First Test. South Africa v England. Durban, 26-30 Dec.

[hopeforthebest]

Was that a good decision by the umpire? certainly good for SA.

[backfootpunch]

Was that a good decision by the umpire? certainly good for SA.

Not in my admittedly biased opinion

Always looked to be going down, was surprised to see it shaving the leg stump

[Dr Cricket]

how did bairstow score 41 must be a pretty flat deck right now.

[budgetmeansbudget]

Was that a good decision by the umpire? certainly good for SA.

Typical umpire getting excited with the home crowd when a batsman is on a first baller.

I hate lbw when the ball shaves the outside of the stump, the most dubious wicket in the game of cricket.

A ripping middle stump out the ground delivery against a stump shaving lbw, count the same but are poles apart in level of dismissal for me.

[hopeforthebest]

England's much vaunted tail not doing it's job so far. A big 10th wicket partnership????

[alfie]

how did bairstow score 41 must be a pretty flat deck right now.

Bairstow played well. Only one of the later order to stand up , in fact.

[backfootpunch]

We are going to need early wickets here otherwise we could be facing a large deficit

Most of the batsmen have got themselves out

[hopeforthebest]

Bairstow fell into the trap many batsmen have of not trusting Broad to stick around and felt obliged to slog.

[backfootpunch]

Bairstow fell into the trap many batsmen have of not trusting Broad to stick around and felt obliged to slog.

He will be especially frustrated in hindsight because of the way finn is playing

He could have faced another 50 balls easily

[Arthur Crabtree]

Seems like Broad has got over his batting horrors.

[mikesiva]

Steyn and Morkel get four-fers....

[budgetmeansbudget]

Another clipping the stumps LBW!!!

Poor shots and close lbw calls have been the story of our innings, bit worrying when SA bat.

[hopeforthebest]

Good 36 run partnership byBroad and Finn, pity they couldn't stay till lunch and make their openers have to wait.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I guess we find out what's a good total now. Not seen any today, but last night it looked like a very good batting pitch and 450 might be par. But maybe the England bowlers will get more out of it.

Taylor and Compton might have missed an opportunity last night with the older ball, which did little, but they dug in at that point. Hard to criticise Compo for scoring slowly, as that's what he does, but maybe Taylor might have applied some pressure. There were some overs from part timers at that juncture too.

[alfie]

Bairstow fell into the trap many batsmen have of not trusting Broad to stick around and felt obliged to slog.

True. I could see he was getting a bit anxious and was hoping he would restrain himself. Though as it happened Broad and Finn have managed to drag the score over 300 anyway so I don't think that is an awful result. Will have to bowl well , of course. But I think England are in the game.

Odd choice from Amla to bowl the spinner with nine down , I thought , though I suppose only one over was expensive.

Didn't Morkel come back well today after an underwhelming first day ? Though he was helped by a couple of poor shots...

SA will want to get a substantial lead - and bat long . They won't want Steyn back bowling again too soon after a solid workload over these two days.