Very poor all round. We lost our momentum from New Zealand. Its all very well giving the players a break but some have had no red ball cricket or any to speak of since and consequently many looked rusty.England collapse to 149 all out, and an Innings and 12 run defeat. What an absolute shocker of a performance. OK the Saffers had the benefit of the conditions on the first day, but that attempt at batting today was woeful.
Batting unit fails in test match twice, drop a bowler. Yep, that makes sense.
The coach was suggesting that Crawley could be a matchwinner, but if he fails this time I would assume that he nay be taken out of the firing lineThe problem with Crawley is how far will they push it? If he gets two ducks, what next?
Add a necessary bit of luck and that's a good morning. They've slightly weakened their batting line-up by replacing Jansen with Harmer - hopefully we'll use the conditions to bowl at the tail and not simply try and bounce them out!Well the bowlers and fielders are doing their jobs so far. A good morning for England.