After a tepid test match at Lord's, the Test match at Headingley is off to a fiery start.
For the second time in succession South Africa won the toss and put England in to bat.
Contrary to what happened during the first day at Lord's,England lost wickets at regular intervals. The openers, put on a 26 runs before Bowden terminated the partnership with an appalling decision.
Vaughan's dismal form continued. He made a 7 ball duck and for once was caught off Steyn.Surely, Vaughan needs to come up with something extraordinary to silence the rising tide of criticism.
From then on, every 7 th or 8 th over, England lost wickets. Pietersen and Bell flattered to deceive and Flintoff made a hash of his comeback innings by playing, what the commentators call a 'reckless' shot. The 53rd over brought the innings to a close.England score a measly 203 runs.
In reply, South Africa were of to brisk start. The openers put on a 50 run partnership.McKenzie was first to go and Smith followed quickly after making 44.Kallis is struggling and made just 4 runs.Amla and Prince then managed to see out the day with out further alarums and South Africa were 101 at the end of the days play.
The talking points of the day:
Two contested catches.
For the second time in succession South Africa won the toss and put England in to bat.
Contrary to what happened during the first day at Lord's,England lost wickets at regular intervals. The openers, put on a 26 runs before Bowden terminated the partnership with an appalling decision.
Vaughan's dismal form continued. He made a 7 ball duck and for once was caught off Steyn.Surely, Vaughan needs to come up with something extraordinary to silence the rising tide of criticism.
From then on, every 7 th or 8 th over, England lost wickets. Pietersen and Bell flattered to deceive and Flintoff made a hash of his comeback innings by playing, what the commentators call a 'reckless' shot. The 53rd over brought the innings to a close.England score a measly 203 runs.
In reply, South Africa were of to brisk start. The openers put on a 50 run partnership.McKenzie was first to go and Smith followed quickly after making 44.Kallis is struggling and made just 4 runs.Amla and Prince then managed to see out the day with out further alarums and South Africa were 101 at the end of the days play.
The talking points of the day:
Two contested catches.- Strauss was ruled not out after replays indicated that AB de Villiers had indeed dropped the catch. Was Villiers playing 'hard' or did he genuinely think he held the catch?
- The second controversial catch was the one taken by Vaughan. The replays were inconclusive, yet Amla was reprived. However, the decision to refer it to the third umpire has become controversial as the South African support staff had a hand in pressurising the umpire.
- (Pic credit:Porsupah)
Technorati Tags Test,Africa,England-South
4 comments:
Yep. Certainly did enliven the day, but even without it, it was interesting enough. What was good to see was that the right was done.
You are right VMM. Both the teams have had their nose put out of joint.
Looks like this series is reviving some interest and finally... but I would have expected SA to totally whallop England.
Scorpi,
If you notice that is SA pattern. They stutter in the first Test and then wallop the opponent in the second.
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