Cricket Banter

The Test Championship will not now be completed before the Final in June, so the 9 team table will be calculated by the percentage of points earned in completed matches.
The format has already been heavily criticized, as it favours teams who play shorter series.

England's white-ball series in South Africa starts with the first of 3 T20's on Friday 27th November (16.00 UK). A second member of South Africa's squad has had a positive Covid-19 test & is isolating, adding to the first player & 2 other players who were close contacts.

Joe Root has not been selected for the T20 series V SA starting tomorrow, but has again reminded us that he's still one of the best players in the world in any format. He scored a run a ball 77 in a 40 over warm-up match followed by 45 no of 26 balls in a T20 warm-up match. He was Yorkshires most consistent run scorer in this years blast in a form of the game where consistency is the hardest to achieve.
England have to settle on a line-up, especially their batting, with very few T20 fixtures before the next World Cup. At present it really looks like Root is at the back of the queue to even make the squad, let alone the starting XI, no mention of him being rested for these games. Not easy to get Bairstow , Roy, Malan & Root in the same side. A good problem to have, but a headache for the selectors.

Sir Geoffrey Boycott's cricket memorabilia auction has raised £207,000 from the 130 lots. Most notable, was his 100th 100 bat which made £43,750.

1st T20
SA 179-6 di Plessis 58 van der Dussen 37 de Kock 30 S Curran 3-28
E 183-5 Bairstow 86 no Stokes 37 Linde 2-20 Ngidi 2-31
England won by 5 wickets

Australia beat India by 66 runs in the 1st ODI in Sydney. Finch 114 & Smith 105 helped Australia to 374-6 with Shami taking 3-59. Hardik Pandya top scored for India with 90, & Dhawan made 74. Zampa took 4-54, Hazlewood 3-55 as India finished well short on 308-8.

New Zealand beat West Indies by 5 wicket in a T20 I, under the D?L method. Pollard top score for West Indies with 75 no. Ferfuson was the pick of the bowlers with 5-21. Neesham finished 48 no as the Kiwi's got home with 4 balls to spare.

Excellent knock from Bairstow to get England over the line. Good effort from Sam Curran with the ball too.

Tom Curran had a day to forget, gong for 55 from his 4 overs, he did manage a wicket with his final ball. It can happen in this format, du Plessis played really well during the over that went for 24 runs. Hendricks went one worse for South Africa with figures o f4-0-56-0.
I great to see that getting moved down to number 4 didn't affect Barstow's performance, best I've seen him play for some time.

2nd T20I
SA 146-6 de Kock 30 Linde 29 Rashid 2-23
ENG 147-6 Malan 55 Shamsi 3-19
E beat SA by 4 wickets