England and Wales are 258/2 late on day one of the 4th test after winning the toss this morning.
Strauss made a fluent 142 before being yorked by Powell and Cook went for 94 soon after. They were 221/0 at tea and West Indies had put a few chances down earlier in the day.
The return South Africa-Australia series also got underway in Jo’burg today, with Australia recovering to finish on 254/5 after being 38/3 at one stage.
Phil Hughes was out for a duck on his test debut and Katich and Hussey went cheaply too.
Graeme Smith will regret putting down a fairly easy chance that would have got rid of Ponting when he was on 40. Ntini got him with a superb delivery later on though and Michael Clarke got a half century too.
Marcus North and Brad Haddin put on an unbeaten 72 before bad light stopped play.
I’ll be rooting for South Africa here. Two cuntish teams, but I think they’re the lesser of two evils.
England and Wales are motoring along at 444/4 shortly after lunch on day two. They’re going along at around 3.6 runs per over and building up momentum. Collingwood’s on course for a ton and Bopara’s just passed 50. I haven’t seen much of it so I don’t know if there’s much in the pitch.
Australia ended up making 466ao today. Yer man North made a century on debut and Mitchell Johnson was left stranded on 96. South Africa will be kicking themselves for letting them off the hook. They started terribly themselves before recovering somewhat to 85/3 at close. Australia are in the box seat there.
South Africa are 215/4 chasing 454 to win on the final day of the first test. They were 178/2 overnight and a massive run chase looked possible, like the one they did in Australia a couple of months back. But Amla and De Villiers have gone early today so Australia are favourites now. South Africa need a big partnership between Kallis and Duminy.
There’s a bit of joke test match going on in the West Indies - they declared on 749/9 yesterday evening in reply to England and Wales’ 600/6 declared. 1350 odd runs for only 15 wickets. It could be nervous for the tourists if they lose a couple of early wickets today but it should peter out to a draw on such a lifeless pitch.
Crap game in the Windies alright. England thought they were firmly in control at 600 until the Windies went and just eased their way to that score. Makes for a ridiculous game though. They’d have been better off playing on that dangerous pitch with no undersoil.
South Africa are now 260/5 after Mitchell Johnson got Kallis. Duminy and Boucher have put on 31 since then and need to stick around. Harris and Morkel can bat a bit but Steyn and Ntini wouldn’t be much cop with the bat.
291 all out and the scum have gone 1-0 up on the scum.
I actually began to doubt myself when I said Harris and Morkel can bat a bit and checked cricinfo for averages and they actually aren’t much cop with the bat either.
Steyn had one outrageous innings in Australia though but he couldn’t repeat it. In truth, Duminy and Boucher were batting defensively and playing for the draw and the wheels came off when they were dismissed.
England and Wales and West Indies shook hands on a draw midway through the final day yesterday. It was a nice opportunity for Cook to get his first ton in ages and for KP to get his average up. A shambolic test match in truth - only 17 wickets fell between both sides. Considering you need to take 20 opposition wickets to win a test match, it emphasises how much the pitch favoured the batsmen.
England and Wales are 216/2 afer 73 overs in the final test. Strauss is still there after reaching his century a while ago and the reason they’re going along at under 3 runs per over is because the pitch is slow, dry and has uneven bounce.
West Indies seem to have missed a trick with their team selection here. They decided to pick a defensive side being 1-0 up in the series and dropped their specialist spinner and played an extra batsman in his place. Basically saying, you need to take 20 of our wickets to tie the series so we’re going to add depth to our batting to make it harder for you.
But the pitch is already turning a great deal on day 1. England and Wales picked two spinners, with Panesar recalled to partner Swann. Those two will get through a huge chunk of work, I’d imagine. Now, they’d like to be scoring faster at the moment but the ball’s not coming onto the bat at all.
And the Windies have Chris Gayle and Ryan Hinds bowling in tandem - neither of them frontline spin bowlers. A decent position for the tourists all in all.
Meanwhile, Australia finished day 1 of the second test on 303/4 after the openers both made centuries. Phil Hughes seemed to have been excellent in only his second test and is building on his domestic form. A decent fightback from South Africa late in the day seeing as Australia were 183/0 at one stage.
West Indies were all out for 544 a while ago in response to England and Wales’ 546-6 declared. Apparently the referral system brought about a load of controversy today and the 3rd umpire made some bizarre decisions, even with the benefit of replays. England and Wales have come out swinging now to try force a result tomorrow but it looks in vain. In fact, they’re already 3 down for only 72 runs so they might risk losing the game.
South Africa and Australia should be good tomorow too. Australia set them a massive 546 to win after Phil Hughes became the youngest player ever to score two centuries in a test match. South Africa ended day 4 on 244/2, with Kallis and De Villiers at the crease. Graeme Smith can’t bat because he sustained a broken finger in the first innings but there’s reports that Mitchell Johnson tweaked a hammer late in the day.
Good tomorrow too? Surely the England game will be pathetic.
Had a read of some of the over by over stuff earlier. Sounds like a shambles of a referral system. Chanderpaul seemed to hesitate before referring his edge and there was a noise but it was unclear but umpire still overturned the decision with no clear evidence.
When I said too, I meant in comparison to the other quality test matches these two have played in recent months rather than the rubbish in the West Indies.
West Indies are wobbling a little on 80/4 here and two key batsmen in Sarwan and Chanderpaul have gone. Swann is bowling beautifully and there’s still 31 overs left today.
I didn’t see this coming to be honest. I expected England and Wales to come out swinging today based on how they batted last night but I thought they’d lose a couple of wickets because of their all or nothing approach and would then settle down and ensure they didn’t lose the game.
But KP and Prior built up a huge head of steam and got them quick runs and a target to bowl at. It’s a mental test for the West Indies now!
Australia won the second test and series in South Africa earlier - a great turnaround for them after losing the home series two months ago. They’ve also unearthed some new players in Hughes and North.