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*Official* England in South Africa

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
Belatedly picking up on Scaly's comment yesterday about a guy on debut partnering a guy in is 100th test - this morning's trivia question is about the time a guy on debut partnered two guys playing in their 100th tests. Names & match please. Answers to the usual address.
 

King Pietersen

International Captain
Real unlucky for Strauss. Not often that those ones that keep low are straight. Not good signs for England if it's starting to get really inconsistent in the bounce. Get to see KP bat now =] Hopefully he'll look in slightly better touch than he did in the ODi series. I wanna see KP look in form again, he's not looked really looked great at the crease for quite a while.

OMFGZ Dere'z No Englishmenz on da fieldz!!!!!!!!!ONE!!!!1 /first
 
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chalky

International Debutant
I can almoast hear Geoff Boycott saying you have got to get forward when there is low bounce

Very difficult to play you could say unlucky for Strauss but he did get a couple of warnings.
 

chalky

International Debutant
Looks like he missread the pitch.

Was interesting on the 1st day Pollock was saying that you should always bat 1st as the pitch tends to dry out very quickly. Botham of course went completely the opposite bowl 1st as the pitch would flatten out. Even today he was saying England are top and should be pushing for victory.
 

King Pietersen

International Captain
Botham's commentary is generally a load of old toss though. I don't really see what he offers to the commentary box, sure he's a legend of English cricket, and as a cricketer he was superb, but as a commentator, there are simply far better options; who either have decent knowledge of the domestic game, can offer technical analysis or are actually entertaining to listen to. Bob Willis would be a better option, I'd have loved to have heard him commentating on Broad and Anderson's bowling in that first innings :L

If we can build a decent score, and the pitch continues to detiriorate, then I think we could have a real chance, so long as Onions and Swann bowl well. The key to bowling on a pitch with inconsistent bounce is bowling straight, which Onions would do, and the cracks and footmarks, especially to the left-handers at the end Harris is bowling at atm would assist Swann. We would need to get very, very close to that South African score, maybe even surpass it to have a chance of winning the game.
 

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
If we can build a decent score, and the pitch continues to detiriorate, then I think we could have a real chance, so long as Onions and Swann bowl well. The key to bowling on a pitch with inconsistent bounce is bowling straight, which Onions would do, and the cracks and footmarks, especially to the left-handers at the end Harris is bowling at atm would assist Swann. We would need to get very, very close to that South African score, maybe even surpass it to have a chance of winning the game.
Which is looking fairly unlikely given the number of balls that are simply not bouncing. And the rate at which we're scoring. Likeliest scenario today is England conceding a deficit of over 100 imo. Probably > 125.
 

GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
Cheer up David. We've made a decent start and we've got our best batsman at the crease, and we've got Trott whose looked class in his short England career so far. If these two make a big stand, we've then got an in-form Colly to follow. I can see us putting a good score on the board here.
 

chalky

International Debutant
If South Africa bowl as they have think we are gonna struggle to score at more than 2 per over would be happy with still batting at the end of the day.
 

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
Yeah, I think our batting's Okish. It's the state of the wicket that concerns me - especially if SA decide to bowl straight.
 

King Pietersen

International Captain
Trott was always going to end up doing that, just got himself into a hole by not scoring. Really need KP and Colly to dig in and make a big partnership. If one of those 2 get out it'll be upto Belly to score a match winning hundred..........:(
 

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