Second Test: England v South Africa, Nottingham, July 14-18

[sussexpob]

Impression I get from the highlights is that England didn't make enough of their dominance in the morning session, but more emphatically that SA haven't exploited good batting conditions later on leaving England slightly happier.

A problem that SA hooked so badly on such a sluggish surface?

England didnt bowl well as a unit, and I dont think SA batted that well either. It seemed until Broads spell after tea that England had missed an opportunity with conditions and were slowly being bled to death by Amla and De Kock, but Amla particularly never looked comfortable, neither did the openers or Bavuma, who went out just to hit. The pitch might not be quick or bouncy, but there is movement on offer, and the old ball particularly offered reverse swing that came late . South Africa havent taken full advantage with some poor shots, but England certainly didnt use the ball well. Still, I think 300-350 would have been a par effort, if England concede more than 50 tomorrow then they have done a bad job with what was to hand.

Mark Wood looked a lot like Steven Finn of recent times, under paced, bit all over the place and hardly a threat. Two spinners on this surface arent doing much at this stage and have been toothless, but there is nothing there for them. Anderson had a rare occasion of being carried away with finding swing, and consistently got his radar wrong. Stokes offered his usual mixed bag of rank buffet balls, mixed with the odd ball that does a batsman. Only really Broad bowled with continued accuracy and threat.

[sussexpob]

The real worry is Mark Wood. I get the fact that he had a bit of zip and danger about him a couple of years ago, but hes simply not doing enough in the team to warrant a position at the moment. 26 wickets in 19 test innings is a pretty poor return for a guy who is considered a strike bowler. Without a considerable return in the next 4 days, I cant see him playing in a while.

As I said above, he has Steve Finn disease written all over him. Maybe he needs a bit more of a coaching response of "just chuck it as hard as possible" because I dont know what England have done to him, but he seems to lack all the rawness that made him an intriguing pick a while back. A lost rawness that has no payback in terms of increased nous as to crafting players out.

Broad lost his pace, but at least he has learnt to set up batsman. He got Kuhn nicely by getting him coming across, then hitting him with that inducker.

[sussexpob]

Final point, Root seems to already be showing signs of captaincy deficiencies. He let Broad and Stokes review decisions that were clearly not out, more in a gamble that he needed a wicket than in expectation. It was pretty poor judgement. And at 6 down, with South Africa suddenly caving in, taking off all your strike bowlers and putting on the two spinners was an incredible decision to make for me. There was swing from the old ball, two new batsman (neither of which are batsman really) at the crease, and he was thinking 15 overs to the new ball.

Just get your strike bowlers on, if they dont make the breakthrough then put the spinner on and take the new ball in the morning. It was depressingly cautious and Cook like.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Good info, cheers.

The pace bowlers delivered 18-20 overs each so they did a normal day's work for a fast bowler. Maybe just used the relief bowlers (given the conditions) at the wrong times. Maybe not sustainable to get A&B bowling 22-23 overs in a day given the miles on their clocks and the fixture congestion.

[Arthur Crabtree]

The press seem to be suggesting Ball or Woakes will be back for Wood in the next game.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Good grab by YJB for Stokes' first wicket.

[alfie]

So thanks to the Philander/Morris stand SA ended up edging the day : 309/6 seems to me just a little above par - although we will have to wait and see how things develop as the pitch may well prove easier for batting over the next couple of days.

I can't altogether agree with Sussex about the standard of play : am more inclined to give some credit to both batsmen and bowlers for their parts in a pretty well contested day of Test Cricket. The pitch is slow ; and if there was some lateral movement on offer it certainly wasn't anything extravagant , so I thought the bowlers stuck to their tasks quite well , and might easily have had more early success had Amla and Kuhn not done a solid job of blunting the attack. There was nothing there for the spinners , and not a great deal for the quicks once the sun came out so taking four wickets in the last session was a good result : one more around 250-270 would have been excellent and might well have just about finished the innings ...as it was the two all rounders did a splendid job of stopping the rot and taking their team to a position from which they could yet threaten the 400 if they get another start.
Amla despite not being at his best and de Kock of course played really well in their partnership and took advantage of the relatively unthreatening second choice bowlers ...here I must concur with the views Sussex expressed about Wood : it is a concern that he just doesn't seem quite "right" at the moment. Still bowls some quick and "heavy" balls but hasn't managed to offer a consistent threat to the batsmen ...a little like his bowling in the ODIs recently , where he was down on wickets although capable of producing some excellent tight overs under pressure. May be a rhythm thing ; may not be too hard to correct ; but the comparison with Finn seems somewhat disturbingly apt...
Broad definitely the pick of the bowlers ; thoroughly deserved his three wickets and kept England in the game - I'd have brought him back to tackle Morris early in his innings rather than save him for the new ball. Anderson endured a frustrating day in which he beat the bat a lot without reward and then got clattered whenever he overreached in a bit for more movement. And Stokes was Stokes : some peaches , some rotten tomatoes ...one lucky wicket but a few more occasions where he might justifiably claim to have been unfortunate.

Lastly I reckon Bairstow has surely gone some way to silencing his critics with his work behind the stumps : his catch to dismiss du Plessis was a classic and his glove work has clearly gone up a notch or two this season. All the work he has been doing on this part of his trade (with Bruce French , is it ?) is obviously paying off. He looks much sharper up to the stumps too though that may not play much of a part in this match , where two spinners really do look at least one too many...

[rich1uk]

have to disagree with one thing there alfie

there was alot of lateral movement in the first session, both in the air and off the pitch

they showed a graphic at lunch showing the average deviation for the seamers compared to Lords and it was significant, problem was that because they bowled just a bit short it was moving too much to get the edge, and there were alot of play and misses

if we had bowled better before lunch we could have had them under real pressure, now we have to make sure we can get these last 4 wickets before lunch

[Aidan11]

Jimmy gets Philander with only 5 balls bowled this morning.

[mikesiva]

Jimmy gets Philander with only 5 balls bowled this morning.

Another important half-century by Philander comes to an end....

[Aidan11]

Jimmy strikes again.

Two gone in the first quarter of an hour.

[alfie]

Jimmy has come out smoking this morning

Two for none in his first ten deliveries has England on the front foot this morning. Excellent catch Root

[alfie]

Still the Jimmy A show...

Morris gets a nice drive away for four but he's gone next ball : Anderson with a master class of swing bowling this morning

[rich1uk]

perfect start this morning, maybe a bit worrying tho that the ball is nipping around when SA have 330 on the board

[Aidan11]

I go into the kitchen and miss another wicket.

Jimmy's bang on the money this morning.