Nice day off ahead.

[Gob]

Stout, Coopers Irish stout to be precise.

[Lord Jim]

In all seriousness, it does look like a good day off...

















except for that cricket thing of course

[Gob]

In all seriousness, it does look like a good day off...

















especially for that cricket thing of course

[Gob]

On my day off yesterday, rains stopped play, not a ball bowled. Today Amla and Kallis are demolishing Aus, and I'm stuck in bloody work.

[Guinevere]

Amla and Kallis are demolishing Aus. And I'm stuck in bloody work.

You should thank your lucky stars

[Gob]

But I'm missing the action!

[Guinevere]

My point exactly!

[Gob]

The Boers are 3- 350, I think they'll clock up over 500 today, then put Aus in and chuck the fast bowlers at them.

11.50am I reckon we will see the Australians batting late today. Cowan and Warner likely to get a look at Steyn and friends with an hour or so to go. Good luck gents.

11.44am Too short and little variety from the quicks. Lyon being handled with ease. Could be a long summer folks.

11.35am Siddle and Lyon in action at the moment. Lyon has 1-74 off his 17 overs and Siddle 1-93 off 27 overs. Given the day missed with rain, it will be interesting to see how Smith plays this. In all likelihood, if they keep rolling along, they'll just bat and bat and bat and put up a mammoth total. He might also be tempted to throw the Aussies in while there's some grass on the pitch as well and back his quicks to run through the home side. Ball is in his court in every sense. A dominating effort thus far from the tourists.

11.27am It's 3-333. That's a beautiful score, especially if you are a South African. De Villiers has moved to 20 after a shaky sort of start and Kallis is 125. The sky would appear to be the limit but on the plus side, Nathan Lyon has just bowled his first maiden of the match. And a HUGE shout from Siddle against de Villiers! That looked close but they are out of reviews! Great call says the replay. A touch high and wide.

11.15am That's the length from Pattinson. Has been too short for much of the day but threw that one up and drew the edge from Kallis. Slides straight through the gap between second slip and gully - no third slip in play. Would have gone straight down the throat. Kallis has enjoyed some fortune this morning but he's earned the right. Moves to 121.

11.13am Anyone else get the feeling Australia has got the balance completely wrong here with Watson not in the side?



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/liv ... z2BsJqUkCT

Edited to add; interesting fact about Hashim Amla

Hashim Amla requested on his Test debut that alcohol-promoting logos not be shown on his merchandise and playing gear.

Hashim Amla had to lose his match remuneration initially for not wearing castle logo in his cricket shirt. But later Cricket South Africa and South African Breweries exempted him from wearning the castle logo on his clothing.

When interviewed, Hashim Amla justified his action of not wearing castle logo in the name of religion. He said Islam is against promoting alcohol, and therefore he will not wear any kind of logos promoting the same.

Edited again to add; this is cracking!!!

[dales]

[Gob]

A real captain's innings from Pup!!

MICHAEL CLARKE has picked up where he left off in front of local audiences, this time saving a match and, remarkably, giving Australia the faintest hope of a win that seemed impossible 24 hours earlier.



Now, having done all that could be asked with the bat and more - his 218 not out was his 20th Test century and his third time past 200 in less than a year - much will come down to his other trump card, his captaincy, on the final day of the first Test.

Once again this was a captain's knock in name and nature. Most importantly, it arrived when it was needed most. A draw is still overwhelmingly the likely result - Saturday's full day of rain should prevent a thrilling finish - but thanks to Clarke, in conjunction with an outstanding Ed Cowan (136) and Mike Hussey (86 not out), Australia are all of a sudden in with a sniff against the world No.1 nation.

''I definitely think we can have a crack at winning,'' Clarke said. ''I think the key is tomorrow morning to be nice and positive and see how we go leading up to lunch, then give ourselves a couple of sessions to try and bowl South Africa out.

''I think we take a lot of confidence out of the day we bowled on [Sunday]. I think we took seven wickets for about 200 runs so that's really positive for our bowlers.
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''Hopefully the sun is out and the wicket deteriorates a little more. It's a worth a go in my opinion. We want to try and win. The wicket is still pretty good for batting, though, so we're going to need a lot of things to go our way. I know it's going to be tough to win the Test from here but it's worth having a crack.''

[MajGenl.Meade]

A remarkable come-back. Well done! Dammit

[Gob]

It was an amazing comeback. 3-40 going into play yesterday, and not losing a wicket in all that time!

[Sean]

Isn't it American 'Football' that is split into quarters?

[Gob]

But they only have to put up with 10 minutes of play for a whole match! Even Dales's attention span can cope with that.

[MajGenl.Meade]

But it takes over THREE HOURS to play that ten minutes. Oh... maybe that explains 1918 and 1941.....

[MajGenl.Meade]

A draw! Whodda thunk it? Good job we had rain on day two.... Can't watch the durn thing live here unfortunately so have to settle for tape delay. Can't imagine having to watch the last four overs for 1 run.... so I won't

[Gob]

First day of the second test under way.

Let's hop[e we give the Boers what for this time.

Read from bottom up.

11.16am - Another big LBW shout against Warner, but this time going comfortably over the top. Very handy start for Morkel, looking likely, great pace, good line.

11.10am - And a really good first over from Morkel at the other end, coming round the wicket to the left-handers, every ball on line and a pretty close shout for LBW on Warner fifth ball. Tough and tight in the opening clinches!

11.01am - And Dale Steyn gets us underway! First ball pushed to leg by Dave Warner, Aussies off the mark! Decent line by the big paceman. Aus. 0/1 at the end of the first over.
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10.55am - Taryn Louch sings South African national anthem, Hannah Ringrow does Advance Australia Fair. Think I gave that contest marginally to the visitors. Mark Taylor doing the rundown on Michael Clarke walking around very impressive looking set. Fortunately, no Fujitsu air conditioners in sight!

10.52am - Philander woke up with sore back, big blow for the visitors, along with losing the toss. Might be some early life in the track but should be pretty decent for batting. Certainly a different looking Adelaide Oval, cranes and construction everywhere with the redevelopment going on. Crowd capacity has been reduced from 38,500 to only 20,000. Shortened boundaries, too. Always value square of the wicket here, but just 55 metres on one side now. Think we'll see plenty of boundaries!

10.42am - Here's the starting line-ups in full ... Australia: Michael Clarke (capt), David Warner, Ed Cowan, Rob Quiney, Ricky Ponting, Mike Hussey Matthew Wade, Peter Siddle, James Pattinson, Nathan Lyon, Ben Hilfenhaus, Mitchell Starc (12th man). South Africa: Graeme Smith (captain), Alviro Petersen, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, Jacques Rudolph, Faf du Plessis, Rory Kleinveldt, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Imran Tahir, Robin Peterson (12th man).

10.37am - Big news on the team front this morning, the visitors have lost paceman Vernon Philander, so Rory Kleinveldt, who was going to miss out, comes back into the XI, along with debutant Faf du Plessis, who's in for the injured JP Duminy. Australia goes in unchanged from Brisbane, Starc the 12th man.

10.30am - Good morning everyone, RC here at Blog Central to take you through all the action from Adelaide today. Beautiful day in the city of churches, expected top of 28 degrees. They've just tossed, and Australia is going to have a bat. 11am start, fasten your seatbelts!

[MajGenl.Meade]

Just woke up - what's the score? Australia 5,000,048 for 5 I'll be bound. I see they did a lot of tossing yesterday

[Gob]

Aus 10 -550 first innings total.
SA 2- 217 at the end of day two.

It's going to be a close one I reckon, could go either way. Aus bowl out SA for less than 450, bat again, and set SA an impossible total.

OR

SA strike up to 500 on day three, Aus go in again, get a miserable total and SA pile on the runs to win on day 5.

All to play for

(Ponting has to be axed.)

[rubato]

nevermind