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15 hours ago, TEFTONG said:

Root was bowling well today. 

But how bad have South Africa become ? 

Since the sand paper series they seem to have gone backwards. 

England have played well in patches but the throwing away of wickets by SA has been embarrassing tbh. 

Amla, De Villiers, Morkel and Steyn have all retired since the sandpaper test - I think any team would struggle losing 4 players of that quality in quick succession. They have Philander going after the next test - another top class player. Even Elgar and Du Plessis are well into their 30's and whilst I don't think I'd consider either to be top class, they are established test batsmen who will not be around for too much longer. So really in terms of established quality, they are left with Rabada and De Kock.

With England putting 500 on the board it was always going to be hard. Granted SA had the worse of the conditions in this test, but it still isn't a bad batting pitch and 300 should be considered a par score, the ball is turning a bit but still not doing a great deal for the seamers. SA are not a good team just now, definitely approaching the lowest ebb of a transition period - I cannot see how they are rated above England in the rankings, but I expect them to rapidly fall.

It is easy to be carried away by England here, but... Root and Bess are taking 9 wickets between them which tells its own story. 

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Don't want to take away from England who have played really well in patches and are actually starting to look like theres a foundation there to build on.

But.... I don't care about the rankings, this South Africa side are the worst test team England have played in some time. They have been really, really poor this series.

Just giving wickets away when batting, and... bizarre fields and spells of uninspired bowling. Much as England have played well in patches, I don't think they've been good as much as South Africa have been bad.

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54 minutes ago, Badger said:

Don't want to take away from England who have played really well in patches and are actually starting to look like theres a foundation there to build on.

But.... I don't care about the rankings, this South Africa side are the worst test team England have played in some time. They have been really, really poor this series.

Just giving wickets away when batting, and... bizarre fields and spells of uninspired bowling. Much as England have played well in patches, I don't think they've been good as much as South Africa have been bad.

Sri Lanka then the Ashes will be the real test for these young Lions. As we both agree that SA are only going one way in Test cricket and it's not up. 

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17 hours ago, TEFTONG said:

Sri Lanka then the Ashes will be the real test for these young Lions. As we both agree that SA are only going one way in Test cricket and it's not up. 

Not sure Sri Lanka will be too much of a test - England won relatively comfortably there just over a year ago, and Sri Lanka are another side who have went backwards since.

The Ashes in Australia will be the acid test though. The Aussies are looking like a top team again, especially at home - cannot see an England win over there, but a competitive showing bodes well for this young team. 

Don't know what to make of this series result against SA though beyond they've convincingly beaten a team at a very low ebb.

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For many, he's the soundtrack to the England cricket team.

Jerusalem being belted out? It's the first over of the day. Rocky theme? David Warner must be walking out to bat. Simply the Best? Ah, that means Dom Sibley's going well.

Sibley the best - geddit?!

But Billy Cooper's trumpet will soon be no more. After 16 years of rousing England's fans and players alike with his greatest hits, Cooper - a classically trained musician who can usually be found in cricket grounds the world over - has decided to call it a day.

Certainly when it comes to touring anyway - the current Test against South Africa will be his last one (at least in an official capacity).

England's Barmy Army✔@TheBarmyArmy

— 16 Years
— 52 Tests
— Countless classics

After an incredible stint as our trumpeter we are sad to announce that @billbarmytrump is retiring at the end of this series. Legend.

Send in messages with #ThankYouBilly and let's hope he ends with a win at The Wanderers!

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19:49 - 23 Jan 2020

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"It's more complicated now, with a wife and kids," he tells BBC Sport, finding a quiet place to chat on the phone just as Zak Crawley scores his maiden Test 50 ('Land of Hope and Crawley'!).

It's a big moment and the Barmy Army are in full song behind him.

"It's good to be going out on a high," Cooper says, as England march towards a series win. Victory in the current Test in Johannesburg would be only the 15th win he has seen in 52 Tests abroad.

Billy Cooper in Johannesburg, 2016

But how did Cooper get here in the first place? This, after all, is a man who has played in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Matilda in the West End.

His involvement with the group came about quite organically. Back in 2004, out in Barbados for the third Test against the West Indies, Billy, a professional musician, had to report his blue trumpet stolen after misplacing it.

The next Test was in Antigua.

"I didn't have anything to do with the Barmy Army back then, but I heard that noise and I saw it was my trumpet," Billy explained.

He says he approached the members of the Barmy Army about the trumpet, who subsequently asked him to prove it did indeed belong to him.

That, of course, wasn't a problem - and it soon led to a "sing-song" with the gang, where Billy met Paul Burnham, one of the founding members of the Barmy Army.

"Paul said 'we'd love you to come to South Africa with us for the next Test and we can pay for your flights'," Billy recalled.

The rest is history.

His first year with the supporters group began well, with England winning the Ashes in 2005 - their first win since 1986-87.

That brought about one of his proudest memories when victorious skipper Michael Vaughan invited him on stage at Trafalgar Square during the celebrations that followed.

Michael Vaughan✔@MichaelVaughan

One of England’s best players retires this week ... Well done @billbarmytrump on a fantastic career ... You won’t know how many wickets you have taken but I can say it’s plenty ... Thanks for all the support & creating an amazing atmosphere for many many years ..

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There have been lows too. Billy cites the 2006-2007 Ashes, when England were walloped 5-0 and he was banned from playing his trumpet in the stadium.

"I don't think the Aussies wanted a home game to feel like an away game by letting us make too much noise," Billy observes.

Billy had been escorted from The Gabba by officials after celebrating, sparking a row over the use of musical instruments in the stadium.

He tells us the number of losses he's witnessed have made the wins all the sweeter.

And he says touring the world with England over the past six years has become addictive.

"You leave behind the winter in England for someone else's summer."

For now though, he's happy to call it a day: "I don't want to overstay my welcome."

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  • 2 weeks later...

I really like Mark Wood. This is his latest column on the BBC website.

A lot has happened since my last column.

I've become a dad for the first time, I've played Test cricket for the first time in almost a year and now I'm with the England Twenty20 squad getting ready for three matches in South Africa.

I'm going to tell you about how we turned the Test series against the Proteas around, what's been going on behind the scenes while I've been away from international cricket, and why these T20 matches are the start of our bid to do the 'double'.

Test turnaround

Mark Wood, right, with his Durham team-mate Ben Stokes after the Test series victory over South Africa

At the start of the Test series, we were wondering if it was going to be one of those frustrating trips where everything would be against us.

Cast your mind back to Christmas, around the first Test, when so many of the squad were going down ill.

It was one guy, after another, after another. One man would come down in the morning and say "my stomach feels a bit dodgy" and they were sent straight to quarantine. Another would say that he was starting to feel fluey and they were gone too.

We tried so hard to contain everything. We were cleaning door handles, carrying wipes and gels everywhere. Each man would have his name on a water bottle so as to only drink out of that one.

Even then, it still spread. The doctor was tearing her hair out.

Things started to turn in the second Test. Even though we lost Rory Burns, James Anderson and Jack Leach from the squad, we were roared on by the Barmy Army, who were as loud as I've ever heard them.

I knew before the tour began I wasn't going to play early on - I was still recovering from my side injury - but when the time came to prepare for the third Test, there was a spot available in the team because of the injury to Jimmy.

Sometimes, you get a little indication as to the how the captain is thinking by how the nets are set up. On the whiteboard, it was me, Chris Woakes and Jofra Archer to bowl first, so that suggested it was the three of us competing for one place.

I charged in, gave it my all, trying to prove I was ready to go. After I got the nod from Joe Root, I spent the night before the match watching videos on my phone of my last Test, against West Indies almost a year earlier, to remind myself of what I was capable of.

It helped that I was able to smack a few with the bat before I came to bowl. With 42 from 23 balls, I was actually on for the fastest half-century by an England batsman in Tests. If I'd known that, I might have made sure I got it.

That knock, and getting some more runs in the fourth Test, meant I was getting messages on Instagram off people calling me the 'Durham De Villiers'. I'll take that.

The runs were scored with a bat I call The Blade of Justice, one that I got from Joe. We have the same sponsor, and during the summer he saw one of mine that he wanted, and you can't really say no when one of the world's best batsmen wants your bat.

He gave me one in return, which he now wants back. He's got no chance.

The batting gave me real confidence going into my bowling, and the wickets that I took were reward for all of the rehab, the dark days and the wondering if I'd ever play cricket for England again.

I try to play my cricket as if every match is my last. It's my job to bring energy to the team, either in the dressing room, with the ball or the bat. That is what I'll try to keep doing.

Woody the dad

Mark Wood took nine wickets in the fourth Test against South Africa

I can't mention my batting without talking about the help I've had from my dad and my wife, Sarah. It got a lot of attention in the press when I revealed they had been feeding the bowling machine for me back at Newcastle Cricket Centre.

In Sarah's case, it was while she was heavily pregnant. She likes her cricket, probably encouraged because of what I do for a living. She even plays for a local team, so she thinks she can give me some tips.

When it comes to feeding the machine, Sarah doesn't raise her arm to let me know the ball is coming, she just wangs it in. I had to say 'Sarah, just give me a minute to have a look'. She was keener to tell me to get in line.

Our little boy was born in October, and I left home to do some fitness work in Spain at the end of November, so I was away for a long time.

It was hard because I was thinking about leaving Sarah with everything to do, but also for the times when you're alone in a hotel room, missing him growing up.

You get through it by wanting to make him proud and hoping that you're doing this so that his life is better in the future.

Because I sat out the one-day series, I travelled back home from the Tests with a different feeling than normal. Often I've left tours feeling disappointed because of an injury, but this time I had so many good memories.

It's been absolutely brilliant to get back, have a cuddle with him and spend some time at home.

Whereas before it was about getting fit, being on the exercise bike in the house or doing sprints in a freezing cold park, now it has been about switching off from cricket and changing some nappies.

Is it harder being a dad, or taking wickets for England? I actually pride myself on my nappies. Once you get that flap around, nice and smooth, you're away. It's easier than trying to bowl fast.

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Eyes on the double

Now I'm back in South Africa, looking to earn my place in the squad for the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia in the autumn.

Whereas once our focus was on the 50-over World Cup, now we want to become the first men's team to hold both trophies at the same time.

Eoin Morgan runs such a tight ship with the white-ball teams, and he will be looking for the same sort of cricket that has been so successful in the past couple of years.

He will want us on the front foot, being aggressive. When I bowl, I'll always be looking for wickets, taking the positive option.

There will be so much competition for the places in the final World Cup squad. Everyone knows that they will have to be contributing, bringing something to the team if they are to earn a seat on the plane.

I did text Eoin after my batting in the Tests, telling him that if I'd been up the order in the World Cup final, we wouldn't have had to go through that super over nonsense.

However, jokes aside, it will be serious business in this series and the rest of the T20s we play this year. People think of T20 as a bit of fun, a lighter version of the game that's over nice and quick. That's not the case when there is a World Cup up for grabs.

We want to do the double, and how amazing would it be if we do just that?

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7 hours ago, TEFTONG said:

That was a quality 3 match T20 series between England and South Africa. 

The  T20 World Cup in Australia later this year should be good. 

Morgan is a freak of nature when he’s in that form. But why on earth do bowlers keep bowling on his leg stump? 

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It's incredible the impact COVID-19 is having on things you wouldn't have even realised 

Test cricket will be heavily impacted as players are apparently not going to be allowed to shine the ball (as they do this by putting saliva on one side of the ball repeatedly during the day to maintain a bit of shine which helps with sideways movement in the air). Josh Hazlewood very vocal in saying test cricket will be completely transformed into a batsman's game if this happens

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5 hours ago, psb07158 said:

It's incredible the impact COVID-19 is having on things you wouldn't have even realised 

Test cricket will be heavily impacted as players are apparently not going to be allowed to shine the ball (as they do this by putting saliva on one side of the ball repeatedly during the day to maintain a bit of shine which helps with sideways movement in the air). Josh Hazlewood very vocal in saying test cricket will be completely transformed into a batsman's game if this happens

I play league cricket and it’s amazing the difference a bit of spit can make to a ball in terms of swing.

They’ll likely find an alternative like allowing a ball to be Vaselined after so many overs on one side. I think it would likely only affect the highest levels of the game e.g test cricket, as at our levels batsmen get out because we play shit shots rather than true skill from bowlers...

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On 21/04/2020 at 10:32, psb07158 said:

It's incredible the impact COVID-19 is having on things you wouldn't have even realised 

Test cricket will be heavily impacted as players are apparently not going to be allowed to shine the ball (as they do this by putting saliva on one side of the ball repeatedly during the day to maintain a bit of shine which helps with sideways movement in the air). Josh Hazlewood very vocal in saying test cricket will be completely transformed into a batsman's game if this happens

He is right tbf. Once the lacquer is off the new ball, not being able to clean and shine one side removes a huge part of a pacers arsenal, will make the wicket a lot flatter. Certainly will make overs 10-50 a lot easier!

They'll source something though. Some disinfected water with a trace of oil through it or something, in a little spray bottle.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 24/04/2020 at 12:07, Badger said:

He is right tbf. Once the lacquer is off the new ball, not being able to clean and shine one side removes a huge part of a pacers arsenal, will make the wicket a lot flatter. Certainly will make overs 10-50 a lot easier!

They'll source something though. Some disinfected water with a trace of oil through it or something, in a little spray bottle.

Until the cheating convicts start putting corrosive substances in the bottle.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
3 hours ago, TEFTONG said:

Just did that. It's quite tough.

Sharma
Warner
Williamson
Smith
Kohli
Stokes
Watling
Pattinson
Cummings
Broad
Hazelwood

Stead as Coach.

Kohli, Stokes and Watling all batting 1 below where ideally they would be but I can't leave one out of Kohli, Williamson and Smith. 

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