Mntboy

Our record at Lord's is rather impressive, 5 wins from 7 matches since our re-admission. Not sure about it prior to that.

If anything the pitch looks rather solidly good for batting if you apply yourself properly. Which is what Blundell and Mitchell have shown so far. You got to think New Zealand will be looking to get to 350+ in order to feel that the momentum is in their favor. Anything less and the English might believe there is a small chance they can pull off an unlikely win.

Tayfield was before my time too. I just so happen to be something of a cricket tragic, as the Aussies might call me. So I know a fair bit of our cricketing history. However it seems there's a drive to be revisionist about it as CSA also put out a Facebook/Social Media post congratulating Maharaj on becoming our leading spinner. Almost as if those who played for us back in the Apartheid era records don't exist because they played in an era where our political system was morally wrong. Although that perhaps is a debate for another time.

Not quite just yet, as my comment in bold shows. Kesh still needs another 30 wickets to surpass Hugh Tayfield as our leading test spinner. However it's a matter of when not if. He has been such a mainstay and a wonderful part of our bowling armoury of late that it's really hard not to see him achieve that. Just think of Elgar's comments prior to the India series earlier in the summer. And if we get round to talking about picking a spinner for our all time XI I think most people will go with Kesh. His batting makes a difference. Fulfilling a bowling allrounder job in our current set up much like Philander did.

14 wickets across the match for them as a pairing. They bowled beautifully. This was the opposite of the match against Sri Lanka that we lost a few years back but just as engrossing.

We could've played Lutho Sipamla ahead of Wiaan Mulder without affecting the out come I reckon. When I saw that we were batting first I thought a win for us might be likely. Largely due to how the Kingsmead pitch has been of late but also because of the quality of our spin twin. Maharaj and Harmer combined well throughout the match. Good contributions from several players and Elgar batted well on what was a difficult pitch to adjust to. Maharaj totally deserving of the MoM award.

Well well that was some race! An absolute deserved winner in Pogacar!

5k to go, 50s in hand. Can Pogacar hold on? I certainly hope so!

Wellens caught by the chase group and Asgreen goes on the attack.

Wellens attacking the chase group.

The gaps in km's.

I think Pogacer has this race won. He's got a massive gap and can give it a full go seeing as he doesn't have another stage to concern himself with. Only way there's a fly in the ointment is if Quickstep, Movistar and a few other teams chase hard enough to catch him.

Pogacer really putting the hurt on. Will be an interesting last hour or so. GCN+ boys reckon JA now riding for Asgreen. This race, just awesome.

Cyclocross skills maybe???? Regardless he is a really really impressive racer. His instincts always seem to be on point a 100% of the time. Rare that he gets things wrong.

A big part of why I love this race. The racing is always good too. I can't remember there being a boring Strade and even if there was we still have the Tuscan countryside to enjoy. Prettiest race in the world imho.