***Official*** South Africa in England

[Scaly piscine]

One of these days Flintoff actually might pick a variation delivery such as a slower ball, instead of being an automatic dot ball or wicket.

Hurrah he hit one.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

One of these days Flintoff actually might pick a variation delivery such as a slower ball, instead of being an automatic dot ball or wicket.

Hurrah he hit one.

Theres just no pleasing you

 

[Arjun]

I missed this part of the innings, so I'd like to know, how useful is Samit Patel? Scores quick at six/seven, can also be called on to bowl left-arm spin.

And Steyn in ODIs? He's quite an explosive bowler, but has struggled for some time in this form of the game.

 

[Richard]

Steyn has always been a poor ODI bowler but he's finally been gifted a wicket there. Just hope there's no more.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

296-7 is a great score. Didnt expect us to get there when we were 4 down. Very getable though, so we'll need to bowl well.

 

[wpdavid]

Steyn has always been a poor ODI bowler but he's finally been gifted a wicket there. Just hope there's no more.

Pretty good last over in the circumstances.

 

[zaremba]

Haven't been watching - anyone able to report on the conditions and whether 296 is a particularly good score?

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Found it a bit weird that Botha didnt bowl his full 10 when he had the best figures by far.

 

[social]

Haven't been watching - anyone able to report on the conditions and whether 296 is a particularly good score?

Small ground, goodish wicket but a lot of crap bowling

Wouldnt surprise to see another collapse

 

[Perm]

England would've been aiming for 300+ when Bell and Prior were rollicking along, but with the fall of wickets through the middle stages they should be fairly pleased with this. Always great to see Flintoff making runs too.

Can't wait for the South African reply, hoping for AB and JP to anchor a good chase.

 

[Richard]

SA should be able to chase this down easily. Whether they do is an entirely different matter. Especially with Hashim Amla in the side. Let's hope he does a Dippenaar.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

SA should be able to chase this down easily. Whether they do is an entirely different matter. Especially with Hashim Amla in the side. Let's hope he does a Dippenaar.

297 is never easy even on a flat wicket. Its going to need at least a couple of good partnerships and 2 or more players to go on and score big.

 

[Richard]

It should be easy against a 4-man bowling-attack where at least half if not 3\4 of that is prone to going wildly wrong.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

It should be easy against a 4-man bowling-attack where at least half if not 3\4 of that is prone to going wildly wrong.

Yes but if they dont go widly wrong its one of the best bowling units in the world. So lets see how well or bad we bowl first before deciding if its going to be easy or not.

 

[Richard]

Well the irregularity of not going badly wrong suggests to me it's not really one of the best attacks in The World TBH. And that SA should expect to fancy their chances.

 

[Richard]

WoW, Gibbs possibly saved from a run-out by an unsteady camera. And sure enough, next ball goes for four.

 

[Richard]

Then hits one straight to short-extra-cover. That's the first time SA have gifted Anderson a wicket since 2003.

 

[aussie]

but I'd not be surprised if Denly never becomes a ODI-class opener - if he's going to be an international player I expect it to be in Tests. He's so far shown very little aptitude for the OD game.

Hmm how much of Denly have you seen. Their was a FPT match where he scored a hundred againts Durham a while back & he looked to have the raw goods definately, playing Harmison very well for a short man and as i said at the time just needs more performances like that & he is a future ODI opener without a doubt.

Not sure about his test ambitions just yet though..

Prior's ODI batting has always been poor and remains so, even if he did get a near-meaningless 40-odd* the other day.

This is what makes your comments about specific players wack son. Why not say "solid 40-odd* hopefully Prior can start to build on these starts". No you rather to codemn him on failures of the past. Nonsense

I don't "not like" anyone, I just don't think Shah is very good at ODI batting and so far there's little evidence to the contrary.

Didn't we have a debate about Shah's ODI batting recently & i proved you wrong?. Yet you still maintain he is poor.

I'll admit when KP said the other day that he'll move Shah up to three i had my doubts because thats where he failed in the past. Still believe his best position is @ 6 doing a Bevan.

Keep scoring.

Am doesn't he?. Oh right i remember you still think Collingwood is poor, you have to try with this perfection syndrome that you have yo, i'd tolerate your Anderson & Shah banter but not Collingwood.

Indeed, but there's little evidence he's currently a ODI-class top-order batsman either.

True, but at least he has shown he has the raw stuff to handle ODI cricket unlike picking test players of the past who look totally out of place in the shorter form.

How on Earth is it able to label Anderson and Harmison poor batsmen? They're nothing but nor ever will be.

No its laughable at how you still would label Anderson & Harmo as poor given what they have done recently. Stop living in the past..

 

[Richard]

Hmm how much of Denly have you seen. Their was a FPT match where he scored a hundred againts Durham a while back & he looked to have the raw goods definately, playing Harmison very well for a short man and as i said at the time just needs more performances like that & he is a future ODI opener without a doubt.

Not sure about his test ambitions just yet though..

Denly has so far accomplished very, very little in OD cricket. Everyone will play the odd good innings from time to time. I haven't seen him bat more than once, but I don't need to to see how he's performed. Unquestionably, he has potential, but I have to doubt that that will be manifested in the one-day game - so far his strength seems to be the longer format.

This is what makes your comments about specific players wack son. Why not say "solid 40-odd* hopefully Prior can start to build on these starts". No you rather to codemn him on failures of the past. Nonsense

No, on his failures of the past and present. Little if anything has changed so far.

Didn't we have a debate about Shah's ODI batting recently & i proved you wrong?. Yet you still maintain he is poor.

No. I maintained then and maintain now that he's poor.

Am doesn't he?. Oh right i remember you still think Collingwood is poor, you have to try with this perfection syndrome that you have yo, i'd tolerate your Anderson & Shah banter but not Collingwood.

Collingwood has only recently become that good at ODIs.

True, but at least he has shown he has the raw stuff to handle ODI cricket

He has?

No its laughable at how you still would label Anderson & Harmo as poor given what they have done recently. Stop living in the past..

They have both done nothing of note and never will. They are simply not fundamentally good batsmen. Nor are they that good at bowling either of course, but they are not and never will be of any use with the bat.

 

[steds]

No its laughable at how you still would label Anderson & Harmo as poor given what they have done recently. Stop living in the past..

But they are poor batsmen. What's laughable is that he's taking this into account when they obviously aren't in the side for their batting.