4th Test agaisnt England

The weather forecast over the next 5 days for Johannesburg is as follows:-

*   Today               -   Rain chance  90%

*   Saturday          -   Rain chance 100%

*   Sunday            -   Rain chance 100%

*   Monday           -    Rain chance 100%

*   Tuesday           -   Rain chance  100%

The situation on Saturday, Sunday and Monday is  that there will be rain from thunder storms, which normally happens in the afternoons and evenings 0 so there mat be some cricket play in those days,  On the other two days there will be no cricket played.   Very little chance that there will a resulting this test                

Still no news about the test.  the following comment from  the round:-

"Groundstaff in action", chimes George, beside himself with excitement.   "When I say action. they are walking very slowly  towards the middle dressed in the sort of gear a trawlerman in the Atlantic might find excessive,  Covers drawn back a fraction."

Ten minutes later:-

"So main covers coming off and sopper in action.   English team to leave hotel at 11:15 toc ome to the ground,"

Wanderers is an extremely well-drained field and if there is no more rain the game might start at 12:00,          

Using the roller and a further inspection at 12:45,  Both teams are warming up.   Immediately after this inspection will be the toss if the umpires are satisified.an d the game will then start at 13:20.    

Toss at 13:00 and start at 13:20 that is the latest.  

Root won the toss again - looked again at the way Du Plessis spin the coin.   He cannot win a toss like that.   He cannot spin coins and he cannot bat anymore - time to go,   

SA team - total fuck up - Bavuma replaces Hamza and five fast bowlers included,  A total disaster expected.       

Watching Sibley take a 149 kph ball in the nuts from Nortje....I couldn’t help but think the Yanks would think it’s a crazy sport.

Nortje love to take out to batsmen by special effort - he took out Stokes for two runs today - normally Root was his victim - might still be.

That  must be extra sore. Reminded me of a remark made by Marshall.   A batsman got a ball in the same strategic area and Marshall walked up to him and said  "Give me the telephone number of the girl you were going to take out tonight:"            

Hahaha....Marshall could say that, I’m not sure Nortje could pull it off. 

He now has four wickets - bowlling out Root and Pope in 2 balls, 

Nortje has a superb action, generates pace with ease....and doesn’t appear to put any undue pressure on his body, like Wood for example.  Managed properly he should be a long term incumbent.

They had 180 overs to try and stay in by this morning - after an hour they are 39/1 with Malan out for 22 after facing 50 balls - the first ball in over 16 .   Not god enough again.  Malan is still no 2 on the chopping list.

 Van der Dussen is living on borrowed time - two appeals with no runs by him.  One given out by the umpire and reversed on appeal - the next one there was a slight inside edge and the umpire did not give the guy out.       .      

Elgar is playing the blocking game again,  How long is he going to last?

As expected Elgar was not successful at all - he made 24 runs out of 73 balls.  Piss poor batting and he moved to number 2 on the chopping list with Malan moving to number 3.  Du Plessis just confirmed the no 1 position.  The following comments on cricinfo applies:-

And the bowling was not all that hot  either,  Proof after a shaking start Van der Dussen is now at 98 runs from 136 balls,  

The score is now 188/4 with De Kock batting     The  England lead is now 278 runs.     Du Plessis faced 92 balls and is out for 35 runs.  

O hell - Van der Dussen is out on 98 - now the game is lost.  He faced 138 balls an d is removed from my must fire list.

Bavuma is now batting.  Still no runs 7 balls,   De Kock has 2 runs from 5 balls.   

We need AB to come back. 

The score I now 266/7

Nortje        -         2 runs  from   7 balls.          

De Kock    -       38 runs from  40 balls     

England's lead   200 runs.

Bavuma out - move to my no 1 position to be fired from team - the others moved down 1 position each.    

Pretorius out for 2 runs from 6 balls - also on my must fire list.

Philander out for 10 runs from 10 balls. Hope he ahs a happy retirement. 

De Kock is out.   

Being a bit hard on Bavuma CM don't forget he is the future Captain plus he did score a ton and more in a recent non-test game.

A bit like Jantjies I think.....great playing in lower league games but a failure at test level.

SA cricket has sunk to an all-time low and now Boucher and Smith will be saddled with the blame, unfortunately.

The proud Protea's are no more but out of the ashes crawls the wilted Marigolds. 

To be fair, Newlands and this test were much closer than the scores suggested...and we batted second in the last 3 tests. There are big problems, but some glimpses of hope too...slight glimpses...

AJH

That is why a rebuilding process is of paramount importance,  An Erasmus strategy is needed and that was the topic of discussion yesterday by four experts from both sides and implementation of a revised strategy is called for,  Smith and Boucher both on previous comments in the press also referred to the example set by Erasmus.

I wrote elsewhere about the process and do not want to repeat is here,   I believe that the two gentleman (Smith and Boucher) should meet with Erasmus and get advice from him about how to  deal with the issues facing the Proteas.