2-7 England frustrated by rain at The Oval

England v South Africa third Test
continues onSky Sports Cricket, 11am Sunday

England began the third day of the third Test against South Africa at The Oval as 1-9 favourites but rain halted their progress towards a series lead.

Joe Root’s men finished the day on 74-1 – a lead of 252 over the Proteas – and the home side are 2-7 for a victory that would put them 2-1 up in the four-Test contest. South Africa are out to 16-1 and the draw is 15-4 but the forecast suggests few interruptions to play on the final two days of the Test.

Temba Bavuma’s 52 had hauled South Africa from 61-7 on Friday evening to 175 all out on Saturday and the number six had been a 10-1 chance to top-score in the tourists’ first innings.

Bavuma was last out, caught behind off Toby Roland-Jones to give the England seam bowler a five-wicket haul on his Test debut.

There are six matches in the T20 Blast and Birmingham Bears are worth backing to continue their resurgence with a home win over Lancashire.

The Bears’ clash with Yorkshire on Friday was washed out – probably not a bad result for them, given the Vikings’ excellent Twenty20 performances this summer – but before that they had convincing victories over Leicestershire and Derbyshire.

Young opener Ed Pollack made 66 on his debut against Derbyshire and Sam Hain, William Porterfield and powerful New Zealand hitter Colin de Grandhomme have eased the runscoring burden on captain Ian Bell.

Jeetan Patel and Grant Elliott add international experience to the bowling attack and opponents Lancashire have had a moderate Blast campaign.

They have won three of their six completed matches but two of those victories came against North Group whipping boys Durham and their bowlers took a pasting at Derby last time out as former Lancashire batsman Luis Reece smashed 97 off 55 balls to set up a 35-run win.

The betting suggests there should be tight contests between Derbyshire and Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire and Somerset and Sussex, while Glamorgan will be pleased with a fine forecast for the trip to Kent.

Half of the Welsh county’s eight matches have been rained off and they must be wary of in-form Kent openers Daniel Bell-Drummond and Joe Denly.

The pair have put on 82, 20, two, 33, 163, 45 and 52 in seven Blast outings while Glamorgan’s opening partnership hasn’t survived beyond the 14th ball in any of their five innings in the competition.

Hills go 5-6 about Kent having a higher first-wicket stand at the St Lawrence Ground and that price is of interest given the teams’ recent trends.

Recommendation
Birmingham Bears
2pts Evs Coral, Ladbrokes
Kent to have higher opening partnership v Glamorgan
2pts 5-6 Hills