England's Winter

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New Zealand

T20 Internationals

Friday November 1st - Christchurch
Sunday November 3rd - Wellington
Tuesday November 5th - Nelson
Friday November 8th - Napier
Sunday November 10th - Auckland

Squad
Eoin Morgan (Middlesex) captain
Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire)
Tom Banton (Somerset)
Sam Billings (Kent)
Pat Brown (Worcestershire)
Sam Curran (Surrey)
Tom Curran (Surrey)
Joe Denly (Kent)
Lewis Gregory (Somerset)
Chris Jordan (Sussex)
Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire)
Dawid Malan (Middlesex)
Matt Parkinson (Lancashire)
Adil Rashid (Yorkshire)
James Vince (Hampshire)


Tests

Wednesday November 20th - Tauranga
Thursday November 28th - Hamilton

Squad
Joe Root (Yorkshire) captain
Jofra Archer (Sussex)
Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire)
Rory Burns (Surrey)
Jos Buttler (Lancashire)
Zak Crawley (Kent)
Sam Curran (Surrey)
Joe Denly (Kent)
Jack Leach (Somerset)
Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire)
Matthew Parkinson (Lancashire)
Ollie Pope (Surrey)
Dominic Sibley (Warwickshire)
Ben Stokes (Durham)
Chris Woakes (Warwickshire)



South Africa

Tests

Thursday 26th December - Centurion
Friday January 3rd - Cape Town
Thursday January 16th - Port Elizabeth
Friday January 24th - Johannesburg

Squad
TBC


ODI
Tuesday 4th February - Cape Town
Friday 7th February - Durban
Sunday 9th February - Johannesburg

Squad
TBC



T20 Internationals

Wednesday 12th February - East London
Friday 14th February - Durban
Sunday 16th February - Centurion


Sri Lanka

March 7th - Warm up 1, Katunayake (3 day)
March 12th - Warm up 2, Colombo (3 day)
March 19th - 1st Test, Galle
March 27th - 2nd Test, Colombo

Well there you go ! Bess gets Elgar to loft one and Root takes a well judged catch

Fine knock from Elgar ...thought he was due a century ; but that I the break England were desperately awaiting. Reward for a steady spell from Bess.

Now : who will bowl at de Kock ?

Soul Requiem wrote:Bess has deserved that but what was Elgar thinking?

Seems as though Alfie jinxed them with talk of their approach.

I try , Soul

Not in Trebell's class though , I'm afraid.

That ball seemed to spin a little or did my eyes fool me ?

This lead will disappear pretty fast if de Kock gets settled.

Stokes not getting it quite right here and Dussie getting going as well as de Kock : not what England need.

Had restrained the runs , which led to the wicket. Maybe ask Jimmy for a quick burst ?

Unable to follow up that wicket...SA 185/4 at drinks and England need de Kock and another before the new ball , I think.

Criticize the England batting , fair enough : but the main difference between the teams has been that SA had five bowlers all on song ...England have had three. Just not quite the same sustained pressure.

Way to go yet as SA may not enjoy batting last. But England need to wrap this innings sooner rather than later or their main bowlers will be cooked...

Curran gets De Kock with a very clever slower ball - massive wicket, De Kock had just looked like getting going

Big moment ! De Kock loses his head and his wicket...skies Sam Curran's second ball to Jimmy : and that has really let England back in...

Philander in ahead of Pretorius ?

Yes you're right , Olly...was a nice piece of bowling. Fooled de Kock completely

Curran was pretty ordinary earlier on ; but that has redeemed him a lot !

Very clever ball, but again it’s a shot that doesn’t really need to be played given the situation. SA were grinding England down perfectly, now they’ve shipped two wickets in an effort to up the rate.

Can the Saffers find another 150 from these last five wickets?

Next two wickets , really , isn't it ? Philander hurt England with the bat at Centurion : they need to nip him out this time.

Was going to pack it in for the night but suppose I'd better keep the vigil now...good Test Match

Sam Curran!

Curran again ! A great catch by Stokes and van der Dussen has run out of luck.
Though I saw him looking back as he walked off : probably expecting Curran must have overstepped

England on top now ...how things can change !

These two can bat though : still work to do.

Jimmy isn't having much luck today ! Stokes drops Pretorius first ball with the new ball

Low catch : but Ben catches them usually...

Ha ! Instant replay ...and this time Stokes catches it safely

Justice for Jimmy...207/7. Advantage England.

Going to bowl all the overs today ...MFC will be pleased

Can they get one more wicket tonight ? It's been a grand fight back with the ball today but they still need to snuff out this tail...

Good fight back from England in the last session and from Curran. Can’t really keep Stokes out of the game!

Trailing by 54 overnight, as Anderson nips out one more. England must be mighty confident of setting the South Africans over 250, which should be a winning amount.

That wraps up a superb day for England - put themselves firmly back in this match and with a great opportunity bowling last to win

Fine finish Jimmy Maharaj gone to end the day...

As you say , Duty , England should fancy this.

BUT they need a decent second innings as apart rom the score it is important they let the two old timers put their feet up for a bit.

Still two to get mind. But you'd think they can get 'em with a new ball...

Cracking match , this.

Glad to see Jimmy get two more wickets at the end. He bowled beautifully earlier in the day without much reward. Despite being 37 and coming back from injury he still looks more than capable of leading the attack.

It's a platform that England need to capitalise on. It's a slow pitch that runs can be scored on with application. The variable bounce on days 4 and 5 will make things difficult though so England have to cash in tomorrow.

As I was saying yesterday Englabd are a vastly underrated test team and sure fire bets to win this one

alfie wrote:Unable to follow up that wicket...SA 185/4 at drinks and England need de Kock and another before the new ball , I think.

Criticize the England batting , fair enough : but the main difference between the teams has been that SA had five bowlers all on song ...England have had three.   Just not quite the same sustained pressure.

Way to go yet as SA may not enjoy batting last. But England need to wrap this innings sooner rather than later or their main bowlers will be cooked...

Wow! Went out at this point and just back to see the end of day score. Much, much better than I dared hope.

The 35 put on by his Holiness and Jimmy for the 10th wicket looking especially valuable.

guildfordbat wrote:

alfie wrote:Unable to follow up that wicket...SA 185/4 at drinks and England need de Kock and another before the new ball , I think.

Criticize the England batting , fair enough : but the main difference between the teams has been that SA had five bowlers all on song ...England have had three.   Just not quite the same sustained pressure.

Way to go yet as SA may not enjoy batting last. But England need to wrap this innings sooner rather than later or their main bowlers will be cooked...

Wow! Went out at this point and just back to see the end of day score. Much, much better than I dared hope.

The 35 put on by his Holiness and Jimmy for the 10th wicket looking especially valuable.

I believe they call tomorrow “moving day” Guildford...

Indeed they do, Olly ... and it probably will be.

Just to add - a good and valuable contribution from Bess to match, if not slightly better, Maharaj's yesterday. Vik Solanki was singing Bess' praises on Sky last night having seen him close up on a Lions spin camp in Mumbai earlier this winter

It makes a difference having a spinner that can keep it tight for a large chunk of the overs. It's the kind of control England have been lacking, that would allow Archer to be used in short bursts. Not ideal then that this is the game he misses

Anderson, reportedly the seamer in danger of being dropped had Archer not got injured, takes the last two wickets to finish with 5. Stokes the first English fielder to ever catch 5 in an innings (non-keeper, obviously). SA all out for 223 with a lead of 46.

So far England are 8 without loss.

Crawley gone for 25, England 28-1.

That's like a bonus of 25 runs and I will take that any day, he is nowhere near good enough for Test cricket. Surely he doesn't play the next Test?

A good morning for England who are moving into a good place. 

VTR wrote:That's like a bonus of 25 runs and I will take that any day, he is nowhere near good enough for Test cricket. Surely he doesn't play the next Test?

Who does then? Bairstow or 6 bowlers? Who opens? Does Root go to three?

Denly is barely adequate and people really dont rate Sibley as it is. As much as I agree bringing Crawley on tour seemed odd iits not like England have options. Theres certainly no openers sat at home feeling hard done by.

I'd also note he got out playing positively whilst Sibley was bogged down...a couple if days ago everyone was moaving about the top 4 doing exactly what Denly and Sibley are now.

Seems even when England are winning they cant win

I'm not getting any bunting out for Crawley but I thought he played quite positively and sensibly until getting undone, as my man Key said, by being a bit naive.

I'm comfortable enough for him to have a couple more Tests and, in line with Goose's post, we need to recognise there aren't exactly many alternative opions currently.

I'd put Denly up to open, chuck in Bairstow on the basis he might get you a 50 here and there. Just my opinion, and it's not that ridiculous to change a winning team, not that England have even won yet

I don’t think Bairstow should be playing. I don’t think it’ll help him improve.

I honestly don’t know if they’ll call anyone else up. Denly is there if something happens to either Sibley or Crawley, but you might just have to take this as it is and see it all as a bonus for Crawley’s development. If he sees it as pressure off and a learning experience, it could prove hugely beneficial.

The way these teams bat, a 25 and taking some shine off the new ball is a good contribution!

I dont really see the need for a change, particularly when Burns will return after the series.

England just need to start converting starts. It's been Roots problem for a few years now

Another 30-odd score for Denly. SA need a collapse to happen and that’s given them some incentive just before the interval.

Duty281 wrote:Another 30-odd score for Denly. SA need a collapse to happen and that’s given them some incentive just before the interval.

That just seems to encapsulate Denly at Test level. Battles hard and gets a start but doesn't go on. Gooch said on Sky last night that this suggests the problem is with his concentration. Not for me to tell Goochie what batting is about but I wasn't totally convinced by that. I feel Denly is punching above his weight and wonder if he's trying / concentrating so hard that he's shot by the time he gets out of the 20s.

A very Denly innings. ..hes doing enough in context of how awful Englands told 3 is but will never be a top class test player.

Important innings for Sibley if he can go on here, at least hes young enough to get better and become the player Denly isn't.

England should be hard pressed to lose the game from here, anything over 250 lead has them favourites. But its England so I still have doubts.

% of innings in which batsman reaches double figures
Denly 86.96
Labuschagne 86.36
Bradman 82.50
Gower 78.92
Smith 77.86
Cook 76.98
Gooch 75.81
Kohli 75.18
Pietersen 74.59
Williamson 72.26

Conclusive proof that Joe Denly is the greatest batsman of all time.

155 the lead at tea. Another session and it should be beyond 250 which will likely be match-winning.

Only thing that stops England now is a collapse. And England never collapse...right?

I don't think people should be harsh on Crawley - 21 year old kid starting out a test career against Rabada and Philander...it's hardly facing Bangladesh at home.

He should play like he did today - take a few chances, see if he can take some of the shine off the new ball. Especially as Sibley/Denly like to take their time.

Sibley gets his first test 50, at about a run per over. Lovely

Sibley opening up a bit now - some lovely shots through the covers off front and back foot. Good to see he does have those shots, when he got himself in.

The contributions of both Pope and Sibley are good to see, hopefully the pair are starting to settle into test cricket.

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