Looks like series will be level going into final game on Sunday........ England 148/8 need 60 from 4 overs
All over, poor batting performance from England several of the top order got a start but couldn't go big.......... plus SA held their catches tonight....
Utterly utterly pathetic batting from England, truly the worst there's been all summer. Bairstow must've been thought why am I bothering here. Stuck at the other end while idiots just threw their wickets away leaving a man in the form of his life unable to do anything about it. There doesn't seem a proper plan in place between Buttler and the new coach it's just try and slog every ball for 6 regardless. Brainless
England struggling after being put into bat by South Africa in bowler-friendly conditions at Lord's. 55-4
Ugly scoreline but hope England get a chance to bowl in the same conditions. Anyway, we’re jinxed because we can’t bat last for an insane run chase of 536.
Pope and Broad gone in the first half hour. 145-8. South Africa set to get sunny conditions when they bat.
SA 73-0. Anderson has been unlucky, but winning the toss is looking to be a massive advantage for SA.
Think it's fair to say that SA are in reasonable shape at tea, only 7 runs behind and 8 wickets in hand...... Still this sets up the run chase in the 4th innings quite nicely......
Poor bowling from our boys who look out on their feet. Ridiculous scheduling has done for us with Anderson, Broad, Potts and Stokes hardly having bowled since the India Test match. The toss was vital aswell but we are in big trouble now. Down to Root and Bairstow to get big scores in the 2nd innings again to give us any hope.
Thing with Baz ball is, once the coach has said ‘try and take a wicket every ball, and when we bat aim for 6 an over’ what else is there for them to do, except keep patting people on the back?
Of course it has to be more nuanced than that, and I'm sure it is - at times today we had five slips and at other times none. It's giving people licence to fail, but the issue is how many failures can you tolerate? In the white ball game, Jason Roy has had failure after failure and still gets picked. It makes you wonder though, given Jos Buttler's continued brilliance in white ball cricket, whether someone like him would have benefitted from Bazball. He never played his natural game in Test cricket.