Proteas versus Poms official match thread

Still trying to find out who is playing for Proteas.Brillia nt day down here and one hopes for better. Steyn is definitely out. 

Abbot and Steyn injured. Income rabada and Morris. De Kock comes in and Duminy out. I would have kept Duminy and dropped B avuma but we shall see what happens.England win the toss.
Proteas up against it

Rabada and Morris looking promising. rRabada bowling at good pace and Morris no slouch and moving it both ways. What a brilliant catch by MorrisMorkel - man this guy must l;earn to hit the right spots. Amla sleeping as to his legside field placement. Time for Piedt to make an appearance?

Haven't been able to watch as I'm on the beach :( Been keeping up with it all on cricinfo though. Morkel's final over before lunch...4 Balls left alone. Before breaks is exactly when a batter wants to leave as much as possible. And you always want to do exactly what the batter does not want you to do. Well, most of the time anyway. I know I keep banging in about this but dammit they need to sort it out.

 If Morkel hasnt got the cricket IQ to get his length right Amla should. All the commentators were caling for this and it was blatantly obvious.The mind boggles at how poor Amla is. His lef side field was also wrong.
Piedt bowled very well. 4 overs for 1 run. 

 Morkel, Amla and anyone who knows even a tiny bit about cricket knows what Morkel should do. Problem is that he. He does not have tue ability to bowl accurately. Kinda funny when people when some on here were saying he should bowl yorkers when he struggles to hit the top of off...or maintain any decent line.

 BS Plum. Morkel is accurate enough, but for some or other reason, they don't  use him to the best of his ability.  With his length he should at least hurt a few ribs with an almost new ball.

@DRAAD He should certainly be accurate enough. I completely agree. But, when you look at his spells to new batsman and before ans just after breaks, count how many balls the batters are able to leave...normally on line. His height already makes him relatively easy to leave on length so to err on line is practically criminal in my view. Again, this is why Philander is given the new ball with Steyn, because he uses it correctly. I'm not saying he is not a quality bowler. He certainly is. But i am saying that he can be very inaccurate and it often costs us. Tell me what's wrong with the following. A new ball has a hard seam. A bowler bowls with a completely vertical seam and lands the ball so that after the bounce, with no deviation it will hit the top of off stump. Seeing as though the seam is upright, the ball could deviate toward or away from the stumps. Of course his is not exactly what they do because the seams tilted slightly according to the direction ofndeviation you want. Still you get the picture. The batter can't leave it, can't play forward and can't off the front foot. Is this not exactly the kind of delivery you want to bowl to a new batter 4 out of six times if you are not a swing bowler and rely mainly on pace and bounce? I struggle to think of a better delivery? So yeah, I don't get why, if he can land it on a dinner plater, and it's pretty obvious what he should do...something we learn at twelve years old, why he doesn't do it. The onlybanswer I have is lack of ability. What do you reckon is the best strategy to a new batter or to a batter who wants to see out a session?

 Morkel is quite tall, so he tends to bounce it over the stumps more often than not. He gets his wickets with edges and with his extra bounce, i suspect top edges will be a bit more frequent.  I want him to bowl more into the body of the batsmen, making them hesitant. He is better suited for the older ball, but with a bit more venom he should be quite effective with the new ball as well. A hurt batsman is just a bit more hesitant than what's good for him....but you are right, Morkel should force the batsmen to play more, especially with the new cherry. 

 Morkel has been bowling for many years and still he doesnt have control of line and length. Potentially he was better then Glen McGrath but all you need to do is compare his control to that of McGrath. 
What was very obvious this morning was the need to bowl one side of the wicket and place your field accordingly. Frankly the "brains" trust shpowed they have little clue and seem to have baffled a very experienced panel of commentators. Amala must go as captain. How good are the coaching staff?
That said one can only applaud Stokes etc what a brillaint knock.
What also puzzled me was only having three seamers when faced with such a long English batting lineup and  a very inexperienced attack apart from Morkel. 
The guys played like headless chickens. 

 Now a headless chicken run out! E;lgar if he had been more awake could possibly have made it? Best of luck to Amla. He has to come off.

 @Dread Yes, he has the ability to make the ball very quickly get big on batsman which can result in dismissals. Here is the problem though. Because he is so tall, it makes him very easy to leave on length. Even on flat pitches, anything on a length is pretty easily left. This is why he needs to get fuller and aim to hit the top of a fourth stump. This way, any deviation can result in a an LBW or an edge. If he get the the batter used to having to play in this "corridor of uncertainty" and then uses his shorter ball as the surprise ball...that's when his short ball is the most effective. If he bowls to short too often it's the same as bowling too wide to often. By too short I mean anything bouncing above the waist. The shorter ball is a weapon and not a stock ball. Just my opinion mate. At least Amla is getting a few. Hoping for a draw.