England in South Africa 2015/16

Confirmedwww.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/35152816

Excellent innings by Compton doing exactly what was needed - and what England has missed for some time. Stokes is now at the stage where he will either learn quickly and become a true No 6 and fourth seamer, or turn into another flashy Flintoff. The shot he played to get out this morning was not worthy of his talent.

On edit: And superb, intelligent bowling from Morkel to change the structure of the innings completely in the course of 2 overs.  This is shaping up to be a very good match indeed.

A year ago, even a few months ago, the idea that England would have a big first innings lead against South Africa in any test would have seemed unlikely in the extreme. That they would do so because of decisive innings by Taylor and Compton - neither of them considered for any of the summer's tests - and without Anderson to lead the bowling would have been considered incredible. It shows how far South Africa have fallen from their perch, but it does seem to reflect a confidence that England now have that has outlasted all the "New England" rubbish of fast scoring and cults of personality. Despite the loss to Pakistan in the Gulf the team has gradually knitted together and Cook is finally growing into his job as captain, less reactive in his field placings and bowling changes, reading the changing state of the match better and even getting results from lesser talents. It is remarkable that a team without a decent wicketkeeper, with at least two batsmen, and probably one bowler,  of less than test class should have dominated the game so far in almost every respect. Unless the weather intervenes England should win this match comfortably now and probably the series as well.

It looks as if international cricket is going through a rather erratic phase at the moment and there is no clearly dominant side. Australia are wiping the floor with West indies, but look at the mess they got themselves into in 3 out of 5 tests in England. New Zealand are another yo-yo team, capably of outstanding performances in one series and rubbish in the next. India have some good players coming through but seem to be entirely dependent on wickets prepared for their spinners. Pakistan have everything to play for next summer and it just may be that that series will be the decider for the top side of 2016, unlikely though that may have seemed just a few months ago.d

I think Bairstow made his case for me. I actually believe that he should give up keeping as he is a very dominant batsman. He regularly got Yorkshire out of trouble last season and was easily their leading run scorer.He could bat 5 for England and 6 like Prior if he keeps.

Bairstow missing another crucial stumping only adds to my conviction that he is better off without the gloves. His first class record to date is 7498 runs at 45.16 including 16 centuries & 42 fifties. These are the figures of a genuine batsman.

If he isn't Foottitt will probably get his chance, Newlands generally being a pacier pitch than Durban. Woakes has looked very pedestrian and his batting isn't strong enough at Test level to make the difference.