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Big partnership in the context of the game. If they can add another 20-odd, the lead becomes noteworthy in a low scoring slug fest. As is Jansen showing he may well become a #7, while Keshav is playing with the poise of a man who has 3 Test 50s. Very organised. He probably has done himself a disservice, especially in a South African side both devoid of batsmen and obsessed with pace, in not working a little harder on his batting to be a #7.

Bangladesh bowled out in 19 overs, Maharaj 7/32.

Maharaj made short work of that ! Disappointing for Bangladesh after competing so well .

At least it shows it ain't just England that can get skittled for peanuts in the fourth innings

alfie wrote: 

At least it shows it ain't just England that can get skittled for peanuts in the fourth innings

Any innings.

Good winning by the boys in green. Lots of questions remain unanswered. No centurions again, which isn't ideal, and the back up pace bowlers were pretty innocuous. But Harmer and Maharaj did bowl extremely well. Its always amusing when Harmer's county numbers are brought up to show his supposed superiority, people ignore that Maharaj basically matched it on a smaller sample size, with 55 sticks in 8 games at 17 across two years. Pretty gaudy numbers but not surprising given Rory Burns is unironically the cream of the crop in County.

For South Africa, victory represents another step in the march to a spot in the World Test championship final. Australia are at the top of the table, but they've got to go to India. South Africa has to go to England, who seem to have the wood on us, but you'd probably rather England than India from a "how likely are we to win" perspective.

Bangladesh bowled out for 217 and 80 this time, South Africa cruising to a simple 2-0 win. Very disappointing for Bangladesh after the cussedness they showed v the Kiwis.

South Africa definitely in the hunt for a WTC final spot. England up next and a series South Africa will be confident of winning. It will be also ten years this summer since South Africa defeated England in England to take the-then coveted number one world ranking spot. Look at the teams for the first test of the 2012 series:

Strauss, Cook, Trott, Pietersen, Bell, Bopara, Prior, Bresnan, Broad, Swann, Anderson.
Smith, Petersen, Amla, Kallis, ABDV, Rudolph, Duminy, Philander, Steyn, Morkel, Tahir.

What a dip in quality this summer's match-up will be compared to that.

I'm not so. The 2012 vintage's batting probably peaks higher, but both teams (South Africa and England) were rolled by Mitchell Johnson in an infinite hell loop for one summer against an Australian team no one thought was better than either, so I'm not convinced either side would actually look particularly impressive in modern conditions. It's no coincidence, I don't think, basically every batter in either side (except Kallis) ended their careers at relatively young ages because of form. Pitches have gotten a lot harder to bat on and it shows in modern averages - even Cook only got 8 tons in 60 odd Tests post 2013, and I'm fairly certain half of those were double tons on roads.

Basically I guess those sides were better, but I'm not sure the difference is what it would like on paper. If nothing else the South African 2022 vintage probably has a better bowling line up because they've got spin options and a 90mph left armer.

The return of test cricket tomorrow. Bangladesh taking on Sri Lanka in Bangladesh for two tests. Not exactly one to set the pulse racing, but it is the return of Shakib to Bangladesh's set-up, and Silverwood starts his new role as head coach of Sri Lanka, not long after the end of his miserable England stint.

Let's hope for competitive cricket, not some of the pancake flat wickets we've seen in recent months.

Duty281 wrote:The return of test cricket tomorrow. Bangladesh taking on Sri Lanka in Bangladesh for two tests.  Not exactly one to set the pulse racing, but it is the return of Shakib to Bangladesh's set-up, and Silverwood starts his new role as head coach of Sri Lanka, not long after the end of his miserable England stint.

Let's hope for competitive cricket, not some of the pancake flat wickets we've seen in recent months.

Don't think (?) this on TV in the UK - but checking the scorecard I see Angelo Matthews has scored a century to help Sri Lanka to 234-4 at time of writing. Looks like both sides are playing the extra spinner, with a fair bit of spin bowled on day one, so winning the toss and posting a score will have them in a dominant position if they can turn this to 400+

Out for 199 Angelo Mathews, that's cruel. I haven't seen the game, but 13 wickets have fallen in 3 days and Bangladesh are 318/3, so I think we can take a guess at what the pitch has been like.

Hundreds for Tamim and Mushfiqur gave Bangladesh a lead of 80-100 runs on first innings, Das with 88 too. Rajitha the pick of the bowlers for Sri Lanka (I believe as concussion sub?)

Sri Lanka looked to be cruising to end of play, but a direct hit from Taijul got Fernando and then he bowled Embuldeniya with a beauty in the final over to add a little intrigue to day 5…Sri Lanka still 50 odd behind with 8 wickets in hand. If Bangladesh can get one or two of Karunaratne/Mathews/Chandimal early, the game could get spicy very sharply.

Btw if you want to catch some good quality highlights - they can be found here on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/RabbitholebdSports
(presumably Bangladesh’s equivalent of Sky)

That first test ended in a draw with Sri Lanka batting out the final day...

Test two underway today and bizarre first days play really - Bangladesh winning the toss and batting first, and crumbling to 24-5 in the first 7 overs of play with Rajitha and Fernando doing the damage with the new ball!

But then, not one more wicket fell all day as Liton Das and Mushfiqur Rahim both racked up hundreds in a yet unbeaten stand of 253 to end the day 277-5!

Would say I think the game is in the balance, Bangladesh have done obviously some exceptional repair work, but the pitch from the highlights is a pancake at the moment, and anything below 400 is well under par. Really losing 5 wickets that early on was criminal batting.
The good thing is Liton and Mushfiqur are still in, and they have Mosaddek to come in at 8 who can bat a bit too. Really need to continue on in the morning session, as with Mehedi and Nayeem both injured, it is only really Taijul and Shakib who offer proper spin threat (Mosaddek can bowl well at times, but is a 5th bowler at best).

Bangladesh ended up 365 all out, in an innings that included 6 batters getting ducks! That is tied for the most in a test innings...but shatters the previous highest score with 6 ducks in an innings, with 365 all out topping the 152 all out from 2014 India vs England!

That partnership was also the highest % of a team total by 2 players in a test innings - 86.57% between Mushfiqur and Liton (316/365 runs), replacing the 85.13% from Wessels/Kirsten for South Africa in 1992 vs West INdies (126/148)