England [269 & 391/8d] defeat South Africa [223 & 248] by 189 runs to win 2nd Test; series level 1-1

[Ozymandiasza]

10 overs, 1 wicket. Nail biter this game.

 

[jnaveen1980]

They should use some srilankan tactics lol change gloves, pull muscle. Put some acting.

 

[jnaveen1980]

I remember a test where SA in Australia lost 9 wickets. Injured Smith came back again after retirement. He got bowled in the very last over of the match.

 

[therealAB]

People who say stokes averages 36,33 don't have any idea what they are talking about. One of the best match-winners in the game

 

[Ozymandiasza]

Well played England. Good game

 

[therealAB]

What a player

 

[praveen]

Well done England. Stokes is a player any team would love to have

 

[Last Monetarist]

What a superstar, Ben Stokes! Glorious test match.

 

[therealAB]

Huge argument against 4day tests

 

[tyron_woodley]

What a superstar, Ben Stokes! Glorious test match.

Absolutely

 

[jnaveen1980]

Anti climax with bang bang bang

 

[James]

Stokes may well be the world’s best all-round cricketer at the moment. 119 crucial quick runs, 3 massive endgame wickets and 6 brilliant catches in this match alone.

 

[sindhiboy]

Huge argument against 4day tests

fitting reply and slap to the icc for suggesting such a stupid thing

 

[jnaveen1980]

Kind of reminds me of Tendulkar's 3 wicket haul in the famous Eden Gardens Test in 2001. He dismissed a well set Hayden, Gilchrist, Warne.

 

[happydavy]

Stokes may well be the world’s best all-round cricketer at the moment. 119 crucial quick runs, 3 massive endgame wickets and 6 brilliant catches in this match alone.

Don't think anyone can dispute that, he's an absolute champion. The biggest match winner in world at the moment.

 

[andy0204]

Good effort by South Africa,Congrats to England.

 

[tyron_woodley]

What a player. Bald luck staffers. get them next tine. England deserved winners in 2nd test.
Now do you see why we all rate stokes as one of the GOAT all rounders of all time Robert?


Anyway lot of work to do for saffers. Malan should play next test. Pretorious needs to go. Wiann mulder in.

 

[andy0204]

Stokes may well be the world’s best all-round cricketer at the moment. 119 crucial quick runs, 3 massive endgame wickets and 6 brilliant catches in this match alone.

No doubt about it.

 

[tyron_woodley]

Stokes may well be the world’s best all-round cricketer at the moment. 119 crucial quick runs, 3 massive endgame wickets and 6 brilliant catches in this match alone.

gOAT stokes period.

 

[happydavy]

Would expect England to win today, with Stokes taking at-least 2 crucial wickets.

Said this before the start of play today. For a punter like me, easiest thing is to back Stokes who has this knack of winning important matches by batting or bowling or Fielding.

 

[therealAB]

Brilliant by stokes but still poor by SA. Du Plessis, De Cock and VdV threw wickets away on lifeless tracks. Great find in Malan and a consolidation for England. Root back to form with an important knock and finally an opener. Sibley, Burns should be a strong partnership going forward

 

[jnaveen1980]

Mr Go to player in modern cricket. Pulling off miracle after miracle.

 

[Amjid Javed]

Excellent 5 day test - SA will be kicking themselves for losing the match.

 

[MenInG]

STOKES SETS UP, THEN ROUNDS OFF COMPREHENSIVE ENGLAND WIN


Tuesday, 07 January 2020

BEN STOKES was, as always, the man for the moment as he claimed the final three wickets to give England a series-levelling win by 189 runs with 50 balls in hand in an appropriate climax to the second Test match against the Standard Bank Proteas at Newlands on Tuesday.

The two teams now go to St. George’s Park for the third encounter, starting on Thursday week, locked at 1-1 with two matches to go.

Stokes’ contribution to the England win was enormous as he was always in the game, making runs in both innings, taking five catches in the first innings and then those vital last three wickets in the second as the Proteas, declining to take runs to protect wickets, lost their last five batsmen for just 11 runs.

What was even more important was the pace at which he got those second innings runs at a time when no other batsman on either side was able to lift the run rate to more than three to the over. By taking charge the way he did he created the opportunity for England to have a possible 146 overs in the South African second innings and that was almost as many as they needed to get the job done.

He sent down a total of two balls short of 24 overs and had the outstanding return of 3/35 as he had to fill the gap caused by the problems suffered by Jimmy Anderson who was unable to bowl more than a handful of overs.

This should have been a serious setback for England as the veteran quick has regained his best rhythm in this match

In spite of Dom Sibley’s maiden Test century, Stokes could be the only candidate for Man of the Match.

For South African fans hoping for a fairy tale ending it was not to be with Pieter Malan falling 16 runs short of a maiden Test match century (288 balls, 3 fours and more than 6 hours of stoic resistance) and Vernon Philander on his last Test innings at Newlands being the last man out rather than saving the day.

Malan apart, the only contribution of note came from Quinton de Kock (50 off 107 balls, 7 fours) who showed his ability to play the match situation that the occasion demanded before he miscued a pull shot off the bottom of his bat. It was a remarkable sight to see him batting against a field that had seven men in close catching positions and the other two within 30 metres of the bat.

The Sunfoil Education Trust (SET) benefited to the extent of R234 000 from boundaries and sixes hit and wickets taken by the two sides during the match with the cumulative total for the series now standing at R494 000.

 

[Mamoon]

You cannot be a mediocre side when you have Stokes in the team. England is definitely top 3 material in Test cricket.

 

[jnaveen1980]

This is what they expected from Flintoff. Stokes is delivering it.

 

[Robert]

Stokes may well be the world’s best all-round cricketer at the moment. 119 crucial quick runs, 3 massive endgame wickets and 6 brilliant catches in this match alone.

This is the sort of thing I remember from Botham’s heyday.

Again Anderson breaks down and again Stokes fills the breach. We have to limit the bowling he does. Maybe ten shock overs per innings.

 

[Robert]

What a player. Bald luck staffers. get them next tine. England deserved winners in 2nd test.
Now do you see why we all rate stokes as one of the GOAT all rounders of all time Robert?

No.

Stokes has never been a big wicket taker like Imran, Kapil and Botham, though he is the latter’s equal as a batter and catcher.

 

[jnaveen1980]

No.

Stokes has never been a big wicket taker like Imran, Kapil and Botham, though he is the latter’s equal as a batter and catcher.

Agree. You can call him a clutch player. But not the ATG all rounder. Clutch player often doesn't have to do match. Just deliver when needed. 3 tailender wickets when you are running against time. Although they are tailenders, timing of those wickets make the spell special.

 

[happydavy]

Gotta give credit to England captain Root along with Stokes, who decided to accelerate the scoring rate yesterday in first session to give their team almost 150 overs to bowl SA out. I don't think any of us thought England will give SA 5 sessions to bat in the final inning at the start of the play yesterday.

 

[Robert]

Would expect England to win today, with Stokes taking at-least 2 crucial wickets.

Woo.

England will win but make heavy going of it. I wish Archer was here.

We rule [MENTION=147130]happydavy[/MENTION].

 

[jnaveen1980]

This performance of Stokes eerily reminds me of Afridi vs India at Bangalore. In the 2nd innings Afridi helped them set a target in double quick time with a quickfire fifty. Next day pitch was unplayable with so many cracks. Sehwag was the only one who looked assured. But gauti ran him out. Pitch started playing tricks. If India had batted another 30 balls match would have been a draw as rain came in. Balaji couldn't last that long.

 

[sindhiboy]

england bowlers did extremly well to take all the wickets.

until last 20 overs, the pitch was a completely dead road with no movement at all

I don't think australian bowlers would be able to produce the wickets in this situation on this track

 

[jnaveen1980]

england bowlers did extremly well to take all the wickets.

until last 20 overs, the pitch was a completely dead road with no movement at all

I don't think australian bowlers would be able to produce the wickets in this situation on this track

They bottled against England. If not stokes they should have been able to dismiss the no.11 batsman.

 

[Manunited18]

england bowlers did extremly well to take all the wickets.

until last 20 overs, the pitch was a completely dead road with no movement at all

I don't think australian bowlers would be able to produce the wickets in this situation on this track

Lyons would be a beast on this wicket

 

[sindhiboy]

Lyons would be a beast on this wicket

Yea, he would gotten them all out 50 overs earlier .

But i was referring to the seamers, stokes got it to reverse on this dead wicket, not sure hazlewood or cummins would have been able to do the same

Maybe starc on his day can reverse as well, but he can also get thrashed if it is not his day

 

[happydavy]

Woo.



We rule [MENTION=147130]happydavy[/MENTION].

True that!

 

[Manunited18]

Yea, he would gotten them all out 50 overs earlier .

But i was referring to the seamers, stokes got it to reverse on this dead wicket, not sure hazlewood or cummins would have been able to do the same

Maybe starc on his day can reverse as well, but he can also get thrashed if it is not his day

Come on, Cummins is a world class performer

 

[Manunited18]

Another important thing of note was roots captaincy, it was imaginative and it payed off at the end

 

[sindhiboy]

Another important thing of note was roots captaincy, it was imaginative and it payed off at the end

he was not that good for the first half of the test. but today he was exceptional . both him and broad putting anderson at leg slip to get vd dussen's wicket was brilliant.