Christie

I agree with Moridin. Faf, Amla and AB scored heaps of runs not so long ago. Their skills have not diminished suddenly.

The cricket team was declared as transformed by the goverment a couple of years ago, and all quotas scrapped. The quotas have been freshly applied recently, under Mbalula and Lorgat. A system where quotas undermine the quality of cricket is bad. Less people will go watch, broadcasting and sponsorship money will fall, the best players will make careers elsewhere. No money means a furthrr drop in quality of cricket, which leads to less money. A clear understanding is needed of how cricket is funded in SA. Transformation dictaded that it was better to maintain a quota than win the wold cup semi. Would it not have been better for transformation in SA to bring back a cup? The current quotas is only a little bit better than window dressing imo. The franchise unions do not have money to build cricket fields and run teams in underprivelaged areas. The quota players are part of the smaller privelaged group who all come from traditional cricketing schools. If development of our game was a goal, the government would have funded grass roots development. It would be great to tap a larger player base, but I fear it will not happen with the current approach.

Also, the quality of our domestic cricket needs improvimg. Both Morris and Viljoen took heaps of wickets there, Tahir also. We need our stars to play some local games, but time and money is a problem. Also, the quotas may be biting us - I think 6 players of colour mnow andatory for all domestic games, of which 3 must be black.

We lost because of the batsmen. Our bowlin could be better with Dale and Vern, but we keep losing wickets regularly. Give Cook a go at opener, and use either Rilee or Van Zyl in his middle order spot. I would rather not risk Dale in a dead rubber. Morkel is over worked, and needs rest. Perhaps it is time for Domingo to go? He did well when we had a team loaded with great players, but he is not helping young players improve. Time for a proper coach, I say.

It looks like the poor batting on day 1 is going to cost us!

The way this series has gone, Im predicting 150 to 200 target, and a close finish.

Good work with the list.

Commentators saying 250. The way the ball is bouncing and zipping for the England bowlers, it will be hard to set.

Rabada looks like a brilliant prospect. Imo he got drafted into test cricket a bit early, they need to manage his workload well. He needs someone to bowl well in tandem with, to build pressure. Morkel is bowling below par, but he has done lots and lots of bowling since Dale and Vern got injured. They will have to rest him. we had them on the ropes at 91/4, too bad we couldn't finish them off. All square on day 3. We need to bat well for a day and a halF. What would be a good target, 350?

Sounds like the wheels came off our bowling unit yesterday afternoon and this morning. At least they got 2 wickets. Our batting is still below par, and the bowling without Dale and Vern is inconsistent - mostly poor with a good ball now and then. England is scoring at over 4 runs to the over on a helpful pitch! At least we are giving new guys a go - I hope Morris, Viljoen, Abbott and Rabada will be the attack when the other guys retire.

2 test players? Recent ones can be Reeza Hendricks, Philander, Harmer. Tahir is in this series' odi squad. The list should be short - who else am I leaving out?

We could have got more - lots of soft dismissals. Only Amla got a ripper. Our team looks vulnerable, I cant say what exactly is wrong, but there are problems. Im a fan of Faf, but he is still messed up from India. He needs a stint for the Titans to regain his confidence.

A good call for # to step down imo. England should be worried, the mighty# is back! Lets see how AB goes.AB became a dad recently, he will need to spend more and more time at home, so a succesor must also be found as vice captain. We also need to develop some more next generation bowlers - our attack looked a lot less dangerous without Dale and Vern

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Correction - I see Englamd scored at more than 8 rpo today. Cant blame only the pitch - bowlimg must have been wayward as well.

Agreed, but it looks as if the pitch is still full of runs - lets see how they do after lunch tomorrow.

England bowlers not doing much better - 500 odd runs scored today, only 1 bowler got a wicket & 2 run-outs. Pitch looks good for batting.

50 up for #

Lets say we bat out 30 at 3 runs per over, that gives us 150 at close of play, hopefully still 1 down. 90 overs tomorrow at say 4 per over with AB and QdK pushing the scoring a bit, gives us around 500 end of play on day 3. If we bat till lunch on day 4, we can set them a target of 200 or so, make them bat last.

I wonder if Dale and Vern are not relieved that they are not playing. Im not sure they would have fared better, with the fielders dropping sitters. Best we can hope for os a draw. Lets blunt the new ball, then let them bowl 3 days.

A hard day of good test cricket. Our young attack is fighting hard. I agree that we look a bowler short on a wicket where we need to graft in the field. But with our frail batting top order, playing an extra bowler was never an option, I guess. The game is still fairly poised, if we get them out under 400, we would have done well. Wickets needed with the second new ball,it was wasted a bit at tje end of the day.

Now that Bavuma is in, he deserves a decent run to show what he has got. The promising young players are in the squad - QdK, Rilee, Van Zyl. I guess Rilee will get a chance after Van Zyl.

Here we go. Lets see if 2016 brings better results. JPD out, QdK in. Morris in for Abbot, Rabada in for Steyn.

Im in favour of a consortium of old hands to coach the test side. Smith, Kallis, Boucher, Rhodes comes to mind. Perhaps the sos to Smithis a sign of things to come. Domingo can do the t20 and odis.

O yes, i forgot to mention Domingo. Imo he isnot the best coach available, also possibly a quota selection.