Thank feck for that
South Africa vs England - T20,One Dayers, Tests.
- Thread starter Nick 0208 Ldn
- Start date
The familiar 5th day collapse after tea for England. I thought Colly and Onions did well to hang on for the last 19 balls in a high pressure situation.
Typical England that....cruising to a draw playing well then somehow finding a way to feck up an otherwise unfeckupable situation.....Piertersen and his usual brain fart per innings nearly cost us there.
Trott's solid. How come he hasn't gotten a chance all this time?
If Bopara gets his act together, he could replace Cook to give England a solid batting line-up.
If Bopara gets his act together, he could replace Cook to give England a solid batting line-up.
If things don't start to improve for Cook over this tour [and we can but hope Gooch sorts out some of his technical problems] it might be worth them sending him back to Essex for a spell, it did wonders for Strauss.
Although as much as his position could be under threat it surely isn't Bopara waiting in the wings, and not opening [further up the order than he was before].
That's the problem, not a whole lot of competition behind Cook
Fought back well, as it looked dangerous as Smith and Kallis were starting to dominate and build a partnership.
I was surprised Bell played again, I thought they'd go for Luke Wright
I was surprised Bell played again, I thought they'd go for Luke Wright
I know his name is often mentioned but i'd consider Rob Key. However as unconvincing as Cook has been he isn't close to being dropped yet.
Bell on the other hand, well if he doesn't do the business in at least one innings that could be the straw that breaks the camel's back for Cape Town.
Onions seems to have trained on a bit since we've been in South Africa btw.
Ian Bothams commentary is getting on my nerves with his constant whining/bleating that we didnt play 5 bowlers...keeps blabbering on about how you need 5 bowlers to win a test match totaly ignoring the fact not one other nation selects 5 specialist bowlers anyway! notice the teams who have 5 genuine bowling options have a top class all rounder as that 5th option meaning it dosnt weaken the batting line up case in point Kallis for South africa...Flintoff for us before he retired....
Australia the best team of the last decade by a mile never selected 5 bowlers (Mcgrath/Warne/Gillespie/Lee) was their attack...the current australia dont select 5 bowlers (Bollinger/Johnson/Siddle/Hauritz.....South africa in the first test here didnt select 5 bowlers....and only have 5 now because their ALL ROUNDER world class batsmen is fit to bowl again....India the current number 1 ranked test team in the world dont select 5 bowlers etc etc....
On the one recent occasion we did select 5 specialist bowlers....against australia at headingly in the ashes in the summer....what happened? oh yes we got bowled out for 100 first innings and lost the match by an innings and 200 plus runs inside 4 days.....Botham seems to have forgotten this it would appear...
We won the ashes with 5 bowlers because we had flintoff....a world class all rounder....we dont have him any more...botham you cock!
Rant over.
Australia the best team of the last decade by a mile never selected 5 bowlers (Mcgrath/Warne/Gillespie/Lee) was their attack...the current australia dont select 5 bowlers (Bollinger/Johnson/Siddle/Hauritz.....South africa in the first test here didnt select 5 bowlers....and only have 5 now because their ALL ROUNDER world class batsmen is fit to bowl again....India the current number 1 ranked test team in the world dont select 5 bowlers etc etc....
On the one recent occasion we did select 5 specialist bowlers....against australia at headingly in the ashes in the summer....what happened? oh yes we got bowled out for 100 first innings and lost the match by an innings and 200 plus runs inside 4 days.....Botham seems to have forgotten this it would appear...
We won the ashes with 5 bowlers because we had flintoff....a world class all rounder....we dont have him any more...botham you cock!
Rant over.
Is he actually saying that? No team picks 5 bowlers now. I remember during England v West Indies, England went in with 5 bowlers(I think Flintoff was injured?) and Michael Holding kept saying 5 bowlers is way too much and if they all bowl well, you're expecting each bowler to take no more than 2 wickets, which shouldn't how it should be.
And there's been a bit of rubbish written about 'too much workload' on S African bowlers because they have only 4 bowlers. India have been going in with 4 bowlers for years now because we don't have any good all-rounders, and our players are consistently playing in the sub-continent where it's very humid.
And there's been a bit of rubbish written about 'too much workload' on S African bowlers because they have only 4 bowlers. India have been going in with 4 bowlers for years now because we don't have any good all-rounders, and our players are consistently playing in the sub-continent where it's very humid.
Steyn playing well right now, just hit a monster six of Swann. 50 runs partnership completed between Ntini and Steyn
england 50-0 at present. Still looks a pretty decent track for batting. Strauss on 42, Cook loks to still be playing himself in on 7. Strauss looks better playing straight down the ground these days. At one time he could only play shots square of the wicket. Looking good at the crease.
You can just tell he's at the absolute top of his game, full of confidence, when he came back into the England team, he'd pretty much removed the straight drive from his game as it was getting him out, but now he's full of confidence, he's driving beautifully again
Yep he is...he was whining about it in the first test to...how he would have left bell out played sidebottom and had prior at 6 broad at 7...last time that happened we lost by an innings and 200 runs inside 4 days....England dont have a strong enough batting line up to go in with 5 bowlers anyway...
So frustrating listening to him bleat on about how we should have played 4 seamers and how its the 'way to go' yet no other country does it!...mans a moron sometimes.
Agree with you on this mate. It's only if you have an outstanding all-rounder that you can go with five bowlers and we simply don't have one.
Good day for England today; it was good to see Cook get past a hundred and hopefully Bell can join him tomorrow.
Another draw.
South Africa 37-2 at tea. Swann might just be good enough to win this for England. He's really developed into a good player.
Broad gets Kallis 40-3 SA
England get another 2 wickets 49-5 SA
South Africa are falling faster than the proverbial house of cards.Smith gone - 51-6. An england like collapse!
A couple of the lads looking silly on here so far
That was a hell of a bobble in the outfield there.
Bad light stops play, that's our lot today then. Not a bad day's cricket at all.
So i guess we dont need 5 bowlers eh Botham? after all you cant bowl a side out with only 4 bowlers these days.....
Swann continues his brilliant year only mitchel Johnson has taken more test match wickets than him in the calendar year of 09....top stuff.
Swann continues his brilliant year only mitchel Johnson has taken more test match wickets than him in the calendar year of 09....top stuff.
Most Wickets in 2009
A great year for him and Broad, 2nd and 3rd in the calendar year, and then there is the runs they scored as well
Wow, fecking hell.
Mitch Johnson apparently became only the 5th player in history to score 500 runs and take 50 wickets in tests in a year. Swann was only 48 runs short of equalling that.
Ian Bell has no lips. FACHT.
England with an emphatic win and their first ever 1st innings victory against SA in some 45 years. Swann has had a very good year and probably been England's best bowler, fair play to him eventhough he doesn't seem very skilled with the ball.
Swann up to number 3 in the world test bowling rankings....officially the best spinner in the world on current form.
Whisper it quietly but England are starting to look like a genuine top side.... To beat Australia and South africa in conescutive series would be some achivement.
Whisper it quietly but England are starting to look like a genuine top side.... To beat Australia and South africa in conescutive series would be some achivement.
I don’t understand why every time England win a test match people tend to say it was because of the poor opposition and not because of the fact England might actually be quite good.
To beat SA in Durban is one hell of an achievement. That on the back of the test series win against the Ozzies.
England are a good side, the bowling is looking particularly strong. And then we have some fine young bowlers coming through the ranks, the likes of Rashid, Kahn and Rankin for example.
Though my main worry would be that we are currently very dependent on Swann. It’s funny what can happen in 12 months time…
Anyway, lets try and win this test series first, and then we can start celebrating.
To beat SA in Durban is one hell of an achievement. That on the back of the test series win against the Ozzies.
England are a good side, the bowling is looking particularly strong. And then we have some fine young bowlers coming through the ranks, the likes of Rashid, Kahn and Rankin for example.
Though my main worry would be that we are currently very dependent on Swann. It’s funny what can happen in 12 months time…
Anyway, lets try and win this test series first, and then we can start celebrating.
Compared to the likes of Murali or Warne, I'd agree. But he does seem to vary his pace, gets good turn on most wickets and is very controlled. Add his more than useful batting and he's become a very good player.
Great win for England, they're looking very strong.
Thing with Swann is hes very mentally strong to......he dosnt let batsman who attack him (like Kallis has in this series) bother him....which is a noticable difference to our previous number 1 spinner Panesar who is to be rather blunt a bit of a pussy really.....Panesar got visibly rattled whenever any batsmen took him on and just runs out of ideas....Swann just says 'fine good shot now do it again' and thats a key difference for me..very Warne like mentality which is great to see in an English spinner.
His variation of pace and the drift in flight he gets is a much underaretd skill for any spin bowler to have to....overall youd have to say he is probably the best orthadox finger spinner in world cricket right now....and the test bowling rankings confirm that.
Panesar has got nothing about him, he is actually a little shit but overhyped believe it or not was because of him being an indian. I could bat better than him, so that's saying something. Good that England replaced him with Swann.
Whats him being Indian have anything to do with him getting into the England squad?
The best spinners this generation are from Sri Lanka and Australia respectively. thats some bollocks you spout.
Swann has surprised me the most, thought he was just an average off-spinner when first saw him play but he has improved and turned into a very good spinner, the fact that he is a good batsman also makes him a very useful player and Broad is class, just absolutely class. He is not the next Andrew Flintoff but he can turn into a very good all-rounder. Finally it seems that England are turning into a very good team, although I still think their batting isn't all that good compared to the top teams.
Well what i will say is Englands batting line up is nowhere near the strength of Indias who have by a country mile the best batting top 7 in world cricket right now, thats undisputable...but after that id say its as good as any other....Swann coming it at number 9 averages over 35 with the bat...broad at 8 averages over 30...Prior batting at 7 averages 45...thats a hell of a lower order line up straight away...then you have collingwood in the middle order averaging over 45 and obviously Pietersen who is one of the best batsmen in world cricket......Strauss is as good an opener as there is on current form maybe only Gautam Gambier surpasses him right now so id say barring Inida its as good as most others...what it lacks i think is 'star names' more than anything....Collingwoods a prime example of this, a very simple unflashy type of player yet averages over 45 with the bat....a world class batting average.
Australias batting line up has a lot of stella names but i dont think its that great when put under pressure we saw that countless times in the ashes where England bowled them out very cheaply on numerous occasions...same goes for this south african one who really bottle it under pressure....Sri Lanka are soley reliant on 2-3 players to namely Sangakara and Jayawadena.