Second Test. SA v England. Cape Town, Jan 2-6

[Dr Cricket]

South Africa would normally be favourites, but with their two best bowlers missing, and the batting misfiring, it doesn't seem that obvious how this will go.

yeah agree, depends on the pitch I reckon, flat/slow deck England favourites.
quick deck south Africa favourites.

[Arthur Crabtree]

It's usually fairly quick. Looking at the stats, there have been four 5-fers from spinners to 14 from pace bowlers since 2000(Big Vern has three on his own) so that suggests a reasonable ratio of influential performances by spinners.

Harbhajan
Warne
Harris
Ajmal

[Dr Cricket]

Doesn't have the bounce of Centurian or Johannesburg.
generally Cape town been a green deck with seam movement throughout the game.
one reason why Vern likes the ground.

[mikesiva]

How well did Chris Morris do in the A team match?

He scored 21 and five, and his bowling figures were 0-93...hmmm.

Viljoen didn't even play in that match! But he gets called into the squad over de Lange, who did....

[dan08]

How well did Chris Morris do in the A team match?

He scored 21 and five, and his bowling figures were 0-93...hmmm.

Viljoen didn't even play in that match! But he gets called into the squad over de Lange, who did....

Viljoen has been taking loads of wickets in domestic cricket.

[budgetmeansbudget]

Interesting reading Bayliss' thoughts after the win especially about Compton. Here's a bloke who was harshly dropped from the Test side then turned in two very good performances in trying circumstances to prevent England collapsing in a heap twice in the same Test, yet:

"Ultimately, I'd like to see two of the top three guys as attacking-style batters," Bayliss said. "I just think if you have a couple of attacking guys up the top it puts pressure on the opposition a lot easier."

Talk about ungrateful.

previously i would agree with him but after a year of 40-3 after 40-3 i am glad we have someone who can grind out 80 off 240 balls

Even with Compton in the side, we were still 40 odd for 3 in the first innings of the first test.

It's become such the norm in recent times that the team seems to need to lose early wickets to build a good innings.

Possibly 100 for 1 will lead to panic as it would be uncharted waters of comfortability for many in the team, leading to complacency and the all too familiar middle order collapses of the past!

[KipperJohn]

Anderson took eight wickets in 2010, the Test when Swann and Onions batted the match out with one wicket left.

Wasn't that the match predominately 'saved' by Collingwood and Bell?

Bell built on that for the next couple of years, becoming England's No. 6 banker averaging about 60 odd in that position. Nice touch from him sending his congrats publicly to the England team on a 'great win' the other day.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Colly batted a long time in the nine wicket escape at Centurion too.

Then they got pasted at the Wanderers.

[backfootpunch]

Doesn't have the bounce of Centurian or Johannesburg.
generally Cape town been a green deck with seam movement throughout the game.
one reason why Vern likes the ground.

will suit our bowling attack perfectly if that is the case, especially if jimmy is back

no steyn and philander who are normally lethal on such pitches, morkels length can be a little short to take advantage though that might just be in my head and the stats will say otherwise

[Arthur Crabtree]

Apparently Anderson isn't a cert for this.

Cricinfo says JPD will make way for de Kock. And extreme heat has left the pitch very dry. Five hot rainless days expected, but some cloud towards the end. Sounds like bat first.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Doesn't have the bounce of Centurian or Johannesburg.
generally Cape town been a green deck with seam movement throughout the game.
one reason why Vern likes the ground.

will suit our bowling attack perfectly if that is the case, especially if jimmy is back

no steyn and philander who are normally lethal on such pitches, morkels length can be a little short to take advantage though that might just be in my head and the stats will say otherwise

Morkel averages just over 30 at this ground.

[Aidan11]

I wouldn't risk Anderson but I have a feeling they want to get him in there.

I just hope common sense prevails.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I'm counting on him coming back to replace Steyn in my FL.

[m@tt]

Interesting reading Bayliss' thoughts after the win especially about Compton. Here's a bloke who was harshly dropped from the Test side then turned in two very good performances in trying circumstances to prevent England collapsing in a heap twice in the same Test, yet:

"Ultimately, I'd like to see two of the top three guys as attacking-style batters," Bayliss said. "I just think if you have a couple of attacking guys up the top it puts pressure on the opposition a lot easier."

Talk about ungrateful.

Strange as Compton appears to be a Bayliss pick. They met up at the end of last summer and the presumption I made was that Compton convinced Bayliss that he had such a strong desire to play Tests again, at a time where Bayliss possibly wasn't convinced of Bell's desire.

[Arthur Crabtree]

First match of 2016. Toss in 15 minutes.

SA side should be interesting.