Tipps69

Bailey Wright has his baseball bat hidden well, the way Hernandez went down Wright must of smashed him over the head with a baseball bat, there’s no other explanation is there?

I think enough has been made by LJ about our lack of game management from last week that they won’t allow that to happen again & is the reason why Magnússon has come in at centre-back, to allow Wright to go back at right-back to give us that solidity. I would expect the message to the City players to be, is don’t overcommit & see out the inevitable storm that should come from Leeds in the first 15 minutes of the second half or so.

Hard to remember a more dominant & self assured first 45 minutes. Even at 3-0 up last week it was hardly like we played that well but this week we’ve had very little to worry about & everything has been very well controlled in my opinion.

Well I think I’m pretty safe on the libel front, I know very little about what’s going on at the minimal ground as there’s been very little reason to worry about what’s going on so I have no idea about any employees being suspended or otherwise. But let’s be honest, the pitch has always been a cabbage patch, it’s just that previously they blamed the previous owners of the ground for the state of the playing surface.

Having watched Channel 5’s football highlights on Saturday night, what struck me was the state of the minimal grounds pitch! It was awful! I know they used to blame it on the former owners of the property (Bristol rugby) but they can’t use it as an excuse anymore & considering that we now have Bristol rugby at the Gate, our pitch shows little signs of wear & tear. So who’s fault is the mud now? I would suggest that it’s possibly down to them getting the fundamentals wrong & spending their entire budget on cleaning carpets & curtains instead of on where their points are won? Or maybe they have got it right as it gives them a ‘reason’ to play the ball in the air & avoid using what should be that green stuff under foot! Maybe that’ll explain why they are doing better at home than away because their opposition aren’t used to playing the ‘sore neck’ style of football & it’s all part of their philosophy of getting out of relegation trouble but surely the opposition will realise that they have to spend the week training before their game at getting used to seeing the ball up with the planes?

Happy with only 2/3 of a days play, keep that ratio up & that should be my bet in.

Come on the rain, feel free to keep bringing them off.

With the rubbish weather that's due from today & all of the weekend, the draw has to be favourite for the 3rd test & at 3/1 with Sky Bet, it's well worth a bet.

But at least cricket is played at all levels & is competed between different countries & isn't decided so much on the basis of who has the most money. And effectively, there is a format for just about anyone to enjoy unlike the majority of other sports. On saying that, I can understand why some people might not like cricket or even understand it, each to their own.

Their spinner (Marhuraj (sp)) has scored a couple of first class centuries. I think batting first was a huge advantage in this test but you're right, it should be a close series but we are playing with great belief which is great to see.

Duminy may well get dropped as they have Du Plessis to come back in & he certainly won't be a straight swap for Rabada, so a batsman will need to make way, I'd also be surprised if De Kock wasn't moved up the order.

Their captain (Du Plessis) was also missing at late notice, so no knowing how much of an affect that had on them as a team. Hence the reason why I stuck a wedge on England to win. But Du Plessis is back now although rather ridiculously they will lose Rabada for the 2nd test.

Could be all done a day early.

Game on then, I just hope Rooty captains this through instincts & not through the text book.

300 or so ahead & we should be okay, we only need another 20 or so & that should give us plenty of time to rattle them out. The wicket is causing all sorts of problems, it won't be easy for South Africa. This is exactly how I think test match cricket should be, not this boring cricket on dead wickets where both teams score 600+ in both innings. There's actually a bit of excitement to be had.

Now Cook has gone we maybe able to get a move on, a couple more hundred on the board & let our bowlers at them & let's see this wicket do all sorts of tricks.

This Dawson wicket really does ask some questions, the old way of batting & umpiring is that if the batsman has a 'good stride' in or has 'danced' down the wicket, he's unlikely to be given out as there is 'enough doubt'. Umpires seldom gave lbw for such an appeal but now with the 'third umpire', the bowling team can appeal for anything & have that doubt taken away. If I'm honest, I'm not sure how I feel about this development. The doubt has now been taken away from the game (as long as you still have appeals available) & that has been a huge part of the game & while it might help in village / club cricket, to stop a 'homer' umpire from cheating, the technology isn't available at that level so those who 'cheat' at grass roots level can continue too. In the professional game, it will maybe stop batsmen from having that security of a 'big stride' or 'dancing down the wicket', it just seems to of taken the history of batting to another level as such.

Can't help but feel that Root is captaining from the 'rule book', surely he's missed a trick by taking the new ball straight away when the old one was spinning & we had just taken two quick wickets!

I like a bit of nastiness in a player, it's that 'will to win' attitude, Stokes has it by the bucket load.

Rabada suspended for the 2nd test match for misconduct, should make things a little easier, he's a good bowler.

Unfortunately it hasn't happened & we've gone back to trying to rely on a more or less non existent reverse swing, when in my view Ali should be on as the wicket is clearly spinning. It's as if we have this game plan put in stone, that come the last hour or so of play in the day, we have to play for reverse swing. And as I type this, Anderson strikes although the umpire didn't seem so convinced.

Another couple of wickets before close of day & it should put us firmly in control. We just need to press home this pressure we are currently building.

Trouble is, the umpires rely on the technology to get them out of the shit more often than not now. They went through a stage where they were basically ignoring front foot no-balls & then allowing the third umpire to review things if a wicket fell but the problem was, how many runs did teams miss out because of it? I think they have realised that they were missing things & have tried correcting things now but they are still relying on technology too much, in my view.

More indiscipline from the South African bowlers letting us off the hook!! How or why does a spinner no-ball via his front foot? It should never happen especially at test match level.

Well that was a much better afternoon session, helped by the South African's lack of discipline from the bowlers. How much longer can we afford to lose 2, 3 or 4 batsman cheaply at the start of an innings though? Surely there'll come a time when the middle order will struggle?