*** Official*** South Africa in England 2017

[MW1304]

Quite a few I think, he's a better batsman than bowler but is extremely loose and tends to make his runs in cameos. Based on what I've seen for England I would say he's not a better batsman than Buttler for example, and Buttler's red ball record is completely unconvincing.

He's far better than Buttler. He's actually proven capable of a proper innings in various situations. I'm not sure what substance Buttler has ever shown beyond a few flashy counterattacking fifties.

Anyhow you can't really argue with the fantastic 2016 he had with the bat, where he scored runs throughout and in different batting positions, other than raging turners in Bangladesh, including 4 hundreds. I don't think any of the guys you've mentioned, who are more top order bats than the middle order position Moeen will take, are very likely to do any better than he has for the past year. His bowling has gone nowhere, so this is his shot as a batsman.

 

[honestbharani]

Yeah irrespective of whether he "looks" the part or not, he has made runs over the past year and deserves a shot. That said, I still think Bairstow and Stokes are better batsmen than him at this level and should bat above him irrespective of form or "roles" in the side, unless its a situation where the opposition has batted for 200 overs or something ridiculous like that.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Consensus seems to be that Dawson will be playing then *shrugs*

 

[SeamUp]

A lovely little interview with Simon Harmer : Offspinner Simon Harmer on becoming a Kolpak player for Essex | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

Yup, looks like Dawson and Ali. Just seems and odd selection from England. Could have gone extra batsman, front line keeper, specialist spinner.

For SA, I think we start the series as under dogs with the limited amount of red ball cricket some of our players have had in England before this.

 

[StephenZA]

A lovely little interview with Simon Harmer : Offspinner Simon Harmer on becoming a Kolpak player for Essex | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

Now that is a decent honest article....

 

[Howe_zat]

Test series predictions

Score: 2-1 to England. England to win at Trent Bridge and Old Trafford but lose at the Oval.
Most runs: Alastair Cook
Most wickets: Vernon Philander
Surprise performance: TRJ to get a game and one good score with the bat
Disappointment: Quinton de Kock will score runs at the Oval but struggle elsewhere
Most infractions: Furball
AOP (Any other predictions): There will be a controversial dismissal that is only controversial according to a paper of the dismissed batsman's country

 

[fredfertang]

Score: 3-0 to England.
Most runs: Jonny Bairstow
Most wickets: Stuart Broad
Surprise performance: Adil Rashid to bowl England to victory at the Oval
Disappointment: Haseeb Hameed won't get a game, and the Burnley Express will run out of steam
Most infractions: Benchmark00 to make a surprise return and pick up a perma
AOP (Any other predictions): ABDV will be persuaded to turn out in the final test

 

[Pothas]

Score: 2-1 to England
Most runs: Gary Ballance
Most wickets: Stuart Broad
Surprise performance: Ballance probably counts here
Disappointment: Faf to struggle.
Most infractions: Weldone with his standard England thing.
AOP (Any other predictions): Kyle Abbott to be mentioned every Test.

 

[SeamUp]

Now that is a decent honest article....

Certainly.

Watching the highlights of last series win in England.

It was great to see those two colossuses in our batting line-up Smith and Kallis again.

Hash just gone to a glorious 50 at Lords and he just looks so much younger in his face. Whats it 4 yrs ago.

 

[harsh.ag]

Test series predictions

Score: 1-1
Most runs: Joe Root
Most wickets: Kagiso Rabada
Surprise performance: Bavuma to get a hundred and a fifty
Disappointment: Stokes
Most infractions: Scaly
AOP (Any other predictions): No five-fer for any English bowler

 

[Adders]

No five-fer for any English bowler

Ridiculous.......Stuart Broad will have that ticked off before lunch on day 1 of the series.

Edit: ok we're at Lords so maybe not.

 

[MW1304]

Score: 2-2
Most runs: Amla
Most wickets: Rabada
Surprise performance: Ballance to score more runs than Cook
Disappointment: Cook to score fewer runs than Ballance; Root's captaincy
Any other predictions: Wood to only get injured for one match; Ballance to look slimmer than in his cricinfo profile picture

 

[Shady Slim]

Test series predictions

Score: 2-1 SA
Most runs: Hashim Amla
Most wickets: Vernon Philander
Surprise performance: morne morsel to bowl full with the new ball and take poles; moeen ali to play aggressively and come off
Disappointment: root to get exposed to the new ball too much and struggle: bavuma going to struggle early but work into it
Most infractions: weldone
AOP (Any other predictions): if there is a quota discussion in the thread, it will not descend in to petty name calling and mud slinging

z

 

[ImpatientLime]

can't wait for mark wood to take 1-81 of 20 overs and for people to argue 'but hey, he looked really good'.

 

[vcs]

Wish this was starting today.. I've got nothing to do. Tomorrow is unlikely to be that way.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Score: 2-1 to England
Most runs: Joe Root. Won't do his usual thing by getting 4 70s but instead it'll a couple of humongous innings making up for several single digit scores. .
Most wickets: Vernon Philander
Surprise performance: Gary Ballance
Disappointment: Amla
Most infractions: Furball
AOP (Any other predictions): Match threads will be some of the worst since Ind-SA 2015.

 

[morgieb]

Score: 2-1 England
Most runs: Alastair Cook
Most wickets: Stuart Broad
Surprise performance: Gary Ballance to average over 40 and score a century.
Disappointment: Faf to average under 30.
Most infractions: weldone
AOP (Any other predictions): Mudslinging. Lots and lots of mudslinging.

 

[CricAddict]

I just went through the predictions and most of the surprise performance prediction is on Ballance doing well. If almost all of you predict that Ballance will do well, it is no longer a surprise.

 

[StephenZA]

Score: 2-1 to SA, with SA winning at Lords and the Oval.
Most runs: Heino Kuhn
Most wickets: Morne Morkel
Surprise performance: Moeen Ali
Disappointment: Stuart Broad, de Bruyn
Most infractions: Me if SA lose this series badly....
AOP (Any other predictions): Quotas not to be mentioned on commentrary at all but alluded to every time Bavuma bats....
: Quotas will be partly blamed for anything wrong in the SA team on CW by posters who know nothing about the quotas or SA cricket.
: Adil Rashid to be mentioned on CW every time England bowl.
: The length of England batting line-up to be a pain in the SA ass..
: ABdV retiring from test cricket to be mentioned in commentary once a day...
: Kolpak and the Pound to Rand mentioned every test..
: Moonda to produce an article on Rabada and/or Bavuma every time they either take 2 or more wickets or score more than 30 runs.

 

[SeamUp]

When cricket was played by men : https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/jul/04/england-south-africa-1998-the-spin

Don't know how we lost this series. There were some outrageous umpiring decisions but what drama.