Twitter Reactions: Dominic Sibley and Joe Root nearly put curtains on South Africa's chances with a brilliant partnership

England have tightened the screws in the second Test against South Africa. On Day 3, the visitors played some excellent cricket which might have almost put curtains on the hosts’ chances in this game. The Brits, with the kind of position they are in at the moment, will surely fancy levelling this series 1-1. Dominic Sibley batted authoritatively on the day and got a good amount of support from skipper Joe Root.

James Anderson didn’t let South Africa narrow down the gap between both the sides in the first innings. Right on the first ball of the day, he picked up the wicket of Kagiso Rabada. Then, he even accounted for the wicket of Anrich Nortje, thus completing a five-wicket haul. His efforts helped his team gain a crucial lead in this match as the Proteas were bowled out for 223 runs.

Dominic Sibley brings up his maiden Test half-century

England’s batsmen got off to starts but only Dominic Sibley went on to get a big score. He played cautiously and his shot selection was quite good throughout the knock. His partner, Zak Crawley on the other hand, got out for only 25 runs. Kagiso Rabada managed to find his edge which carried through to the keeper. Anrich Nortje, then, banged in a quick, short ball that troubled Joe Denly.

He couldn’t control the hook shot that he attempted and the ball hit him high on his bat. The top edge flew to the fine-leg fielder and Dwaine Pretorius took a good, low catch. Joe Root built up a wonderful partnership with Sibley after the fall of this wicket. He showed a lot of promise and looked good to get a big score. But his conversion rates have always been an issue and it wasn’t any different this time either. The skipper, after mustering 61 runs, got out to Pretorious after he tried to flirt with a delivery outside off-stump.

Also, Nortje dismissed Dominic Bess for a duck and that concluded play on Day-3. Dominic Sibley got his maiden fifty and remained not out on 85 runs as he will look to get to the triple figures on Day-4. Furthermore, England might want to bat for another session or so and push the target further away.

Here is how Twitterati reacted to all the action on the day:

That Joe Root and Sibley partnership might be the decider of the second test match #SAvENG

— KO14 🇿🇦🇧🇷 (@o_ill_isco_k) January 5, 2020

Mr Dominic Sibley, that is absolutely outstanding. pic.twitter.com/vGux9QxGLR

— Michael Ivory (@mikeivory91) January 5, 2020

dominic sibley ending the day 85* off 222 balls after a brilliant effort grinding SA out of the game. shades of prime alastair cook in his willingness to put a proper price on his wicket while having about three scoring shots. #SAvENG

— josh (@lobstereo) January 5, 2020

Given a batters scores should follow a weibull distribution (exponential with a very long tail), I reckon you could describe the wild swings in pundit opinion, of say dominic sibley, as a linear function of the natural variance. #EngvsSA #moneybollox

— Oli Perkins (@OliPerkins2) January 5, 2020

Amazing Jimmy Anderson took his first 5 wicket Test Match haul when ⬇️ 🏏

Zak Crawley age 5
Dom Sibley age 7
Joe Root age 12
Ben Stokes age 11
Ollie Pope age 5
Jos Buttler age 12
Sam Curran age 4
Dom Bess age 5

Now they are all in the same team together! 🏏 #SAvENG #bbccricket

— James (@Surreycricfan) January 5, 2020

Brilliant Derby. Dug in and fought again. Great effort from Lawrence, Sibley is the future, but most of all a very impressive team performance!
Rooney still hasn’t lost at Palace!
UTR! 🐏😍

— 🐑🖤Julie King 🖤🐑 (@juliek1712) January 5, 2020

78 off 210 balls is a shift. Sibley will always have comments about his technique but crease occupation is exactly what England need.

— Elizabeth Ammon (@legsidelizzy) January 5, 2020

Fantastic day for England with the bat. When did we last say that? Chuffed for Sibley. Just 15 more runs please 🙂 #SAvENG

— The Full Toss Blog (@thefulltoss) January 5, 2020

Anyone else think that there was a need for Denly to be more positive and let Sibley just block his way to a score so that further ahead before the second new ball, nearly 56 overs to score 116 between them #SAvENG

— Pete Sanderson (@bigphil7) January 5, 2020

If England find a quality number 3, they could be a really hard team to beat! Joe Denly is good but ain't a top number 3 as he doesn't convert starts! #SAvENG

— Anirudh (@Mezzala144) January 5, 2020

Bat sensibly for the first hour, pick the pace up for the hour before lunch, get past 350 ahead and declare. Hopefully the plan for tomorrow, think we’ll end up batting longer than that if there’s wickets left unfortunately #SAvENG

— Matt (@Matt_Walker96) January 5, 2020

dominic sibley ending the day 85* off 222 balls after a brilliant effort grinding SA out of the game. shades of prime alastair cook in his willingness to put a proper price on his wicket while having about three scoring shots. #SAvENG

— josh (@lobstereo) January 5, 2020

. @DomBess99, the spinner that was brought in as a more reliable batsman/nightwatchman, goes for a pair in this match.
I'd be fuming if I were @mattyparky96.#SAvENG #bbccricket

— Hamish Arnold (@hamisharnold) January 5, 2020

Very good day for England, hopefully Sibley can reach three figures tomorrow and we can build a big lead 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #SAvENG

— Harry 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (@Harry_Currall) January 5, 2020

England players scoring a pair v South Africa:
LA Dawson – Lord's 2017
DM Bess – Cape Town 2020#SAvEng

— Arthur_S (@allanholloway) January 5, 2020