Key events
Right, time for the presentation. Mel Jones has Ben Stokes first. “We are disappointed to lose,” he begins. “But if we dive into this too much then we are not looking ahead. We have two matches to come so we will look to win this two-one.” He says this does “absolutely not” dent his confidence about the way they are going to play. “This isn’t a wake-up call or anything like that we just weren’t able to execute the way we wanted to this week and South Africa were better than us.”
Put to Stokes that they are coming in underdone without a lot of red-ball cricket and he pats it back initially before saying “there could be an opportunity” in the future to have another First Class game before a Test series. That’ll generate some interest.
“Dear B Mac & Co,” writes Paddy Walsh from the great Commerical Club Hotel in Fitzroy (Melbourne). “You gotta know when to hold them & know when to fold them
Know when to walk away & know when to run….”
This, I suspect, will inform much of the analysis. Just to elaborate on why I was so cross with the Matty Potts dismissal, by the way. With Broad, I mean, what else do you expect? It’s the only way he plays these days. Just go with it. No big deal. With Potts/Anderson/Leach, that isn’t how they play. Their jobs were to just hold on and give Stokes a chance. One ball left in that Jansen over, Potts trying to slog him for six? It was an emblem, to me, of where greater nuance is required for Stokes’ England.
Stick with me for the post-match presentation. We’ll hear from the captains and the player of the match in the next ten minutes or so. I’ll give you the highlights.
England batted 82.4 overs in the match. That’s an ugly statistic from Mark Butcher on Sky. Of course, the visitors were tremendous but England are right under the pump in this series with the Second Test starting on Thursday in Manchester.
SOUTH AFRICA WIN BY AN INNINGS AND 12 RUNS! [WICKET! Anderson b Jansen 1. England all-out 149]
Anderson makes room and is castled by Jansen’s outswing yorker! The Proteas have got the job done well inside three days. A magnificent bowling performance.
37th over: England 149-9 (Leach 0, Anderson 1) A huge roar around Lord’s as Anderson gets off his pair with a little tuck off Rabada to midwicket. Leach goes back with a packed cordon and steers down to Nortje at backward point, saving runs. Oooh, ever so close to slipping through the gate with his next offering, Leach just getting his blade down in time. One ball to deal with and he defends off the front foot with Nortje again doing the fielding at backward point. England trail by 12.
“Seems that for Bazball to work we might need Duffballs,” says Tom Carver. “Dukes please revert.” Certainly a factor that the early-season balls weren’t the Dukes of old.
WICKET! Stokes c Maharaj b Rabada 20 (England 146-9)
“Maharaj can do no wrong!” declares Mike Atherton as the spinner races around at midwicket to take a very good catch in front of the Mound Stand. The captain goes down swinging; two wickets in two balls. They’re a wicket away from an innings defeat with Anderson making his way down the Long Room to face the music.
WICKET! Potts b Jansen 1 (England 146-8)
That’s dumb, dumb, dumb cricket. Broad, sure, swing away – it’s his thing. But Potts trying to pop Jansen over Father Time? Come on. He had two balls to see off to complete the over and give Stokes the strike back but instead he’s clean bowled with the hosts 15 runs in the red with only Jack Leach and Jimmy Anderson to come.
36th over: England 146-8 (Stokes 20)
35th over: England 143-7 (Stokes 17, Potts 1) I still don’t feel like we know an awful lot about Potts’ batting at this level, into his fifth Test. He swings and misses at his first ball (naturally) before tucking a single to get off the mark (better). I genuinely think the approach needs to change here. Of course, Stokes to keep doing what he does but Potts has just got to stay out there as long as he can. They have to give the captain a chance to face at least another 50-odd balls himself.
WICKET! Broad c Elgar b Rabada 35 (England 141-7)
Broad falls in very similar fashion to how he did yesterday, sorted out expertly by Rabada’s slower off-cutter. Back into the attack, he rolls his fingers down the seam but the left-hander realises when it’s all too late, gifting a dolly of a catch to cover.
34th over: England 137-6 (Stokes 15, Broad 33) Jansen to Broad, backs away, another top edge, another four! He’s into the 30s and this partnership is now worth 50 runs in 40 balls – as you when coming together in the middle of what looks to be a terminal collapse. All told, eight from the over and this is turning into a white-ball OBO.
Some nice messages about the coming child that Dan referenced when handing over – thanks for those, Em Jackson and Brian Withington. The latter adds: “Great to hear the news that Winnie will be having someone to keep wicket when she occasionally leaves your bowling.”
And perfectly timed. Whisper it, but I’m making a bit of a playing comeback!
33rd over: England 129-6 (Stokes 14, Broad 28) Stokes dropped! Launched through the hands of Nortje in his follow through – they stick or they don’t, those. Broad gets his opportunity to let the good times roll later in the over and, broadly speaking, holds his shape to lift him over mid-off for another four. 31 runs from parity. You can be certain of Stokes’ plan: smash their way into the black and see what happens.
Peter Haining on an earlier topic: “Hallo Adam. Lots of people writing in about the Cricket Dice game, but no-one has put in a good word for the card game Armchair cricket. You can still find sets on a well known auction site. A friend of mine was a bridge fan and used to beat me all ends up in our Test series. It’s well worth a little look.”
I’m not sure if Dan suggested this earlier but if you like Dice Cricket, you must seek out Daniel Norcross’ masterpiece on the game in Nightwatchman a few years back.
32nd over: England 119-6 (Stokes 9, Broad 23) The outstanding young all-rounder Marco Jansen gets his first bowl of the innings here, replacing Maharaj who was brilliant either side of lunch. And true to form, Stokes keeps on attacking with a swing/miss to start then a charge/swing/miss next up. Not pretty. Jansen sees him coming with another charge and fires it into his thigh pad – they take a leg bye. So, two cracks at Disco Stu for the left-armer. He beats him with the first after the No8 tries to flay him somewhere; anywhere. Contact to finish – at last! Broad wants to pop him into the Grandstand but it goes straight over slip for four. A lot going on.
“Hi Adam.” Hi, Matthew Lawrenson. “Is this the worst England tail we’ve seen since the Mullally / Tufnell / Malcolm / Giddins glory days of the mid 1990s? I know Broad, Anderson and Leach have much better top scores than those guys. But they look just as bad against real pace as the 90s tails did against Wasim, Waqar, Donald, Pollock, Ambrose, Walsh etc.”
There’s a fairly strong case for that. Lucky they weren’t needed for those chases.
31st over: England 114-6 (Stokes 9, Broad 19) England into triple figures with a Broad boundary, backing away from Nortje – not a bad plan given he’s rolling in at 95mph – and slapping him over point. The crowd cheer – fair enough. And they do so again when he makes room again to awkwardly pull over midwicket! And now he hooks him for six! AA “lookaway hook” as it is described on TV but he gets enough of it to pop the big quick into the Tavern. Per one of my favourite twitter accounts: yes, you better believe Stuart Broad is batting. He goes again to finish, this time with no control… and it’s safe! Just passing over the top of Rabada who put in a dive running back with the flight at cover. So, 16 from the over to reduce the deficit to 47.
So @collinsadam, looks like you’ll have a free weekend. I know this stuff is priced into the McCullum era, so it’s going to happen at times, but surely you can be aggressive but also play the situation. This summer has been great but gung-ho swinging doesn’t work every ball.
— Guy Hornsby (@GuyHornsby) August 19, 2022
30th over: England 98-6 (Stokes 9, Broad 3) Another appeal later in the over when Maharaj beats Broad’s inside edge but there’s nothing on it. The England number eight is sweeping, adding a couple, then keeping the strike with a single to cover.
“Hi, Adam.” Gidday, Smylers. “Ten years ago today, these two teams were also playing a Test match, at the same venue. How often does that happen? (I remembered because at the time I was sitting in a delivery suite, waiting for our first child to appear, trying to find the cricket score by Tweeting via SMS. None of the current SA team played in that match (a different Petersen, of course); three of England’s featured: Anderson and Broad of course, plus — playing as a specialist batter — Jonny Bairstow, whom Rob Smyth judged player of the day for making ‘a lovely 72 not out under all sorts of personal and team pressure.’”
I was just then talking about that Test Match on my podcast; didn’t realise it was on the same day. It was the moment too when England gave up their number one Test ranking, earned exactly twelve months earlier when going 3-0 up against India. As Andrew Strauss noted on Sky the other day, that is the only time England have ever been the ICC’s top-ranked Test team in the 20 years since that became a thing.
REVIEW! Is Stokes lbw to Maharaj? He’s not out on the ground; Elgar goes upstairs. Nup, around the wicket it hits the England captain in line but is missing off. They lose their review but still have two up their sleeve for the England lower order.
“Their intensity of South Africa has put England in a terrible position,” says Ian Ward on Sky Sports as the players come back from their drinks. Spot on. The Proteas have played some inspired cricket from the get go at Lord’s. Over the last twelve months, they’ve been quietly becoming a serious Test team – to be embraced.
I’m outta here… That’s it from me today folks. Thanks so much. Loved the chats about fantasy OBO, the silliness of the Bazball blues, the merit of former players and the joys of the impressive Saffa bowling unit.
I leave you with Adam Collins who is expecting his second child early next year (do drop him your congratulations and tips for handling two little ones).
England are on the ropes here. Can South Africa land the killer blow?
Best to you all.
Dan
Adam Collins
Thank you, Dan. What an eventful stint you’ve had on the tools! Could be a quick shift this for me, so get in with your emails or tweets in the usual way. Unleash!
29th over: England 94-6 (Stokes 9, Broad 0) Stokes aint going to die wondering. He’s swinging with all he’s got to a full Nortje delivery that must have blown the hats off of spectators in the stands. He collects a single off the fourth ball and hopes that Broad can navigate two of Nortje’s screamers. He does. Just about.
28th over: England 91-6 (Stokes 6, Broad 0) Stokes rocks back and punches Maharaj for four through backward point with a lovely little shift that sees him open the blade at the last minute. There’s an lbw review to a sweeping Broad but the umpire’s call saves him. Broad will definitely prefer to face the spinner than another quick. I wonder if that may prompt a change.
“It’s tempting to write Bazball’s obituary, but it is a go-getting, never-say-die, an attitude of mind. Baz will have factored this in when occasional defeats come a-knocking, you’d think, and have a plan B…..”
We’ll find out in Manchester, Andrew Benton.
27th over: England 86-6 (Stokes 1, Broad 0) Anrich Nortje has been immense and has just bagged a double wicket maiden to all but secure a thumping victory. Whether that’s by an innings remains to be seen, but his searing pace has seen Lees and the Foakes caught behind in a blistering over of the most frightening pace. Lees was undone by a wonder ball that forced him to play. Foakes could have let his go but speed scrambles the mind. Delicious stuff from the burly quick.
Wicket! Foakes c Verreynne b Nortje 0 (England 86-6)
They’re falling apart out there. Faokes, mesmerised and spooked by the extra pace of Nortje, involuntarily wafts at a rising short ball away from his body and feathers another catch for the keeper. I’d start making plans for tomorrow. In fact, I’d start making plans for this afternoon.
Wicket! Lees c Verreynne b Nortje 35 (England 86-5)
What a peach! That is a cracking delivery and there’s not much Lees could do about that. From round the wicket, he angles it in and gets it to hold its line just enough – and at scorching pace – and it takes the outside edge. Beautiful bowling from the big scary quick.
26th over: England 86-4 (Lees 35, Stokes 1) Stokes is off the mark with a single from a reverse sweep off Maharaj. He’ll need a lot more than that. Lees collects a single at the top of the over and signs off with a three with a conventional sweep towards fine leg. They seem happy persisting with spin but I’d like to see Marco Jansen get a go, especially with two lefties in.
“Bent double, like Gatting in his slacks,
Knock-kneed, batting like hacks, we cursed Maharaj,
Till on the haunting balls we turned our backs,
And towards the distant stands began to trudge,”
Love that Richard Pearce. Superb.
25th over: England 81-4 (Lees 31, Stokes 0) England in all sorts here. Nortje is breathing fire and he’s just removed Bairstow for 18 to go along with the duck he made in his first dig. This is the same Bairstow who couldn’t stop scoring hundreds earlier this year.
Nortje welcomes Stokes to the crease with two balls over 90mph including a yorker that reaches 94mph.
Wicket! Bairstow c Verreynne b Nortje 18 (England 81-4)
Nortje gets Bairstow for the second time in the match. The first ball of this over was belted backward of point for four but Nortje knew that if he landed one on a better line he’d be in business. So it proved. It’s around a fourth stump line. Bairstow can be forgiven for playing at it. He was drawn forward and it it kisses the shoulder of the blade and Verreynne behind the stumps does the rest. An innings victory looms.
24th over: England 77-3 (Lees 31, Bairstow 14) What was that? I’ll tell you. A really ordinary shot from Lees which is an ugly premeditated reverse sweep that jags past him and could have easily taken his leg stump. That’s a result of his inability to work the single as often as he’d like. The man stationed at short mid-on has stifled his release shot and so he’s looking to invent something. Still, both batters take a single. Strange shot from Lees. Why is he not happy to consolidate?
23rd over: England 75-3 (Lees 30, Bairstow 13) Nortje is revving it now but Bairstow is up for it. What a blockbuster battle this could be throughout the series.
Bairstown pulls one from outside off and they run four before Rabada can haul it back in from the cow corner fence. Two more squirt behind square on the leg side before Bairstow hammers a short and wide one to the cover boundary. Nortje ends the over with a 94mph/152kph steamer that Bairstown defends with the full face of the bat.
“If Bairstow scores two hundred, we’re safe,” says Peter Gartner. That would certainly help.
The OBO fantasy game chat continues:
“Surely the only sensible way to run the cricket-free OBO is using cricket dice. You roll one for batting scores (with 5 being a wicket) and if its a wicket you roll again to determine how out (with an option of a no ball to save the batter).,” says Richard Lankshear.
“The challenge is to get a test match innings so would need a dungeons and dragons style 20 sided dice with mostly dots on it. Or perhaps bring in just the six sided dice to represent Baz Ball.”
22nd over: England 65-3 (Lees 30, Bairstow 3) Maharaj carries on. He gets one to turn and take the edge of Bairstow’s blade but he’s playing it with soft hands and it dribbles away for a single. Otherwise pretty uneventful set from the tweaker. He’s over the wicket to Lees who comes down the track and bunts it straight ti midwicket. Just the one from that over.
Good afternoon Daniel
Heya Kim Thonger, how are you keeping?
With profuse apologies to W H Auden, may I humbly offer this variation on his timeless Funeral Blues (Stop All The Clocks)
-
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with the juicy bone.
Silence the pianos and, with muffled drum,
Bring out the coffin. Let the mourners come.
-
Baz was my north, my south, my east and west,
My working week and Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song.
I thought Bazball would last forever; I was wrong.
21st over: England 64-3 (Lees 30, Bairstow 2) Nortje is into the action and replaces Ngidi. This might be influenced by his dismissal of Bairstow in the first innings where he knocked his middle stump out the ground.
Bairstow navigates the extra pace without fuss, taking a single off the back foot. Lees also takes a single, and a couple past a diving short leg. Nortje ramps it up as the over gets on, zipping his fifth ball north of 90mph.
Well said Nakul.
You can drive a fleet of trucks through the gap between how good Test cricket is & how it’s talked about even by its backers.
Get central financing into the non Big 3 nations, collectivise scheduling & calendar, and the game can not just survive but thrive.#ENGvSA🏏🏴🇿🇦#WTC23
— Nakul Pande (@NakulMPande) August 19, 2022
“Hi Daniel”, hi darryl Accone, great to hear from you!
“On the subject of present players versus those in the past, it seems to be a feature of the now that it rates more highly contemporary players, whether in cricket, football, tennis, etc. What is little considered is the vast improvement in equipment. Imagine what Bradman, Barry Richards or Viv Richards would do with today’s uber jumbo bats, Rod Laver with a racquet one and a half times the size of his trusty Dunlop Maxply, Puskas and Di Stefano with a 2022 football.
“I would be wary of rating Maharajah over Tayfield based on extra-cricketing factors. Tayfield would probably have made any team in any era – his figures at Test level speak for themselves.”
That’s a fair point, and my guess is that most OBO readers would agree with you.
20th over: England 60-3 (Lees 27, Bairstow 1) Three from that Maharaj as he looks to attack and snatch another scalp. One for Bairstow and two for Lees who must contend with a slip, a leg slip, a short leg and a short mid-on.
19th over: England 57-3 (Lees 25, Bairstow 0) Ngidi deserved that big wicket. He’s bowled with great control and just enough heat all morning. Bairstow, on a pair, looked uncomfortable as Ngidi targeted his stumps, bringing it back sharply into the right hander. Lees is still there and must now dig deep. England are still 103 runs behind. We’re only into day three. They might yet struggle to clear the deficit, never mind post something they can defend for a victory. South Africa all over their hosts.
Wicket! Root c Markram b Ngidi 6 (England 57-3)
Huge! Massive! Possibly the game. OK, there’s a long way to go but then England are a long way behind and they’ve just lost their best batter. Root will be ill with that. A tame full ball around a fifth stump line draws him forward and he’s neither defending or looking to score. A weak prod takes the edge and Markram clings on well above the turf. Why did he play that? He’ll have plenty of time to ponder his demise as England are staring at a catastrophic end.
18th over: England 57-2 (Lees 25, Root 6) Root is emptying his box of tricks against Maharaj. He shapes to reverse sweep but paddles a single towards a very fine leg and then reverse sweeps past backward point for three. Between that Lees takes a single through mid on. Root is into his work. He won’t let the spinner settle.
17th over: England 52-2 (Lees 24, Root 2) A maiden from Ngidi who keeps it around a fourth stump line. Lees is happy to let most of it go. When Ngidi straightens Lees is watchful, defending a rising ball from the splice of his bat.
“All this pedantic discussion reminds me of an old favourite of mine: Who led the Pedants’ Revolt? Which Tyler.”
ba dum tish, Jonathan Wood.
16th over: England 52-2 (Lees 24, Root 2) Maharaj is oooing and aaahing with almost every ball bowled. Spinners, eh? What a weird breed they are. He’s giving it air and inviting Root out of his crease. I think, though, that Jansen or Nortje need to get on while there’s still some sheen and hardness on the ball. Lees takes a couple backward of square to bring up his team’s 50 and then tucks a single towards cover.
Harri Laatikainen wants to know what’s up with South Africa’s dropped catching:
“What has happened to South African fielding since the days of McMillan, Kallis, Gibbs and Rhodes? I would imagine Allan Donald had a fraction of Rabada’s drops simply because the fielders were so good.”
Hard to say, but factor in Smith catching pigeons in the slips and AB de Villiers as well and it’s perhaps just a case of individual talent rather than a coaching or system flaw.
15th over: England 49-2 (Lees 21, Root 2) Lees gets a boundary but he’s not in control, jabbing at a Ngidi lifter that squirts through the gap between third slip and gully. There’s no foot movement and it carried at a catchable height. Lucky boy.
Root kicked off the over with a scurried single and Lees took another two with a mistimed drive through cover. Lees also clips a single down to fine leg. That is the one area he’s looked assured during this knock.
14th over: England 41-2 (Lees 14, Root 1) Speaking of Maharaj, he continues after lunch. And why not? His double strike has put his team in firm control of this contest. He’ll have a tougher time bowling to Root who is arguably the best player of spin in the world (please don’t @ me sub-continental fans).
Root is off the mark with a forward push through the covers to get underway. Not for the first time he’ll need a hefty score to save his team.
A few folks are taking issue with my take on Tayfield and apartheid era cricketers.
Adrian Goldman says, “I think you are being a bit unreasonable about Tayfield and apartheid. When he was playing cricket, apartheid was not really on the radar of the rest of the sporting world – but more importantly, he plied his trade in Test cricket against exactly the same set of nations as now. So, no, he was competing against the same population (adjusted for population growth between then and now…)”
Marcus Abdullahi replies to an earlier comment: “I am not sure your Apartheid point holds. All ethical and political questions aside, the ugly reality of the time meant that SA only played against England, Australia and, occasionally, New Zealand. From a purely cricketing point of view, it means that Tayfield played the vast majority of his cricket – 30 of his 37 tests – against two of the top three test sides of his era. Of the “non-white” test nations, only West Indies were a genuine force in the 1950s.”
My point is that before 1994, white South African cricketers never had to compete for places against ‘non-white’ South Africans and so their achievements must always carry a caveat, in my opinion.
This, along with the fact that I never saw him bowl, means I Tayfield below Maharaj in the pantheon of SA spinners.
13th over: England 39-2 (Lees 13, Root 0) Ngidi gets things underway and is tidy for the first five balls after lunch. Outside off stump, keeping Lees honest. The sixth ball, though, drifts on the batter’s pads and he clips it down to fine leg for one.
The pedants are at it again!
“Re your 12:43 comment, pedantry suggests “batting in an England shirt” would be more appropriate as probably (hopefully) field again in this match, but I thought the ECB has already announced that barring injury they would stick to the same team for the next match?
“Should we expect an announcement that he pulled a fetlock in a freak quiche-related accident at lunch?”
AAAAAAH! But fair enough. I’ll cop to that one Charles Sheldrick, especially from the ‘Senior Radiographer at the Dept of Nuclear Medicine’.
Imagine what his strike rate would be if they could catch?
Since his debut in test cricket Kagiso Rabada has seen 42 dropped catches off his bowling – only Stuart Broad(50) and James Anderson(44) have seen more drops among pace bowlers within that time frame. #ENGvSA
— The CricViz Analyst (@cricvizanalyst) August 18, 2022
Hey Tone, what that you have to say about our OBO Fantasty game?
“I shall try to be quick as the match might soon be over! I think the comments on fantasy cricket show too many roots in the actual game, whereas I was imagining something much more commentator creative : a string of boring overs, nothing happening, Joyce from Sydney starts a chat about cycling which Trevor (from Essex) turns into late night skinny-dipping when out of the blue, an imaginary Crawley brings up his 150, only to be run out by S.Broad the following ball.
There could, of course, be some guest teams, like the precocious Lithuanian Forestry XI.
It’s all about you boys and girls keeping the creative score! Whether Joyce and Trevor are real or fictional.”
