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England v South Africa fourth Test post mortem
What do you mean it’s still moving? It’s as good as dead. It can’t feel pain any more.
Did England listen to all the media coverage that said they’d done well in the series even if they lost this Test and ease off as a consequence? We say no. We say that South Africa have better batsmen and bowlers and in this Test it’s been more apparent.
Did England get so caught up in Andrew Strauss’s call to ‘play positively’ that they equated defensive play with playing for a draw? Maybe a bit.
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The forecast for the next few days is a bit like the first two – a good chance of losing a session per day to rain. If that’s true, there are only six sessions left in this match, so the draw is a decent possibility. A little more rain and the draw becomes nearly a certainty.
Many commentators (including your regal selves) have said that SA have been the better team in this series, and that England will be extremely lucky if they win 1-0, but they haven’t seemed to appreciate that controlling the weather is an important skill in modern cricket captaincy. Strauss has controlled the weather well so far. You don’t want to be all Thor about it, with thunderbolts and stuff. You just need to take the odd session out here and there. I thought that stopping the rain before the end of play today, then creating bad light after four pointless overs, was a nice subtle touch. Well done Strauss.
Ponting controls the weather, and Strauss had better hope that part of his design is for that great lunk Smith to be denied deserved victory over and over again, hopefully for ever.
Not content with using the weather against Smith in his own country, the Poms are now doing an Indian and trying to get the umpire sacked just cos, for once, he isn’t giving them all the jelly beans. Where was Pommie indignation when Billy Bowden incorrectly gave out Kasper in 2005 at Edgebaston and gifted them the Ashes? No pretended outrage then. Usual hypocrisy from the whingeing poms. They’ll stop at nothing to deny superior teams their deserved victory.
“I have been welcomed into the bosom of India as a brother.” — Guess who’s back!!!
Anon a mouse
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