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.

Checked her racing for them in ZRL PL the past few weeks. So she is definitely a part of the team. How'll she'll be used is anyone's guess.

Eben Etzebeth will be joining the Sharks as of the next URC season. Glad to have him playing for a South African team again.

I was rather disappointed seeing this. However I'm glad that Erwee, Hamza and Stuurman are getting a chance to play. Let's hope that tomorrow will be a better day for our team.

Still the best use of my money I reckon. The documentaries/non-racing stuff alone is worth it. Just how good was that doccie that Jennie Graham and Leal Wilcox did on Greenland (I think). Everything is just so well shot and presented. GCN+ and VPN is really well worth it.

Jarrod Kimber with an interesting video on Dean Elgar and his batting, in SA in particular.

Firdose makes a lot of good comments/points in this video.

I was thinking this morning that he had seemed to improve on his ability to keep an end quiet only to see a comment on facebook that he had the best rpo amongst the bowlers. Rather happy with that as well, given the source of the information. He has been good all series and his attitude towards doing the graft work required to succeed (that spell up at centurion was fantastic as was his spell in the Indian second innings at Newlands) has been pleasing as well. Plenty to be happy about from a South African perspective especially in the light of the off field stuff. Let's just also acknowledge Langeveldt who has worked hard to help his bowlers improve and put in the good consistent performances we seen the past while. Similarly I think Ontong has done a fantastic job w.r.t our fielding as well. It's often easy to overlook the contributions of the coaches. If you think about we really only had one poor day of test cricket throughout the series and the coaching staff got the guys to knuckle down and perform well throughout the rest of it. I think Mpitsang is going to be a good chief selector and it was a brave call putting a young guy like Jansen in the team but so far a number of his choices have worked out well (KP, Verreyne & Jansen). The ODI series will be interesting and I reckon there will be a few players from the test team getting a rest and a few others getting an opportunity. Will need to have a look at the squad but I wouldn't mind seeing Linde or Fortuin playing in Jansen's place. Especially seeing that the next ODI World Cup will be in India we need to get a sense of who our best white ball spinners are and while I love what Maharaj brings to the test team I think that Linde and Fortuin will work as better foils for Shamsi.

A pretty good summation of how our guys went in the series and some of the things that need to be worked on as well. After the struggles that we've had both on and off the field the series result is one I'm really pleased about. We are far from the finished article but I think we saw enough positive signs to say that going into the next series that we will be competitive and not just get beaten by a wide margin by stronger teams. Just also want to point out that in the chases Temba's innings were pretty crucial in protecting Verreyne, who is still finding his feet in test cricket batting wise, and our lengthy tail who can blow pretty hot and cold with the bat. Especially given that the pitches were pretty hard to bat on early on for the batsmen new to the crease. Although I do agree with you that both Temba and Rassie need to contribute more with the bat. Maybe they could also do with swopping out batting positions i.e. Temba bats 4, Rassie bats 5 - might be a bit more natural to both. That's just an idea I don't know if that would work in practicality. I like KP at 3, he's used to it from domestic cricket and I for one can not find a fault with his technique and he did earn high praise from AB, friendship with Kohli aside, who knows a thing or two about being a good batsman at International level. Markram is a conundrum but hopefully Boucher, Smith and Mpitsang and company can find a way to get him to fulfil that wonderful natural talent that he has. Such a fantastic batsman to watch when in full flow. With Jansen I really admired just how natural and easy his bowling action was/is and his attitude on the field is also a big positive. In some ways he reminds me of Donald and in others he reminds me of Akram. When he got his lengths right he is a major handful and I suspect that the Aussies might not enjoy facing his bowling much or the fact that he'll give as good as he gets. His batting looks handy too, needs a bit of polishing of course but the raw ingredients is there. Mark Nicholas suggested that he could become an allrounder in the Shaun Pollock mould and I can definitely see that happening. Prior to the series starting I wanted to see signs of positive progression from the Proteas and I think that's what we got. Still plenty left to do - more runs (including hundreds) from the batsmen chief among them but I'm really happy with what we got and it has me hopeful that we will see more like it in the near future.

More so with Ganguly who is generally credited with transforming the Indian team from gentle, friendly near pushovers to a more streetwise and tough team. Will be interesting to see how this particular feud plays out. Not that I think that Kohli is a good captain but having the rug pulled from under his feet in that fashion must've stung.

I think a big part of the problem is that India tours and the TV rights for said tours generate a great deal of money for the various broadcasters and boards hence the ICC's soft approach. There's a tendency to forget that India needs the countries they tour in as much as those countries need them. So the whole goose gander analogy should very much apply but unfortunately the money is doing the talking here. As much as I enjoy watching Kohli bat I will not be shedding a tear when he retires as his conduct has largely been that of a spoilt brat in need of a hiding. The fact that he and AB are such good friends lowers my opinion of AB a good deal too.