South Africa vs England 3rd Test 14-18th Jan

The pivotal 3rd Test starts in two days time. England are expected to be unchanged. Dale Steyn is out injured for SA and looks doubtful for the rest of the series, though Kyle Abbott is fit and will come into the frame for selection. Another possible change is someone else to open in the place of Van Zyl

Bearing in mind the squad selectewd by SA

AB de Villiers (capt), Kyle Abbott, Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Dean Elgar, Morne Morkel, Chris Morris, Dane Piedt, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Dale Steyn, Stiaan van Zyl, Hardus Viljoen.

Who else could open? While othyer batters in that lineup have been tried at the top of the order, none really looked the part.

The selectors and team management have given themselves no options but to just van Zyl can come good for ones. Even he might have an innings or 2 of substance somewhere in him, and the selectors are determined to keep him in till he playes that. He just doesn't look test class, but they are stuck with him and they've to hope he'd come good......
The other option would be to get Quinton de Kock or Hashim Amla to open as they both have opened in limited overs. Or give Temba Bavuma a long rope at the top. He has the temperament to be a top level player, has to still develop his game and batting out of position would be an added pressure, but he's miles better than van Zyl.
Another interesting question would be whether they would go back to JP Duminy and use him as the led spinner and go for 4 fast bowlers. If they take that way, hope to see Viljoen in action. Abbot offers nothing special. Can be a decent backup, but from what I've read and heard of Viljoen, he can be more than that.......

Well I did write "someone else" as I haven't got a clue who it might be, I have even heard Rossouw mentioned, which seems to be more on the basis he is in the squad than anyone is convinced he is a good Test opener

I think msp lists some good alternatives, but then by shifting players around it creates other problems. Not really sure why they haven't called up Stephen Cook

Thing about Van Zyl is that if you picked him for the previous Test you pretty much have to stick with him for this one, since he only had one innings where his partner ran him out.

A variety of infections have been whistling round the England team, meaning that currently Alex Hales is a doubt for tomorrow. Should he not be deemed fit it is likely that Compton will move up to open and Gary Ballance slot in at first wicket down.

South Africa going in with 4 seamers as Dane Piedt is released from the squad to play first class cricket. The indications are that it will be Hardus Viljoen who will take the extra seamer's position.
Perhaps they might also drop van Zyl after all, and may be ask QDK to open, tough ask considering he has to keep too, but they might need Duminy's parttime spin as Piedt isn't playing.

Hmm ... if Hales is unfit, England bat first and both openers stick around, it could be slow going all round in the first session or more. The good news for England is that with a Cook/Compton opening combo, it only needs one of them to stay in for the more flamboyant middle order to have someone around whom to play more expansively.

Hales fit, QDK not.

SA win toss and bat

England unchanged.


South Africa Team
D Elgar, S van Zyl, HM Amla, AB de Villiers*, F du Plessis, T Bavuma, DJ Vilas†, CH Morris, K Rabada, GC Viljoen, M Morkel

Okay here is my road map for the day.

South Africa would want to have a strong day with the bat to impose themselves for the first time in the series. They would want to reach close on no worse than 300 for 5.

England would see it as a good day if they could reduce South Africa to around 250 for 8 at close.

LondonTiger wrote:Hales fit, QDK not.

A lot of the talk being that he was going to open in place of the much derided (by msp anyway) van Zyl. Anyway, a further opportunity for van Zyl - important for him and probably South Africa that he takes it.

Right, here we go - expect to find out a lot in the next couple of hours.

If QDK had opened, then a spot could have been found for Duminy to add another bowling option. As it is SA have the four seamers plus the part time option from the openers.

Solid start by the saffers

Olly wrote:Solid start by the saffers

And wasteful bowling by B&A

Stiaan van Zyl has finally made it to the promised land of facing the spinner

kingraf wrote:Stiaan van Zyl has finally made it to the promised land of facing the spinner

and throws his wicket away.

Stupid play from van Zyl leaving himself open to everything that msp will throw at him.

Raf - I'm nominating you as weather expert for all of South Africa , reckon we'll get near to a full day? There was talk in the UK Sky studio earlier about the possibility of showers and rain later on.

Its difficult to say Guildford. Generally speaking afternoon showers show up out of nowhere, rain and are done in fifteen minutes. When it's been cloudy though it either rains for the whole day or not at all. I reckon it will rain at 6pm-ish

South Africa 73 for 1 at lunch and that is their session.

Cheers, Raf.

Even though South Africa won the toss and chose to bat, I think given the conditions England will be disappointed to have only taken one wicket.

If not exactly looking dangerous at the moment, Elgar and Amla are looking like Test batsmen - and that could be dangerous!

I have a bad feeling about this already. It just feels to me like one of those games that will get away from England and they will end up losing heavily. They pretty much wasted the new ball so desperately need a couple of strikes quickly after lunch

Hi everyone ...just got in . See SA have been going pretty well ? Good batting , or England bowling not quite on the money ? Pitch done much ?

Good batting but I think England have been a touch unlucky. Elgar's edged a few, Amla survived a close LBW and flashed a few times. Good pitch I reckon

Stokes unlucky with an lbw review against Amla a few minutes ago.

Impact in line and shown to be going on to clip the top of middle stump but high enough to make it umpire's call and uphold the not out decision.

Geeky point admittedly (and I fully confess to not knowing the detail of the DRS rules) but the projected image of the ball hitting only showed the stumps and not the bails. If the bails had been on the image, then I'm sure that more than 50% of the ball would have been shown to be hitting the wicket.

Thanks raf.

Elgar is having a useful series , isn't he ? Not exactly fashionable , but he does a job. Been important for SA so far given the slightly iffy later order.

With de Villiers to come they'll be happy to have got away to this handy start...as you say , looks a good cricket pitch ; something like 380-400 would be a pretty good marker , perhaps.

Hi Alfie - just seen your post which came in whilst I was doing my geek post.

SA batting pretty well (albeit with a bit of luck as Raf says) apart from van Zyl's dismissal (as msp will say), bowling not entirely on the money, pitch not doing much to help the bowlers.

guildfordbat wrote:Stokes unlucky with an lbw review against Amla a few minutes ago.

Impact in line and shown to be going on to clip the top of middle stump but high enough to make it umpire's call and uphold the not out decision.

Geeky point admittedly (and I fully confess to not knowing the detail of the DRS rules) but the projected image of the ball hitting only showed the stumps and not the bails. If the bails had been on the image, then I'm sure that more than 50% of the  ball would have been shown to be hitting the wicket.

I think that's just a visual representation though , guildford. I understand the tracking takes into account the actual area of the wicket - presumably allowing for bails.

Yip just a visual representation and then the graphic tries as best as possible produce a vignette as compatible to the algorithm as possible in a really short space of time

alfie wrote:

guildfordbat wrote:Stokes unlucky with an lbw review against Amla a few minutes ago.

Impact in line and shown to be going on to clip the top of middle stump but high enough to make it umpire's call and uphold the not out decision.

Geeky point admittedly (and I fully confess to not knowing the detail of the DRS rules) but the projected image of the ball hitting only showed the stumps and not the bails. If the bails had been on the image, then I'm sure that more than 50% of the  ball would have been shown to be hitting the wicket.

I think that's just a visual representation though , guildford.  I understand the tracking takes into account the actual area of the wicket - presumably allowing for bails.

Fair enough, Alfie - and Raf, in his subsequent post. It was unhelpful though - especially for such a tight call - that what was being said by the tv commentators and being shown on the screen didn't quite gel or, at least, wasn't properly explained.

Btw, I'm claiming an assist for Elgar's wicket. I was just about to say that Elgar played a couple of 4 day games for Surrey last season and generally impressed through being so solid and dependable. If the SA schedule ever allows, I wouldn't be surprised if Surrey sought to sign him again after Sanga finally packs up. Thought it was a poor way for him to get out today though - he really seemed to feel for the ball unnecessarily although I'm sure Olly will be pointing out that I've missed how much Super Mo bamboozled him!

Now that was a fine piece of bowling from Finn ! Amla could not be blamed for falling to that ball

Cook ringing the changes successfully here...

Excellent bowling from Finn to get Amla.

England in a good place now - one more by tea please.

Yes . Important twenty minutes now...

Moeen settled nicely and Finn is producing some excellent deliveries. I wonder if I'd have pace fom both ends though with Du Plessis just in ? Just a couple of overs from Anderson , say.

Finn bowled two balls then just impossible to play ,

Well SA haven't found it easy to score so far. Be interesting to see how England fare when its their turn.

SA will need some pretty stiff middle order resistance to post a challenging total. Still, with AB at the crease there is every chance of that.

That was England's session and they bowled better. South Africa will want to kick on again after tea and up the run rate losing no more than a wicket I'd say. They'd settle now on closing the day on around 240 for 4 - that would be a good day's work for them. England would want to pick up more wickets - if they can reduce South Africa to around 220 for 6 they'd be delighted.

Wow - Stokes gets rid of de Villiers cheaply (36). Think SA will struggle now at 161-4.

Good breakthrough for England shortly after tea Stokes will be ...stoked ?

AB was looking quite dangerous ; they'll be glad to have his wicket.

That 300/5 looking a fair way off now Craig ? Still Bavuma played well in Cape Town : important partnership now...

Maybe Botham's own comparison to himself is starting to bear fruit for Stokes. 2 wickets from bad bowling now!

Bavuma has started well...du Plessis still doesn't look entirely comfortable to me.
Like the double pace attack with the two new bats in - plenty of time for Moeen to bowl later. Think we might see Finn again shortly...Broad apparently not 100% so might be used sparingly.

Erk! Forgot they still have Bavuma to come. He'll be full of confidence after his last innings...

Still, du Plessis seems prone to mistakes. If England can get them to 200-odd for 5 by close of play I'm sure they will be quite happy.

Nicely balanced position at the moment - a couple more for England and we'll have had a decent day, but if this pair make it to the close then advantage SA.

At the moment though, if I was a SA fan I'd be a bit annoyed that all 4 of the out batsmen made starts but none have gone on to get even a 50. OK, so from the description, no blame can be put on Amla other than that he was good enough to nick a really good one, but the others have all some culpability for their dismissals.

Sustained pressure on Du Plessis tells ...picks out a fieldsman in his attempt to break the shackles.

New keeper in now and England will feel they are close to getting at the bowlers...

Get in there!

Finn disposes of du Plessis (guilty of Faf-ing about?) for 16 and SA are 185-5. Good catch from Hales.

Think this is England's day now.

dyrewolfe wrote:

Think this is England's day now.

Depends. If this pair can get to close of play then I'd say it is level day's play. Anymore wickets to fall and it just edges the day in England's favour.

Hmm. England on top , I'd say...but a tricky time for Cook about now : with Broad out of sorts , he has to be careful juggling his pace men. Finn has lost his line a bit lately (tiring ?) ...and the twelve overs to the new ball could be a bit fraught...

Broad back now : fair enough. Finn can take the new one ; hope Broad can do a job now. A wicket before the new ball would see England well poised.

Vilas looking pretty good...couple of nice shots , sound enough in defence.

Think this is a decent pitch to bat on though...

Run out !

That is an awful wicket to lose - a run out. Kamikaze stuff when that pair were beginning to look settled. Now England's day perhaps.

Oh dear - Bavuma hesitates when called to run and is run out.

SA's last big danger man is out for 23 and SA are 212-6. Definitely England's day.

Good bit of work from Bairstow - who is having a good day behind the stumps - made ground to gather the throw and end that partnership just as it was looking solid.

SA guilty of throwing away a few wickets today ...which is why I'd suggest this pitch is not a bad one to bat on at all : they are all getting good starts.

A lot up to Morris now.