Poker Forum > Member Blogs
Two Winters and One Summer of English Cricket and Continued Adventures
Logie66:
Table Mountain at Last
With Smith and Amla cruising in the heat and the England boys sufferring in the field, we take the opportunity to get away at tea and jump in a taxi to Table Mountain. We are rewarded when we arrive, Mountain is open and no queues !! We buy our tickets and hop on the cable car straight away.
Cable car is quick and the revovling floor is quite bizarre, journey worthwhile as the views are stunning, a highlight of the tour.
[youtube=425,350][/youtube]
Logie66:
A view from Table Mountain
The "Analyst gives his views on top of Table Mountain.
[youtube=425,350][/youtube]
Logie66:
Cape Town Test Day 4
The weather reverts back to the norm, temperatures bearable and no where near the 40 degrees of yesterday. Hard slog for England yesterday and South Africa are expected to push on and score quickly before declaring, we all expect England to have to bat for four sessions.
Smith and Kallis look to score quickly but England bowl well to a defensive field, South Africa struggle to get a momentum on the fourth morning. With more extravagant shots being played the chance of wickets will also be higher. Smith eventually perishes as he skies one to Collingwood in the deep, a superb knock and the Skipper has set the base for a likely Proteas victory in this test.
England manage to keep the batsmen under control and wickets continue to fall at regular intervals, taking away any momentum that the batsmen were getting. All in all it"s a positive return following the heat from yesterday. A lot of talk about ball tampering but in all honesty it seems to be a lot of fuss about nothing, no official complaint posted just lots of talk, seems like a ploy to unsettle the England boys in all honesty. South Africa eventually declare on 447-7 a lead of 465.
So four and a half sessions for England to survive, it"s going to be a tall order but the wicket does seem to have got easier. Strauss and Cook come out to bat and endure some hairy moments early on, Strauss surviving with a referral. Eventually they get on top of the bowling and it starts to look easy, Cook reaches his fifty and the hundred partnership is posted, immediately Cook gets a top edge to de Wet"s short delivery and Boucher pouches the catch. Strauss than plays a nothing shot to Harris and bat pads it to short leg, disaster in the last few overs.
Trott is joined by Pietersen and once again he fails, lots of comments from the fans being made about lack of interest and not being a team player, has he just sufferred from expectation and the barracking of the home crowd. Nightwatchman Anderson joins Trott and they survive to stumps, after a positive start England are on the ropes at 132-3.
Going to be a struggle tomorrow and a likely victory for the Proteas.
Logie66:
Can England save the day
Considering the state of the game and the likely win for South Africa, the crowd on day five is still similar to the previous days at Newlands, perhaps the extra number of South Africans expecting to see a victory has boosted the numbers.
Nightwatchman Anderson does a superb job in the morning, taking up 45 minutes and 10 overs of play before falling to a great catch by Prince off another garbage ball from Harris, Collingwood joins Trott who gets a great delivery from Steyn, cutting back and finding the gap between his bat and pad to send his off stump cartwheeling out of the ground, 160-5, still a fair while to lunch and it"s not looking good for England.
So Collingwood and Bell will need to be the saviours, not many batsmen left after this pair and they are also all positive players, not a good mix when you are trying to defend and play out the remainder of the day. Colly had been quoted in the morning that if he bats, it will be dull and boring, hopefully it will be as that is what we require.
At this part of the day, Steyn then bowls the best spell we have seen all tour, the ball swinging, moving and bouncing passed the outside edge, Collingwood surviving the majority of these deliveries, I can imagine that Steyn was asking Colly whether he needed a bell in the ball !
The cricket can only be described as attritional, not pretty to watch but a great contest between bowler and batsmen, the time and overs start creeping by and the afternoon session is survived with no wicket falling, 230-5. The South African supporters have got a lot quieter as the day has progressed, are they losing faith in their team.
Colly and Bell see us through to the drinks break in the final session, 15 overs to negotiate to take a draw that looked like being a loss from day 3, in some respects it didn"t look like it would last 5 days at the end of day 2. First over after drinks is seen out and then Duminy gets an edge from Colly and Kallis takes the catch, what an innings, 40 runs, 188 balls, 112 partnership from 57 overs, have they taken the game away from the Proteas ?
Prior doesn"t last long, he pushes hard at one and its picked up an inch from the ground by DeVilliers, 10 overs left, just 60 balls to survuve and three wickets needed by South Africa. The batsmen are now being crowded by the fielders, so much pressure out there. Broad survives a referral early on and he is fending off the deliveries well, no runs being scored at the moment but they are immaterial. With four overs to go Broad pops one up in the air, appeal, given out, Broad refers to no avail. 20 balls left !
18 balls to go and Morkel is brought back, is it a mistake taking the spinners off, no potential for close catches has Smith missed an opportunity here ? First ball Morkel gets extra bounce, Bell edges, noooooooooo ! 78 runs and 213 balls seen out by Bell, probably his best innings for England, hats off to him. Onions survives the remainder of the over, somehow.
Penultimate over and Steyn to send it down, Swann not really put under any pressure and it"s negotiated with ease, this Test is now down to six balls, Morkel versus Onions, can England hang on for the draw !
First ball - poked at and missed.
Second ball - fended down and safe.
Third ball - yorker, dug out well.
Fourth ball - another yorker, again dug out.
Fifth Ball - Short, and South Africa are up appealling, refered, desperation as that"s not out.
Last Ball - No need to play at that, ENGLAND have Won a Draw !!!!!!!!
Who said Test Cricket was boring, awesome day, awesome atmosphere and awesome result !!!
Logie66:
Video of final day drama to follow if we get back to UK, bbbbbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version