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England [353 & 313/8d] beat South Africa [175 & 252] by 239 runs to take a 2-1 series lead

shaz619 said:
[MENTION=7774]Robert[/MENTION] Lieutenant Zippy has more of a ring to it :yk

SA are a tough cookie and have the capability to bat for a long time and they will be relying on a bit of rain as well, need an aggressive declaration from Root here and take as many wickets possible today (maybe even finish the game off). If SA manage to survive the day with maybe 1 or 2 wickets down they will fancy themselves on day 5 even though England would still be favourites
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Nah, trust our Beard to spin them out!
 
Westley reminds me of Trott, but a bit prettier and a bit less boring.
 
Westley and Root out. Both out going for aggressive shots suggesting declaration is not far away
 
Dry weather forecast by Met Office tomorrow, less than 5% chance of rain.

So England's Test to lose. Should declare soon to give them as much time to bowl SAF out.
 
Oh, why is Moeen coming in? Don't bottle it Rooty, attack!
 
Maybe Root's trying to get some of his batsmen into form but he should declare already.

Still not convinced Malan is Test quality.
 
Poms need to declare before Tea, otherwise might regret not forcing the follow on here.
 
Initially disagreed with the delayed declaration, but Root will still get 140 overs and wants to wipe out all chatter of an improbable SA win. Bowl at a 500 lead and smash them.
 
James said:
Initially disagreed with the delayed declaration, but Root will still get 140 overs and wants to wipe out all chatter of an improbable SA win. Bowl at a 500 lead and smash them.
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Unless it rains, enough overs (otherwise SAF wins - they also have enough overs). But, surprised that, they didn't take the chance to bowl 5 overs before tea.
 
De Kock gone too. A poor Test from him, promotion to 4 not working out.
 
Proactive_ said:
Replace him any any youngster who would actually benefit being there for the future and would at least contribute as much as Amla.
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Played two crucial innings in the last match.

I don't know a lot about South African domestic cricket but considering that the likes of Duminy are still around the team, I get the impression that they don't have good middle order replacements at the moment.
 
I think, less than 6 months back, we had a thread on Amla vs Sanga; where I wrote that Sanga batted at 3 till almost 38 & kept wicket probably till 35, still averaged 66+ as specialist bat for 86 or so Tests & almost 48 as WK - let Amla bat at 3 for couple more years .......

There were lots of interesting posts - some should bump that.

Kok gone - WK batting at 4 won't work in Test, for sure not if his team is bowling first. Batting in 4th innings after 3 days keeping isn't a mickey mouse job of T20.
 
Tough on Faf, but I support Umpires to give such LBW.

Modern batsmen are groomed with the luxury of hitting through the line - don't have much clue of their off-stick line, which is the fundamental of defensive technique, therefore if there is slight movement in air or off wicket .... not to mention about footwork, even against off-spin genius line Moeen or our Miraj - at least this can force them to work on their fundamental batting technique.
 
Faf needs to shore up the batting for the next Test. Drop Chris Morris and recall Theunis de Bruyn.
 
[MENTION=132916]Junaids[/MENTION] - I think, it's the color quota that's keeping Kuhn in the team, not Bavuma - thoughts?
 
DEAN ELGAR was battered, bruised but unbowed but he and Temba Bavuma guided the Standard Bank Proteas to the less stormy waters of the close of play on the fourth day of the third Test match at The Oval in London on Sunday.

England nevertheless held an overwhelming advantage as they reduced the Proteas to 117/4 in pursuit of a victory target 492 from an initial 148 overs. Victory will give England a 2-1 lead in the series and will mean that they retain the Basil d’Oliveira Trophy.

At one stage it looked as though England would win the match on the fourth day after Ben Stokes back up his century in the first innings by dismissing Quinton de Kock and Faf du Plessis off successive balls with Bavuma coming to the crease on a hat trick.

But Bavuma, as he has had to do too often in the past, proved to be the right man to stabilize the innings in partnership with Elgar. By the close of play they had shared an unbroken stand of 65 for the fifth wicket with Elgar on 72 (111 balls, 11 fours) and Bavuma on 16 (59 balls, 1 four).

Elgar got hit on the hand several times and also on different parts of his body and, if he does go on to complete his 8th Test century, he will have earned it the hard day. This is his third half-century of the series and he has been far and away the most consistent batsman for his team. He was clearly in significant distress and many of his strokes were played almost one-handed.

He and Bavuma are certainly the best men on current form for the crisis in which the Proteas find themselves and it does pose the question as to whether Bavuma should be moved up the order for the final Test match at Old Trafford, starting on Friday.

The Proteas did a reasonable bowling job on the fourth day with Keshav Maharaj chipping away at the middle-order to take three wickets (3/50 in 13.5 overs) but the damage had already been done when England claimed a lead of 178 on the first innings and their position was consolidated by Tom Westley (59 off 141 balls, 11 fours), Joe Root (50 off 94 balls, 6 fours) and Jonny Bairstow (63 off 58 balls, 6 fours and a six).

Stokes was the pick of the England attack when it came to their turn to bowl (2/29 in an eight-over spell) but all the England bowlers proved hard to handle and the key fact is that they have been more successful than their Protea counterparts in putting the ball in the right spot consistently.
 
Amla is finished. He has not been performing for over a year and a half now in test cricket. Time to retire and groom in a youngster.
 
Huge mistake to promote de Kock up the order. He was doing well at 6/7. Gilchrist was never promoted despite performing so well down the order. Granted that team had no holes and de Kock is no Gilchrist yet but de Kock should have been kept to this strengths which is as a finisher. Yet another rash decision to tamper with a promising youngster's career.
 
Match not over yet .... anything can happen !!!! England winning this one most likely, but SA can dig in, with a Draw being their only logical choice. Won't be easy tomorrow .... Test Match Cricket at its very Best !!!!
 
I can't see SA lasting 98 overs tomorrow. The second new ball is due an hour after Lunch. Even if they get to Tea without losing any wickets, the fact that play could go on until 7:30pm (with the overtime, then the rain make-up time, THEN the bonus half-hour) would mean they would still be odds-on to lose even then.
 
By the way a quality innings from Elgar. I now rate him.
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We can still do it if we don't lose more than 4 today. Keep fighting boys, we've done this before! <a href="https://twitter.com/tbavuma10">@tbavuma10</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/deanelgar">@deanelgar</a> there at the end</p>— AB de Villiers (@ABdeVilliers17) <a href="https://twitter.com/ABdeVilliers17/status/891699118778847235">July 30, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Hmm...
 
Abdullah719 said:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We can still do it if we don't lose more than 4 today. Keep fighting boys, we've done this before! <a href="https://twitter.com/tbavuma10">@tbavuma10</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/deanelgar">@deanelgar</a> there at the end</p>— AB de Villiers (@ABdeVilliers17) <a href="https://twitter.com/ABdeVilliers17/status/891699118778847235">July 30, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Hmm...
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Signs he's coming back next series.
 
He should keep his nose out. Didn't even bother turning up to play.
 
England win. Can't say much more. Should be talking about the 4th test where I can see a SA win.
 
Should be a good day of Test cricket. Wouldn't count SA out just yet.
 
Robert said:
Because this is a test match and they are trying to save it.
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I meant why are they leaving straight deliveries, more than talented players CSA should ideally invest in a good eye specialist for the entire squad :)) :)). I was really hoping for them to bunker down with astute defense like how they did against the Aussies a few years back however, this display here has rather been a disappointing one tbh.

Congrats on the win Robert
 
Ozymandias, that's because English conditions are generally trickier for batting than Australian conditions.

Fantastic vigil by Dean Elgar BTW, just as good as Cook in the first innings if not better - but has two strong competitors for Man of the Match in Stokes and Roland-Jones.
 
Hat-trick for Moeen! Saqi is doing wonders with him. Really improving as a Test spinner.
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A Moeen Ali hat-trick finishes the 3rd <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EngvSA?src=hash">#EngvSA</a> Test in style for England, as they win it by 239 runs<a href="https://t.co/sHyuRs97eh">https://t.co/sHyuRs97eh</a> <a href="https://t.co/XM6qsOb8y9">pic.twitter.com/XM6qsOb8y9</a></p>— ICC (@ICC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ICC/status/892013991551258628">July 31, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
Great celebration for that hat-trick. Well done Moeen and England go 2-1 up.

South Africa's lack of cricket between the Trent Bridge and The Oval Tests may have cost them. Should've had a practice match in between.
 
Markhor said:
Great celebration for that hat-trick. Well done Moeen and England go 2-1 up.

South Africa's lack of cricket between the Trent Bridge and The Oval Tests may have cost them. Should've had a practice match in between.
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The South African team itself is all over the place. The middle order looks vulnerable, De Qock is batting out of position in my opinion. The sooner they let go of this quota driven selection the better effect it will have on the team. Imagine quota players that are playing, they know they haven't got into the team on the basis of performance but because of their ethnicity. The players that are performing can't get in because of this system, frustrating.

Also, South Africa dearly missed Steyn, De Villiers, and fully fit Philander.
 
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