Yes, although when I last posted England were 116-6 shortly after lunch.

Bairstow and Ali held out nicely until the light failed.

It was the ghost of England past. Fortunately, bad fright stopped play.


edit: Amla has stepped down as captain.

Didn't help much, did it?

Interesting first day's play in the fourth Test. SA built a good opening, had a bit of a wobble, but Bavuma and de Cock look like they've settled in and could still bat England out of the game tomorrow morning.

Apparently the ball moves about a bit in the morning at that ground so if we can get most of the remaining out before lunch we're in with a shout.

With Woakes in we have a very long batting line up too (at least on paper).

England - shredded!!!!

It was pyjama cricket, who cares ? The test score was 2-1.

Where's the "that's not cricket" emoji???

I can watch it, its a lot better than icing hockey ,but problem I find with T20 is I'm often on edge but with test cricket you've got more time to study and appreciate the ebb and flow of the match while considering all the other variables so its relaxing and interesting at the same time.

I'd disagree- I think T20 is proper test cricket ruined down to the typical 2-3 hour sport slot that this failing world prefers. Hell, I sneered at ODIs.

For a short intense blast of sport Iced Hockey is great.

If you just want a short intense blast of sport, why bother with the ice and the hockey. Just stick with mixed martial arts, it's safer.

T20 can be fun but obviously it's not to be compared with Test (or even County) cricket. ODI is, err, somewhere in between.

As a lad growing up in 70s / 80s, I used to stay up late to watch the Test highlights at around 11pm on BBC2. Every ball seemed to be a boundary or a wicket - that is T20, a highlights package for people who don't like cricket.

Too much T20 is poor cricket, where a wide ball is slashed at by a desperate batsman, flies into the night sky, dropped by a luckless fielder and the crowd all cheer / jeer as appropriate. Not for me, but each to his/her own.

Sadly, thanks to incompetent management, I fear for Test cricket's future

Hockey is much safer than MMA. Bit of handbags at dawn might put people off but they make sure the collisions are all safe and under control.

Well, that's as maybe, but it's not a proper pursuit for an Englishman, really, is it?

If you need to have a fix of 80 minutes or so of full-contact sport, then watch a game of Rugby. No unnecessary commercial breaks every few minutes, plenty of scope nonetheless for vociferous armchair commentary, an occasional moment of blood and gore to liven up proceedings, and people from civilized nations (well, except the French, obviously) going about things in a mostly gentlemanly way.