*Official* England in South Africa

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Average (first innings) score at Centurion is 309, uneven bounce already apparent, one fast bowler down and England won the toss.

South Africa will be delighted. Good first session tomorrow and they can bat England out of the game.

IMO, Eng are in deep ****

Looks like the wicket is deteriorating so SA's remaining batsmen and then their bowlers only have to perform reasonably well for this to be a convincing victory if that proves to be the case

Kallis = great player

 

[kingkallis]

a lot of confusion a few pages back on the fc system in sa. Basically sa used to have a number of "provinces" before and had a system before the ss series where these provinces competed individually for the major fc competition. Then came a merger or provinces into franchises. An example would be boland and western province merging to form the cape cobras. There also used to be a bowl competition for each provincail "b" team that always had fc status anyway, so no difference between todays "b" provincial games and the ones that existed way back.

Vernon being left out is a bit of a shocker as he is leading wicket taker on wickets no suited to pace bowling in both paarl and cape town. Another shocker is dean the run machine elgar who missed out on his 6th hundred this weekend and is leading run scorer and is an opener. One can ask many questions on why he is ledt out when sa have a spot for an opener.

A very good team on paper(for 1st test) would be

smith
elgar
amla
ab
prince
kallis(who can bat and take the place of dumminy until he fixes the short ball)
khun who is as good a keeper as boucher but scores more runs.
Philander
harris
morkell
steyn

go die....

 

[four_or_six]

Yeah, you don't pick a team on a 'what if' basis

No, I know. I was just suprised at his strength of opinion on the four-bowler thing this morning. I'm a real fan of Wright but I don't suppose dropping Bell for him (or for Sidey) after Bell's performance at the Oval is really a great idea. Though I'm not sure I can see us winning the series with this attack.

 

[Goughy]

No, I know. I was just suprised at his strength of opinion on the four-bowler thing this morning. I'm a real fan of Wright but I don't suppose dropping Bell for him (or for Sidey) after Bell's performance at the Oval is really a great idea. Though I'm not sure I can see us winning the series with this attack.

I dont see us winning the series with this attack either. Though I fail to see how adding the bowling of Wright improves the attack.

 

[Pup Clarke]

Think it's the batting you should be more worried about

 

[jboss]

What a fab day. Started of fantastic with an early wicket and ended fantastic with a consecutive test hundred fro kallis. No I refuse to eat my words on Dumminy as I can not be held accountable for England bowling ammateur short balls at him all day long. Have eng bowlers not learnt about element of suprise?

 

[GIMH]

One day of a series gone and the doom merchants are out in full. Must be the start of an England Test series

 

[Prince EWS]

I dont see us winning the series with this attack either. Though I fail to see how adding the bowling of Wright improves the attack.

Yeah, this. I'm not convinced Wright is actually a better bowler than Collingwood, so I still would've considered it a "four man attack" had he played. Playing Sidebottom ahead of Bell was an option but I really think that just would have increased the likelihood of South Africa winning and decreased the likelihood of a draw rather than actually increasing England's chances overall, particularly on this pitch.

 

[Goughy]

One day of a series gone and the doom merchants are out in full. Must be the start of an England Test series

Yeah, on here (myself included) and even the usually myopic guys on the Sky team are not happy.

 

[kingkallis]

Neil Manthorp said the wicket is a bat first surface and a good one at that. Glorious sunshine will bake the wicket and the moisture underneath will come up (if it does) later on in the test. Went onto to say it may do a bit early on but that is par for the course but hardly a green mamba.

Pretty true, isnt it?

 

[TT Boy]

Pretty true, isnt it?

Yep. Neil knows the score. I was surprised when I heard he say it but as soon as I saw the wicket and the first couple of overs, you knew it wasn’t a greentop by any stretch of the imagination. Polly, AD and Kepler all said pre-toss that you have to bat first, just look at the blue skies and with it expected to be 34 tomorrow and 33 on Friday, great chance for cracks to open and widen.

 

[social]

One day of a series gone and the doom merchants are out in full. Must be the start of an England Test series

I ctually think Eng are a reasonable chance in this series with Steyn out, Ntini little more than an emotional selection, Eng's batting looking good and their bowling suited to the conditions

However, IMO, they've shot themselves in the foot today with choice at toss and performance

BTW, that's not to take anything away from Kallis, who played beautifully

 

[TT Boy]

England have got a great chance for the series but if Onions, who bowled an exceptional first spell is out and Anderson isn’t 100 percent, you have the prospect of Broad, Sidebottom, Plunkett, Swann and Wright at Durban. That is ****e. I would be considering two spinners if that was the case.

Steyn apparently will play at Kingsmead. He would have played today but because Kallis can't bowl, they couldn't take the risk. de Wet probably isn’t the best choice then considering he has spent the past three years nursing stress fractures of the back and a broken ankle.

 

[popepouri]

England have got a great chance for the series but if Onions, who bowled an exceptional first spell is out and Anderson isn’t 100 percent, you have the prospect of Broad, Sidebottom, Plunkett, Swann and Wright at Durban. That is ****e. I would be considering two spinners if that was the case.

Steyn apparently will play at Kingsmead. He would have played today but because Kallis can't bowl, they couldn't take the risk. de Wet probably isn’t the best choice then considering he has spent the past three years nursing stress fractures of the back and a broken ankle.

Yeah I would have blooded Parny. I guess it was too late if they sent him back to play domestic cricket. It'll be interesting how he plays though.

 

[popepouri]

What a fab day. Started of fantastic with an early wicket and ended fantastic with a consecutive test hundred fro kallis. No I refuse to eat my words on Dumminy as I can not be held accountable for England bowling ammateur short balls at him all day long. Have eng bowlers not learnt about element of suprise?

LOL. Do you really think that Duminy, who has a FC average of 50+ (second to Kallis), has not learned this in South African domestic cricket which is dominated by fast bowlers?

 

[TT Boy]

Yeah I would have blooded Parny. I guess it was too late if they sent him back to play domestic cricket. It'll be interesting how he plays though.

Going by how Parnell went today, same problem continuing - two early wickets, great figures (5 overs 2 for nothing) and then can't comeback. Looks like Kuhn played an epic knock though in the unfamiliar position of six. Encouraging signs for the future. Kuhn was told by the selectors that he wouldn't play for South Africa unless he starts batting in the lower order whilst Smit was told he wouldn't play unless he scored some runs, so he is now batting three for the Dolphins.

 

[Uppercut]

On the plus side for England, this South African attack looks astonishingly weak.

 

[jboss]

LOL. Do you really think that Duminy, who has a FC average of 50+ (second to Kallis), has not learned this in South African domestic cricket which is dominated by fast bowlers?

To be fair NO!!! He was only dsicovered 9 months ago and 3 test matches ago. Since then he has been found wanting in the ODI agaisnt England 2/3 and almost went out today on a short ball. So i feel very safe in saying that after 9 months he has failed to fix the issue.

 

[Pothas]

On the plus side for England, this South African attack looks astonishingly weak.

Yeah have had this idea in my head the last couple of years that they have by far and away the best pace attack in world cricket, suddenly you take out Steyn out and it looks up there with the most mediocre.

 

[Woodster]

Good day's cricket with South Africa the happier camp at the end of it. Great start from England getting Smith, albeit rather fortunately down the leg side, and from then until tea neither side could really gain any great advantage. The first two sessions probably too close to call as to who had the better of it, then SA took the day away from us in that final session and very threatening partnership with Kallis and Duminy.

We didn't quite use the new ball effectively enough, don't think Broad and Anderson bowled badly, and Onions was very good in his opening burst. His calf strain or whatever niggle it was nullified his impact in the day's play overall, but hopefully he'll be ok to bowl tomorrow.

Swann did an excellent job for a finger spinner on the opening day of a Test. Got both Prince and de Villiers with very good off spin deliveries, and Colly's catching in slips was typically good throughout.

Kallis played beautifully, looked to attack Swann right from the off, but that didn't deter Swanny who came back very strongly. Kallis' driving is symptomatic of the elegance he portrayed today, kept things simple, looked very solid in defence,as ever, and added a dash of flamboyance as and when required.

England need to strike early tomorrow, at the moment, 262-4 looks a decent platform, but being an optimist that can become 350 all out, or less, if England's attack get it right.

The outstanding players today then, for me, was Kallis for an excellent Test innings (can't believe he still has no score over 200 yet in his career, really hope I'm not talking too soon!), Swann for his effectiveness on a day when finger spinners should not have much of an impact, and Onions for his excellent line and length delivered from close to the stumps with a bit of nip off the track.

Big session in the morning.