It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

[diggedy derek]

Could be an interesting one. SA, the number one ranked team in the world, were terrrible against India, and soundly beaten. England have lost their last series but were better than the scoreline suggested.

Anderson's out of the first test, so my preferred line-up:

Cook
Hales
Compton
Root
Taylor
Stokes
Buttler (best keeper)
Ali
Woakes
Broad
Finn

[Etienne]

It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

Not a great start for England then.

[G-Man]

It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

Durban is a dreadful place for cricket. Until test cricket is allowed to be played under proper floodlights, there should be no tests in that city of gloom.

[diggedy derek]

It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

Morkel is a magnificent bowler in these kind of conditions. Kind of steepling bounce that would give you nightmares.

[diggedy derek]

It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

I love Nick Compton's weary, harried expression. The perfect look of an opening batsman.

Compton is often discussed as if he'a dull as ditchwater, but he takes a good quick single.

[G-Man]

It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

I just began my workout at gym when Dale Steyn took his second wicket. His air-annihilating, vein-busting celebration motivated me to add another 5kg to the weights I was pushing.

[Tony C]

It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

England 303 all out after a decent tenth wicket partnership between Broad and Finn kept SA waiting. At 12-2 I would have taken this total but after being 247 for 5 it's disappointing.

Now I really wish Anderson was fit.

[G-Man]

It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

I don't have much confidence in the openers, both desperately average players. Stiaan van Zyl is, as we have just seen, a liability.

I like Duminy but he is no great either. And I don't expect the Cricket Hall of Fame having to make room for Bavuma.

The bowling attack is brittle as well. Abbot is a decent fourth seamer, but he is not a match-winner, the way Philander is (or Kagiso Rabada). Dane Piedt is inexperienced, but I don't expect him to become an all-time great even in the deprived category of Best South African Spinners.

Dale Steyn clearly isn't fit. If he breaks down in the second innings, SA will be fucked.

[diggedy derek]

It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

England have a priceless 80 odd run lead. But sadly Steyn has left the field with what looks like a shoulder injury. That's deeply sad. Get well soon.

[diggedy derek]

It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

And they're turning to the offspinner in the eight over. This could be SA trying to box with one hand tied behind the back.

[diggedy derek]

It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

Piedt has Cook right away! He had the captain in knots there.

Be interesting to see Hales and Compton. Hales has left well so far.

[diggedy derek]

It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

And Steyn is back on the field. But would Amla really risk bowling him?

[diggedy derek]

It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

Yes he would...

[diggedy derek]

It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

Three more deliveries and he's stopped.

Very perplexing and you can't fathom why they would risk injuring him more.

On a similar subject, I was almost as saddened by rumour that De Villiers was considering his Test future. Why on earth are South Africa putting him in to keep wicket, when (a) they've tried other keepers recently (b) he's the best batsman in the world (c) he has had back problems before? I know his batting average as keeper is superb, but why push your luck.

[Etienne]

It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

Yes, I can see why S Africa would feel under pressure with 2 of their 3 top batters out of form, but sticking everything on the third one seems a bit odd. You'd imagine they would have discussed it with AB rather than just imposing it though.

[diggedy derek]

It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

Rumours seem to suggest they did discuss it with him, and he said something like "I'll do it if there's absolutely no other option" – and they didn't come up with one.

De Villiers perhaps staging a protest by putting down the priceless wicket of Root.

It's been a fascinating hour or so of play despite, or perhaps because of, the loss of Steyn, South Africa and in particular Morkel have had England shackled, which led to the loss of Hales. Feels like South Africa have England shaken at the moment, despite the scorecard.

[Nocturnal Submission]

It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

All looking pretty encouraging now, as long as the weather behaves itself.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

Come on England, hurry up and declare! How many bloody more runs do we need?

[G-Man]

It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

They set SA a target of 416, with the fifth day still to come. SA might have a form crisis in the batting department, but you really don't want to tempt them, even if beating that target would be the second best ever run chase.

A declaration before setting a target closer to 450 with four sessions to go would have been madness.

It's time for Faf du Plessis to play an extraordinary innings. It has been since January that he has scored a test 50.

[Gangster Octopus]

It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

If he does get to fifty, it won't be before late tomorrow afternoon...

[Gangster Octopus]

It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

And he's gone. For nine runs in 66 balls...

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

Even if we go onto win, we left this far, far, too late to declare. Have we that little confidence in the bowling attack that we need to set a target over 400? Poor captaincy.

[Etienne]

It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

Bollocks. South Africa scored 450/7 in a 4th innings at Jo'burg in 2013 against India, and 414/4 to win against Australia in 2008.

Obviously teams don't get many chances to chase down more than 400 in a 4th innings, but some other 4th innings when they might have been threatening that in the last 10 years in smaller chases

146/2 vs Windies 2005
287/5 vs Australia 2005
199/3 vs Pakistan 2007
186/3 vs Windies 2008
283/5 vs England 2008 (record chase for the ground)
183/1 vs Australia 2008
370 vs Australia 2009
236/2 vs Australia 2011
103/1 vs NZ 2012
124/2 vs Windies 2015

[nmrfox]

It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

Nice stats Etienne. I think Cook got it pretty much spot on. An hour and a session to take 4 top order wickets against the no.1 ranked test side is as good as you could hope for.

[Etienne]

It's the Morkel man - Sa vs Eng

I'd like to do a statistical analysis of when England have been accused of delaying a declaration too long on here (and elsewhere to be fair) and times when they've drawn games they should have won as a result. I don't think there are many of the latter.

I think a more valid criticism is that they've often scored at too slow a pace in those situations, but Bairstow ensured that wasn't the case today.

South Africa look in a bit of a mess.