[Lord Snooty]

Making a right mess of it this morning. Cook, Ballance, Root and Stokes all gone.

149-5

---

Proper old style English collapse here and a pair of specs for Dawson.


181-7

---

Golden quacker for Broad. Could end up losing this yet. The lead is 279.

182-8

[Lord Snooty]

Target 331.

SA 25-3

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

It's all in hand! 37-4, spinners getting some proper turn off the pitch.

[themaclad]

Abject from South Africa, get the impression that the modern day batsman doesn't want to know when the going gets tough

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

All over! England beat South Africa in a Lord's Test for the first time since 1960 with a 211-run victory. Moeen the star with six-fer in the second innings, ten wickets in the match. Perfect start to the Root era.

[Lord Snooty]

Well that didn't take long did it? How many wickets today? Nineteen? Wowzers!

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Fantastic to see England putting real faith in the spinners, too. A far cry from the days of packing the team with seamers on dusty, turning pitches in India last year.

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

2nd Test Match

Trent Bridge, Nottingham

No one could have asked for a better start to the Root era.  For England, a Lord's Test win is like gold-dust at the best of times, but it was a first Test triumph over South Africa in North London since 1960, achieved by a margin of 211 runs in the space of just four days and with a first-innings record from the new skipper in the process.  The sense of "cometh the hour, cometh the man" was intoxicating.

But of course, the reality is that the Tests (in every sense of the word) keep on coming, and this weekend Root 66 will be leading England out at Trent Bridge against a South Africa captained once more by the returning Faf du Plessis.  He knows the dodgy batting and dire fielding that contributed to their Lord's defeat has to stay down in London, and he'll push now for a changed side to give England a much sterner challenge in Nottingham.

While the hosts have the luxury naming an unchanged XI, South Africa have (finally) dropped JP Duminy and have been obliged to replace the suspended Kagiso Rabada with Duanne Oliver.  Chris Morris may come in to further augment the bowling attack, though at the top of the order they have little choice but to stick with Heino Kuhn despite a torrid debut.

On a pitch noted for swinging and seaming we may not see any Moeen heroics, but there'll be plenty for Broad and Anderson to get their teeth into, while on the batting front England's top order - Ballance and Jennings particularly - each need to be looking to post a decent score and really stake their claim as automatic picks.  The forecast is cool and cloudy for the full five days, albeit with sunny spells on Monday, and wickets will be there for the taking.

Almost twenty years on from Atherton vs Donald, it's time for England to show the spirit of 1998 again.

Play commences at 1100, 14th July 2017

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

South Africa win the toss and elect to bat.

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

First wicket down! South Africa made a cautious start against some proper Broad and Anderson swing, but Jimmy finally gets the breakthrough as Dean Elgar flings the bat at a wide delivery. Liam Dawson takes a beauty of a diving catch at gully.