Summer has started at last - First test match

and Ballance is out again. Why oh why oh why was he included in the test team. He has again been dismissed with little trouble to the scorer. He just isn't a test number 3 IMHO of course.

He is my new Ian Bell!

In other news, Joe Root looks like he is taking very nicely to captaincy, whilst Alistair Cook is hopefully relishing the freedom to simply bat...

Great result - though SA clearly under strength and under par.

So delighted to see Moeen get some richly deserved success. First 10-wicket haul and 50 in a Test since Botham in 1980!

All is right with the world! Jim has responded on a Cricket thread, I was beginning to panic

Great for Mo, and he deserved the Man of the match too. Will be interesting to see how SA are in the second test with De Villiers back in charge. The interim captain was truly uninspiring!

Why is it that England prefer to follow up a crushing victory with an even-more-crushing defeat?

Obviously

To be fair, at Lords they were under strength and under par. This did not continue at Trent Bridge. Still, the other England Cricket team are looking likely to make the final.

I hope Root is right about England's batsmen respecting the Test format, but you'd have to say that the supporting evidence is scant.

Well done England's women in a tight finish!

As far as Root's lot is concerned it seems that the swing toward delivering successfully in shorter-form cricket has tapped into the stamina and mind-set required to bat for long periods.

The game however has seen an upsurge in popularity thanks to the exploits of the "new" generation of entertainers, love them or hate them, notably the likes of KP and latterly Ben Stokes.