What a wonderful interview with Jonny Bairstow there.

Ian Ward asking the right questions and Jonny very eloquent and honest in his replies.

Credit to the Bairstow family

he's one of the best in giving interviews.

Dropping AB could be crucial Root usually has the safest of hands as well

Watching the Verdict.

I love the way that Trott laughs at Willis

Hard not to laugh at such a bitter and miserable old man

I thought you idolised him ?

Zing!

Lovely innings by Stokes, but to be fair, that looked a bit of a small ground.

not sure newlands is that much different in size to most test grounds tbh

even on a bigger ground it would just have meant most of the 6s only going 10 rows back instead of 20 rows

what a weird day of test cricket that was , 450+ runs scored in just over 80 overs, 3 wickets fell and 2 of those were runouts

fairly sedate start today , couple of false shots that just fell short of catchers but not much happening with bat or ball

this really is the big partnership we have to break

Anderson dropped a catch. Not a real easy one but catchable.

Amla has his ton so well done to him.

Like I said, this will be a draw

Let's move on to the next test

Have England given up ?...........

Hales has come on to have a bowl now.........

Will those who have tickets for Tuesday and Wednesday have refunds ?

I wonder has there been an occasion before when all of the outfield players (bar the wicket keeper) have bowled at least one over??

Yes, including the wicket keeper it happens, not that you are really wondering anyway as they have been talking about it on the coverage as you well know.

Good rearguard by South Africa today

They got 212/1 which is less than we got before lunch yesterday

Proper Test cricket

Well done to SA today

shame about our catching prowess

When things are not going well, our attack with 4 right arm medium fast bowlers and one right arm off spinner does not provide much variety.

Where are the left armers or the wily leg spinner ?

I see your point but Footitt is a left-armer. Who would you drop to accommodate him?

And when was the last time England had a wily leg-spinner?

was a little surprised there was just so little in the pitch today

i thought the SA bowlers were pretty poor against us and had hoped we would learn from the poor lengths they bowled but just got nothing to happen really

a draw wont be a terrible result as far as the series is concerned as newlands has been a pretty good venue for SA over the years

no comments today..........has everyone given up ?



bit of a bore-fest isn't it........

hard to get motivated to comment when the game looks to be just meandering to a draw

almost 2/3 of the way through the game in terms of time and only 9 wickets are down

might have been different if we had held on to some catches i suppose

edit : only bright side is i have both of these in my fantasy team

I think my suggestion yesterday on twitter and another forum that england declared early was spot on lol.

Quite weird saying this but the longer england batted in the first innings would have given them more time getting 20 wickets lol.

Doubt many would get it here, and not bothered to explain it fully now.

Although the key point is that if england scored more in the first innings, england wouldn't need to bat in the 3rd innings barring resting bowlers.

Basically declaring early cost england 50-70 overs which could have been the difference between a win and a draw.
especially when you considering batting should be the toughest on day 4/5.

hard to blame cook considering I only saw this yesterday after the event.

Sadly it is. Newlands is such a beautiful ground but we just can't be bothered watching.

A little bit sad for Stokes who magnificent innings is now being slightly devalued.