[Archived] Cricket - England V South Africa

[Manc Rover]

Lookin good now. 100 partnership for Colly and KP. We aint said that too often!

[AussieinUk]

AMBROSE!!!! You bloody douche bag!

EDIT: What is this the Kallis/Ntini show now?

[DeadlyDirk]

Haven't managed to see as much of this test so far as I'd like, been listening to most of it though.

It's a bit of a strange one as SA have already one the series so difficult to say if they are focused 100%, I'm sure they are trying to be but sub consciously they may only be at about 90%.

We bowled well to get them out for under 200, all the bowlers chipping in and doing well.

Batting has gone okay, a lot of people getting starts, fantastic to see KP get a ton in his first game in charge, unfortunately he went a couple of balls later. We've seen a bit of a collapse now with just Harmy, Anderson and Monty left to bat. Were about 70 in front, if we can eek that up to 90 or 100 or so it'll be a pretty good performance.

In all probability we'll be bowling again tonight, fantastic if we can get a few out. Weather suggests there may not be much play tomorrow so could well come down to the last two days.

[AussieinUk]

Well, thats his PB on highest score in tests. (not going to mention names)

Looking good, hopefully more to follow...

DD - you could be right and the Safa's have the foot 'off' the peddle a little, but thats not really in their nature.

EDIT: Take a bow Harmy, 49 not out and no thanks to Panesar. Some of the shots that Harmison played - any recogised batsmen would have been proud of!! Again, well done.

A lead of 122 is very good..

[blue phil]

I think Harmy has to take responsibility for the run out . Panesar isn't recognised as being a whippet between the wickets and maybe SH should have waited for an easier run . Excellent display by the man , though - surprised me . Maybe Peterson will insist on him furthering his one day career and keeping him active .

[Flopsy]

Panesar makes me look fast between the wickets.

Great partnership from Harmison and Anderson when we really needed it.

Getting back to Monty, he has this innings to prove to me that he isnt a busted flush, as I see it he has no variation, no guile and doesnt appear to think batsmen out. His batting and fielding is regressing and he needs to go back to his county and learn his trade again.

I would quite like Tredwell and Swann to tour this winter, with Rashid being given the Lions tour to get ready for next summer.

[jim mk2]

Neither Tredwell nor Swann are Test cricketers, and Swann is a pain in the whatsit like his dad (played against him many times). Rashid isn't ready.

The county cupboard is bare with regard to spin, which is why the selectors are persisting with Panesar. Hard to believe now but Panesar was a big-hitting middle order batsman in his youth.

England's batting is still very frail. Trescothick and the old Vaughan are sorely missed.

[DeadlyDirk]

Panesar makes me look fast between the wickets.

Great partnership from Harmison and Anderson when we really needed it.

Getting back to Monty, he has this innings to prove to me that he isnt a busted flush, as I see it he has no variation, no guile and doesnt appear to think batsmen out. His batting and fielding is regressing and he needs to go back to his county and learn his trade again.

I would quite like Tredwell and Swann to tour this winter, with Rashid being given the Lions tour to get ready for next summer.

Yeh Monty is a difficult one, at the end of the day he is a finger spinner and the best we have. We don't have the luxury of having a wrist spinner. Monty is very effective on turning wickets but doesn't really create chances on his own on a flatter track like Warne and Murali. Let's be honest though, spinners like that don't come around very often.

I am surprised he hasn't worked harder at a variation, he rarely even bowls an arm ball. He's better than Giles was but is reminding me of him lately as a defensive option that can tie up an end but not threaten the batsmen. There is a fair bit of bounce at the Oval so I wouldn't be surprised if he does well tomorrow if needed.

His fielding is shocking really and always has been, you'd think he would of got better by now. His batting actually did get a bit better, he seemed to be able to at least hold a bat, defend his wicket and hit the odd run, now he's turned into an out and out rabbit again.

He needs to work hard over the rest of the summer and the winter while were playing the one day series. He needs to focus on improving his batting and fielding as well as trying to add some variation to his game ready for India. Although the wickets out there will tend to suit him more.

Gutted Harmy didn't get his 50!

Neither Tredwell nor Swann are Test cricketers, and Swann is a pain in the whatsit like his dad (played against him many times). Rashid isn't ready.

The county cupboard is bare with regard to spin, which is why the selectors are persisting with Panesar. Hard to believe now but Panesar was a big-hitting middle order batsman in his youth.

England's batting is still very frail. Trescothick and the old Vaughan are sorely missed.

Your right that is hard to believe!!!

The batting is a bit hit and miss at the moment, sadly we won't see Banger in an England shirt again, hopefully Vaughan can get some runs for Yorkshire then come back strong for England. I think Cook has a lot of potential, Bell is technically great and he's still my pick to be a huge success against Australia next summer, Pietersen's talent is obvious but then that's where it stops for me.

Collingwood has found a bit of form in the last two tests but has been struggling for a while before that, not sure if he will be first choice in India. Tim Ambrose has been terrible with the bat, however he's kept pretty well. Freddie just hasn't had time at the crease to find any form, whether or not he is going to be capable of hitting more than 30 odd again only time will tell. Strauss can battle and graft an innings at times but I have to wonder how many times he's been caught out at slip over the last two years, usually from a right hander bowling around the wicket. He just doesn't seem to know where his off stump is and top bowlers get him fairly easily it seems.

The lower order shows signs of promise, barring today Broad has been great, Andersons batting has improved and Sidebottom can be handy, then obviously Harmy showed some good form today.

I don't like cricket, I love it.

[jim mk2]

Strauss can battle and graft an innings at times but I have to wonder how many times he's been caught out at slip over the last two years, usually from a right hander bowling around the wicket. He just doesn't seem to know where his off stump is and top bowlers get him fairly easily it seems.

Strauss plays too far away from his body and fails to drop his hands and leave the short-pitched ball directed across body. Simple technical fauls that the coaches should have sorted out. Not really a Test player but the best we have got at present.

[grizfoot]

England are a top quality opening batsmen and a wicket-keeper who can bat short of being a top, top quality side in my opinion.

How long are they going to stick with Ambrose when he's done nothing with the bat? If he was placed in batting order in terms of actually ability with bat he'd be at number nine or ten surely.

Not sure about Bell been moved upto number three either he'd been doing well at number five seems silly to move him when he was doing perfectly well at five.

Saying that England are in a good position thanks to Captain KP, Colly and that cameo at the end from Harmy.

[DeadlyDirk]

England are a top quality opening batsmen and a wicket-keeper who can bat short of being a top, top quality side in my opinion.

How long are they going to stick with Ambrose when he's done nothing with the bat? If he was placed in batting order in terms of actually ability with bat he'd be at number nine or ten surely.

Not sure about Bell been moved upto number three either he'd been doing well at number five seems silly to move him when he was doing perfectly well at five.

Saying that England are in a good position thanks to Captain KP, Colly and that cameo at the end from Harmy.

Ambrose has already been dropped from the one day squad now in favour of Prior, I'm not sure if even a century in the second innings will save his test place either.

I'm not sure who will get the next chance in the test arena, they may go back to Prior who did well with the bat I felt and has had a great domestic season, its his wicket keeping that remains in question though. Could well be a big one day series for him coming up.

Foster and Read are surely the best wicket keepers we have but the question remains over whether or not they can score runs at test level, I'm not sure they can. I'm surprised that Steve Davies from Worcester hasn't been looked at yet. It may be they want him to play county cricket a bit longer to fine tune his game and not rush him like they did initially with Foster and Read.

[AussieinUk]

Strauss plays too far away from his body and fails to drop his hands and leave the short-pitched ball directed across body. Simple technical fauls that the coaches should have sorted out. Not really a Test player but the best we have got at present.

So, are you saying its a coaching issue?

[Billy Castell]

It is astonishing how our wicket keepers start off well in the first few tests, then all form with bat and/or gloves deserts them after about 10 tests. It happened with Prior and now Ambrose. I suppose trying to find our Gilchrist is a near impossible task because of this. Speaking of which, how has his Aussie replacement been getting on?

[DeadlyDirk]

It is astonishing how our wicket keepers start off well in the first few tests, then all form with bat and/or gloves deserts them after about 10 tests. It happened with Prior and now Ambrose. I suppose trying to find our Gilchrist is a near impossible task because of this. Speaking of which, how has his Aussie replacement been getting on?

That's the problem with Gilchrist, he raised the bar so much that everyone is looking for someone that can keep well and average over 40 with the bat when he just seems to be a one off.

I've not seen a lot of Haddin but judging from cricinfo he hasn't done a lot in tests, highest score of 45 in his first 6 test innings, averaging around 30 though so doing okay. Averaging the same in ODI's after about 30 games, highest score of 87, 4 half centuries. By all accounts his keeping has been good though.

The debate over English keepers has gone on forever, Geraint Jones can't even score runs for Kent now! I've always said they need to decide upon a wicket keeper who can bat a bit or a batsmen who can keep wicket then stick with someone. Picking someone like Ambrose who isn't an outstanding wicket keeper or outstanding batsmen at county level just means we get mediocre performances when they get found out at test level.

The batting wicket keeper is Prior

The wicket keeping batter is Foster or Read

If they want to go down the route of an in betweener again then it's Davies from Worcester.

Good to get a wicket this morning, shame we couldn't get another before the rain came in. Oh well still a few runs in front with 2 wickets down, could well be the end of the days play for today now. Tomorrow is a big day for England.

[flintoff]

my team for the one dayers

strauss

pitersen

bopara

shah

prior

flintoff

andersen

harmison not shure if hes in squad

bell

collingwood

sidebottom

[AussieinUk]

my team for the one dayers

strauss

pitersen

bopara

shah

prior

flintoff

andersen

harmison not shure if hes in squad

bell

collingwood

sidebottom

Its quite obvious you haven't a bloody clue what your talking about!! In the squad? Shure?

1. Harmison retired from ODI's, quite a while ago and is not even in contention for a squad place

2. The word is SURE.

Please stay in school and stop posting just for the hell of it (two of your threads, in the main forum have been locked already)!.

[flintoff]

Its quite obvious you haven't a bloody clue what your talking about!! In the squad? Shure?

1. Harmison retired from ODI's, quite a while ago and is not even in contention for a squad place

2. The word is SURE.

Please stay in school and stop posting just for the hell of it (two of your threads, in the main forum have been locked already)!.

harmisons doing well

[brfcshabba]

harmisons doing well

Can you not following his example of retiring from ODIs and retire from this board. Please

[flintoff]

shut it he could always make a return like tendulka did

[AussieinUk]

shut it he could always make a return like tendulka did

Pay some respect to the man - Its Tendulkar

Moving on to cricket matters; Thought de Villiers played well and was very unlucky not to get the ton. Broad bowled better in this innings and his line and length were much better throughout.

Anyway 196 to win with 110+ overs. Please England - no cheap wickets!

[Eddie]

Hope England do it, they deserve it this test, but it's a bit tricky now. I wouldn't want to trust 5/6/7 to get there. Put £50 on them to win at 4.7, so have extra reason to want them to win this one.

[Bazzanotsogreat]

Possible XI to India/Ashes next summer

Cook

Strauss? ( Oh how I wiss Tresco still played test match cricket)

Bell

K.P

Collingwood/Bopra

Prior (batting WK)

Flintoff

Broad ( Cant have freddie in the side without a decent number 8 : who will avg 25 +)

Harmison

Anderson/Jones/Sidebottom

Panesar

[grizfoot]

Possible XI to India/Ashes next summer

Cook

Strauss? ( Oh how I wiss Tresco still played test match cricket)

Bell

K.P

Collingwood/Bopra

Prior (batting WK)

Flintoff

Broad ( Cant have freddie in the side without a decent number 8 : who will avg 25 +)

Harmison

Anderson/Jones/Sidebottom

Panesar

Yeah that would be pretty much my team. Two other batsmen to consider would be Denly and Shah. Although I don't think Denly is quite ready to step-up to the test match stage (future replacement for Strauss possibly). Shah has had an impressive county season and has done well for England in ODIs in the past, the selectors don't seem to fancy him though.

Back to the current test match, England should be able to knock these runs off. But if they get off to a poor start anything could happen. England deserve one test match win to their name for this series in my opinion South Africa and England are two evenly matched teams. Only South Africia have Boucher and we have errmm Ambrose.

[RibbleValleyRover]

Still not sure about Harmison even though he had a pretty decent return to the side. You have to take into account the pitch suited his bowling style of banging it in, how will he fair on pitches where banging it in won't work?

Plus he suffers from 'homesickness' on tours.

[DeadlyDirk]

Well was just about to say its all looking easy for England, still is really but I've just cursed Cook, caught at slip, Smith doesn't drop many (If any).

It's been a good performance from England in this test, Boycott makes a good point that they miss Steyn but there has been numerous times when teams have missed players, you can't make excuses for that, what about the ashes when we were missing Vaughan and Jones and co.

Yeh Harmison will be an interesting one because he does not perform anywhere near as well away from home but I feel as though he would be a big threat against the Aussies next summer so I would be making plans to have him in the team, meaning he surely has to go to India.

He hasn't played a lot of cricket for England in the last year or so, would be interesting if Pietersen tried to persuade him out of one day retirement just to get him a bit more comfortable in the England setup again. But then again we all know one day cricket and test cricket are worlds apart.

All in all you can only really take positives from this last test, but as I said it will always have a bit of an asterix over it since it was a dead test and S.Africa were probably subconsciously not 100% up for it.

Well done boys!