Bullring Mad Saturday

England 400 all out 

v South Africa 88 for 6 

Close on Day 2 

Saturday 25 January 2020 

4th Test 

Played at The Wanderers, Johannesburg 

Twitter @ball_sup 

www.twitter.com/ball_sup 

Untappd ball_sup 

South African different Beer Ticks - 133

Mad Saturday at The Bullring. I can't point the finger. I've been around the block myself. It just feels all a bit full on in Jozi. Your body space rarely feels uninvaded. Everybody is polite. In their own way. But, you never really know what's going to happen next. We started in our proper seats in The Memorial. Thing is, Mad Saturday, they've opened a bar at the back. So, the queues & decanting from cans into plastic encroached a bit. Not to worry. There's acres up the back of The Unity. At Lunch, we blagged in there. Selected two seats on a virtually empty row. No one in front, nor behind. Bliss. Go on then. What happened within ten minutes?

Correct. The sliding doors of the hitherto empty hospitality box behind us were flung open noisily. The first person through the doors was dressed as a chicken. The second person through plonked a Ghetto Blaster down. And started a Disco in competition with the PA. And, we're off. Mad Saturday. Yesterday, Stokes had a stand up with some Saffer over verbals. Apparently England asked for a Security Beef Up. To be told, it's not quantity, it's quality. And a promise to explain to the relevant stewards what to be on the lookout for. Lots of pre game warnings about a small dark room in The Big House if you overstepped. FFS, do the Math. It's Mad Saturday at The Bullring. Two pitch invaders. What else you gonna do on a Saturday?

Very good day's cricket for England fans though. Mad an' all. Pope & Root went through the gears to a century partnership. Pushing the overall rate close to four an over at one point. At 250 and bits for four. I felt they had the chance to put the series out of reach. But, the nagging doubt that they were being too aggressive roosted. 258 for 4 became 269 for 7. Three hundred looked a way off. But, it ended at 400. Wood & Broad hitting 7 sixes. Putting 82 on for the tenth. A new record at The Wanderers I'm hearing.

The Mad Saturday distractions made it a little difficult to work out what was going on when ZA batted. Watchful? Yes? Storm weathering? Yes. But, England bowled beautifully. After 14 overs, it was still essentially parity with just 14 runs. Best part of 19 overs before Malan went at 29 for 1. Then. Just kept chipping away. Nightwatchman Nortje went in the last over. Leaving them an awfully long way back at 88 for 6. Superb day for England. Not so for The Bullring security outfit. All celebrated with….

Redrock Brewing Co, Firebird IPA in a bottle at 4.2%. Not quite. Halfway between English Bitter & English IPA. The early malts actually worked quite well. But, everything was all a bit too gentle.

Stats

I have now Blogged from 898 games in 1,985 days