The second test is a very interesting clash of styles. Pakistan ground out runs at the beginning and declared close to 450.
Warner, who else, gets 144 from 143 balls.
On day four with so much time lost to rain there's still a chance of a result.
The new ball is due soon and Amir could do some damage. Cricket at Christmas is great.
SA declare on 406/6 to set Sri Lanka a target of 488 on Day 4 of the first test. Both sides are injury-hit. SA still without Steyn, Morkel and de Villiers.
Sri Lanka's run chase looks a bit like Pakistan's last week in Australia, where they might get close but not close enough. Has Melbourne flattened out since the days when it was a guaranteed result pitch?
Lots of rain has affected the amount of play. The commentators keep saying that the pitch is lifeless, it's bone dry now and not much is happening making it quite easy to bat on.
So 6 out of 11 in common, the main differences being in the batting. It's Azhar, Brathwaite, Kohli, Smith versus Warner, Cook, Williamson, Voges in the batting. Rabada instead of Steyn in the bowling.
No doubt that any team omitting Smith and Kohli cannot honestly claim to be the best of this year.
Another team loses by an innings after scoring more than 400 in the first knock, this time in only 321.5 overs of play, at a run rate of 3.8 per over across the whole match.
Went to bed at lunch with the pitch as flat as a pancake hoping that Pakistan would show some spine but fearful that they would fold. Sadly they collapsed like they did in NZ last month. Pathetic really.
Misbah is signaling that he might not play in the final test in Sydney, he may be out of sorts with the bat and may have made some strange decisions in this test but he has brought the Pakistan side together and they could end up in a right mess.
Dean Elgar is a good test batsman. Nice hundred just now. I liked his bowling too when I saw it. You'd think they'd be really trying to get him in the ODI team as an all rounder, but I see he's only played 6 games and didn't score many runs. He'd have played about 200 for us, he's our kind of player. Then again, South Africa are much better at one day cricket than us.
Tubby Isaacs wrote: Dean Elgar is a good test batsman. Nice hundred just now. I liked his bowling too when I saw it. You'd think they'd be really trying to get him in the ODI team as an all rounder, but I see he's only played 6 games and didn't score many runs. He'd have played about 200 for us, he's our kind of player. Then again, South Africa are much better at one day cricket than us.
Elgar was named Man of the Series, after a comprehensive whitewash. I was not a fan of Elgar for a very long time, but he is beginning to convince me. He is an intelligent player.
From Cricinfo:
- no team has scored more in an innings and gone on to lose the Test. The previous highest was Australia's 586 against England at the SCG in 1894-95; Australia lost that Test by 10 runs after enforcing follow-on. Bangladesh features twice in the top five on the list; they had lost after posting 556 against West Indies in 2012-13. The previous biggest total that resulted in a defeat against New Zealand was also by Bangladesh: 408 in Hamilton in 2009-10.
Bangladesh had some bad luck, with two batsmen being injured in their second innings. Who knows how things might have been had Kayes not been forced to retire at 46/0, or if Mushfiqur not had a broken finger or retired and been rushed to hospital after getting hit on the head at 114/5. Perhaps another 50 runs might have put NZ under some pressure in their chase.
This is not really to diminish NZ's magnificent accomplishment, but more of a Bangladeshi "what could have been".
Excess the extended highlights of Aus-PK yesterday on BT. Good programme, would watch again. PK clearly not hitting the kind of 50 over scores that most international sides are getting though.
Handscomb played some very cheeky shots.
Anyway, in Tests we have more NZ-BD, with the tourists having made 289 all out yesterday in their first innings, but they've made some early breakthroughs with the ball.
Yes, nicely poised match. They're about up to lunch now so there might be a chance of a few overs later I suppose. Unfortunately the over rate was low yesterday but a couple of intense days could still see a definite result.
Shame, Bangladesh went to pieces in the second innings for an easy NZ win.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/new-zealand-v-bangladesh-2016-17/content/story/1079048.html
But they've shown they have the makings of a solid Test side in there, and of course there's the win against England to back that up. The more the top sides play them, the better they'll get: they have one against India in a couple of weeks, and two in South Africa next Autumn. Though unfortunately that's only five Tests in the year, and all as tourists.
Scotland are out in the UAE playing a tri-nations ODI tournament with the hosts and Hong Kong - the three sides presumably making the most of their current ODI associate status.
Tournament wiki page is here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016%E2%80%9317_United_Arab_Emirates_Tri-Nation_Series
Though it's not going well for Scotland. They are playing their second match, against UAE, right now, and they set a target of 174 (all out after 45.2). The hosts are 34/3 after 12.3:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/uae-tri-series-2017/engine/current/match/1078660.html?CMP=chrome
Assuming UAE reach the target, I suppose this would make the UAE-HK game the effective final.
Crap that Bangladesh lost, again, but they're becoming one of the most unpredictable and exciting sides out there. If they carry on getting better, and there's no reason they shouldn't with a big population mad about cricket, they will bring so much to the table in years to come.
Peter Roebuck diaries, published by his family. This is chapter 2. Belongs kinda in 'International' because it involves Viv, Joel, Crowe, etc, and Roebuck died in Australia:
Chelsea are winning 2-0 (boring) so I've switched over to the South Africa v Sri Lanka ODI to find that bees have stopped play. This is much more pleasing.
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