The Day England More or Less Got Away With It.

On the first day of the opening test at Centurion, England did rather better than could reasonably have been expected.

For skipper Joe Root to give the South Africans their desire to bat first after his winning the toss was surely the purest of folly.
This is a pitch not especially noted for taking spin but one which decays badly on the fourth and fifth days of test matches.
Furthermore the England bowling was wildly below par.
With a thousand test wickets between them, the opening attack of Broad and Anderson were both profoundly mediocre in the opening ten overs, and yet, opener Edgar decided to gift Anderson a wicket to the first ball of the series - caught behind to a hapless stroke down the leg side. This was Jimmy's only wicket. Happily, Broad improved later in the innings.
Ben Stokes, one of five seamers in the side, did not get a bowl. Archer was almost as poor as he had been in New Zealand even if he was able to top 90 mph on occasions.
The pick of the day was young Sam Curran who took 4 - 57.
South Africa will not have been pleased to end the day on 277 for 9. Their batsmen helped to justify Root's dubious decision to put them in.
I say that 'we rather got away with it' but that will mean nothing if the batsmen do not bat themselves into a significant first innings lead.
England open today with Burns and Sibley. May the latter please, please prove me wrong about his screamingly obvious lack of test quality.