match as long as Root was in the crease. ENG got all out for 268,the match could be won if the players respected the good balls. 
Deserved win for south Africa after the excellent performance by their bowlers and good contribution from the batting partners as well.
England start was very good there was some hope they will fight till end but they have another collapse which kill chance of win opener done good job but still they need some good batsmen in middle order which can give them some good support no solid batsman available to give some support in late order which hurt them. Deserved win for south Africa after the excellent performance by their bowlers and good contribution from the batting partners as well.
ENG got all out for 268,the match could be won if the players respected the good balls.
Deserved win for south Africa after the excellent performance by their bowlers and good contribution from the batting partners as well.
Deserved win for south Africa after the excellent performance by their bowlers and good contribution from the batting partners as well.
SA deserved to win the match because they played well right from the start of the match and England failed in the first innings which caused them this match. Though England came back and played well in second inning then the first but it was still not a match winning game for them.
ENG got all out for 268,the match could be won if the players respected the good balls.
Deserved win for south Africa after the excellent performance by their bowlers and good contribution from the batting partners as well.
When the England openers started really well i thought they will fight till the end but they lost all the wickets for 176 runs after reaching 92 runs for the first wicket and that shows how weak their Test team is, the rest of the members are filled with T20 and ODI specialist and that is the problem as they are not able to stay in the crease for a long time and come up with consistent performance in the longer version.Deserved win for south Africa after the excellent performance by their bowlers and good contribution from the batting partners as well.
ENG got all out for 268,the match could be won if the players respected the good balls.
Deserved win for south Africa after the excellent performance by their bowlers and good contribution from the batting partners as well.
When the England openers started really well i thought they will fight till the end but they lost all the wickets for 176 runs after reaching 92 runs for the first wicket and that shows how weak their Test team is, the rest of the members are filled with T20 and ODI specialist and that is the problem as they are not able to stay in the crease for a long time and come up with consistent performance in the longer version. Deserved win for south Africa after the excellent performance by their bowlers and good contribution from the batting partners as well.
I believe that it was a good thing that I cashed out my bet on SA early at 1.5x. Considering the current scenario, I believe that ENG now have a chance to win this match.
Anyways, happy that I didn't lose anything in this one.Anybody made a bet on SA to win this match?
ENG got all out for 268,the match could be won if the players respected the good balls.
Deserved win for south Africa after the excellent performance by their bowlers and good contribution from the batting partners as well.
Deserved win for south Africa after the excellent performance by their bowlers and good contribution from the batting partners as well.
^ 6th wicket down, can South African bowlers expose the tails of ENG?
Possibly yes, if they make it possible will greatly boost the confidence for their further matches in 2020.
Possibly yes, if they make it possible will greatly boost the confidence for their further matches in 2020.
SA now just requires another 3 wickets to win the match and England require another 127 runs to win the match. Butler is on the crease so would like to make maximum number of runs as on other hand we have Archer who can also bat a bit but not that reliable who can hang on.
^ 6th wicket down, can South African bowlers expose the tails of ENG?
Possibly yes, if they make it possible will greatly boost the confidence for their further matches in 2020.
Possibly yes, if they make it possible will greatly boost the confidence for their further matches in 2020.
Burns is hanging on at the moment, but I still think South Africa will win this one easily since England is under immense pressure and I am expecting a collapse once Burns gets out. Most of the batsmen lower down the order are great ODI and T-20 batsmen(Not Test batsmen except Root).
England lost their 5th wicket and still need 153 runs to win the match and there is plenty of time and the advantage for England right now is that Joe Root is still in the crease and if South Africa need to win then they need to pick his wicket and he is accompanied by Buttler and one more wicket and then the tail will get expose and it is interesting to see how Buttler is going to approach the match, will he try to smash the ball rather than holding on to his wicket. How many of you watching this game?
Its keep getting interesting ball after ball, spell after spell
Ben stokes out, England is 4 down now and need 168 runs . They have 3 recognized batsmen left Root,Bairstow, Buttler.
Now England need 156 runs Root and Baristow on and South Africa going to take new ball its very important time for both teams Rabada going to start with new ball and Root survived and Bairstow four on first new ball very interesting match still balanced for both sides.Its keep getting interesting ball after ball, spell after spell
Ben stokes out, England is 4 down now and need 168 runs . They have 3 recognized batsmen left Root,Bairstow, Buttler.
Edit Bairstow gone on second ball of new ball.
How many of you watching this game?
Its keep getting interesting ball after ball, spell after spell
Ben stokes out, England is 4 down now and need 168 runs . They have 3 recognized batsmen left Root,Bairstow, Buttler.
I am not watching this game,but I am seeing the scores too often since the match is getting more excited.RSA really have a chance if they can tempt ENG tails to play strokes than defending balls. Its keep getting interesting ball after ball, spell after spell
Ben stokes out, England is 4 down now and need 168 runs . They have 3 recognized batsmen left Root,Bairstow, Buttler.
How many of you watching this game?
Its keep getting interesting ball after ball, spell after spell
Ben stokes out, England is 4 down now and need 168 runs . They have 3 recognized batsmen left Root,Bairstow, Buttler.
Its keep getting interesting ball after ball, spell after spell
Ben stokes out, England is 4 down now and need 168 runs . They have 3 recognized batsmen left Root,Bairstow, Buttler.
England started really well and they are giving a good fight for the South African bowlers, they just lost their first wicket and if they are able to build partnership like these then they have a fighting chance to win the match as Jose Butler has given them some thrilling wins in the past and if they can take the team closer to the target then they have a long batting line up to challenge the South African team, it all depends how the pitch behaves in the last two days.
121/1
Tension for SA and big relief for England, considering their first inning misadventure but game is 50-50 now. one more good partnership means home run for England and SA need only 1 good spell.
England only need 255 runs to win. They have lost only one wicket and have the full day to chase this target which is less than 6 runs an over. Personally I think this achievable, if England does not lose quick wickets.
England can reach the target very easy if the same partnership continues more than 100 runs And England still has two more days to go they have to utilize the that and still have 9 wickets in hand.
~snip~
I believe that it was a good thing that I cashed out my bet on SA early at 1.5x. Considering the current scenario, I believe that ENG now have a chance to win this match.At least NZ try to avoid the complete qhitewash by giving some real effort to win the next match which is about to happen between Jan 02 and 06.
Nothing surprising here. New Zealand has been winning primarily due to their bowling these days(Not batting) which is where they seriously need to improve.
2 consecutive defeat with 200+ runs tells the story of this tour. I would say disappointing performance from Kiwis so far, especially Williamson.
On the other match, Can england get another 255 to win the match?Looks easy but let's wait and see.
Burns is hanging on at the moment, but I still think South Africa will win this one easily since England is under immense pressure and I am expecting a collapse once Burns gets out. Most of the batsmen lower down the order are great ODI and T-20 batsmen(Not Test batsmen except Root).
This game is balanced atm. both teams has equal chance of winning the game. if South Africa goes wicketless in the first session then they are in big trouble. Personally i would like to see 3-4 hour of good cricket from both sides with bat and ball.
The target looks achievable considering that England have 9 wickets in hand but anything can happen in a match and we all saw how they struggled in the first innings and went on to loose wickets at regular interval and who knows that might not happen again, either way it is a reachable target and hope the England players could somehow win the match, there will be only two outcome in this match, England can defend and loose their wickets or go for the win.
Burns is hanging on at the moment, but I still think South Africa will win this one easily since England is under immense pressure and I am expecting a collapse once Burns gets out. Most of the batsmen lower down the order are great ODI and T-20 batsmen(Not Test batsmen except Root).As expected OZ won the match very easily by 247 runs and only thing NZ would be happy is that Blundell made century and played well for 121 runs. With this NZ lost the series as already down by 2-0 in 3 test match . Travis was the player of the match.
Nothing surprising here. New Zealand has been winning primarily due to their bowling these days(Not batting) which is where they seriously need to improve. Jump to: