England recovering from a bad start.

Lost 3 early but have a bit of a partnership going between Butler and Malan.

Shamsi has been unlucky.

Still slow going though...23 overs gone and batting at 4.13 currently on 95/3

Jansen and Ngidi strangled England early...geez.

Both have bowled 6 for 15 runs @ 2.5 with Ndigi taking the wickets.

That's a match-winning opening spell as far as I'm concerned.

Ok...this partnership is getting out of hand.

..and picking up pace.

Moer....

England came back well.....

330/ 7 after 48.5

They just had no ideas for that partnership...

A big ask now.

It's like Makram is trying to get out

Yep...he succumbs to a brain fart.

I can't support this guy. 

Wreckless and weird shots only barely coming off, but instead of knocking it around...he goes for booming shot after booming shot.

Seriously, Markram needs to go.

The guy just isn’t built for international cricket.

Anybody watching could clearly see that Klaasen was the in-form and player. He’s been in form all season.

The pitch was doing very little, the sun setting with dew imminent…and the partnership between Klaasen and Markram being vital to a successful chase.

Early on, Klaasen smashed a back-of-the-hand ball through mid wicket for 4. He must have received some word about being reckless from Markram because he motioned to Markram to explain it was a back-of-the-hand half-tracker…justifying his shot.

And then Markram started with the brain farts…

For about 3 overs, Markram simply couldn’t make good contact with the ball. He kept playing booming shots and getting edges or badly timed connects that offered a single.

Still such a long way to go in the game, the partnership vital…but Markram kept on with brain fart after brain fart…i actually posted that it looks like he’s trying to get out.

All he had to do was stay there, play a supporting role and let the in-form Klaasen do the bulk of the big hitting.

Apparently, he simply doesn’t understand some basic cricketing wisdom.

With Markram supporting him, if Klaasen got out there was still Miller and Jansen to come…for whom Markram could also have played anchor.

Instead, his innings culminated in yet another massive brain fart and he skied one into the high atmosphere…and then walked off shaking his head as though he’d been hard done by.

Seriously, this guy has a defective cricketing brain.

Enough talk about talent and skill…because that’s only half of what you need. The other half is smarts and character and he doesn’t appear to possess those in any noteworthy measure.