*Official* England in South Africa Thread

[wpdavid]

Interesting stuff, Vaughan out replaced by solanki and kabir keeps his spot ahead of harmy. England batting first as can be expected(sorry for regurgitating wpdavid!).

That's fine, I'll take it as a compliment!

 

[wpdavid]

And that for me shows why England are still a way off the top in ODI.

We have no back-up whatsoever!

Very cruel, but possibly fair

That being said, we're getting there. Remember after the 2003 WC when we lost Knight, Hussain & Stewart from the top 6 and we really didn't have a clue who was going to replace them, never mind any sort of back up? Jim Troughton & Rikki Clarke & Ian Blackwell anyone? I'm not sure I'm happy about the batting order we've got at present, but we now have 8 or 9 guys competing for places in the top 7, most of whom look the part.

 

[amokk1]

And that for me shows why England are still a way off the top in ODI.

We have no back-up whatsoever!

Apart from the "We" part, I Agree.

 

[Scaly piscine]

If everyone was fit and wasn't in atrocious form like Anderson is/was (I'm sure some cynic will say he was just playing as normal) then your back-up bowler would be Anderson, back-up batsman would be Bell and back-up keeper is obviously Read. Not too bad overall *if* everyone is fine coming up to a World Cup.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Another thing is why the hell is virtually every pitch (outside of Australia) slow.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Absolutely stupid, moronic, utter tit of a dismissal. Another complete waste and another cameo from Tresco who's in great form and gives his wicket away as he nearly always does in ODIs.

 

[Gangster]

And that for me shows why England are still a way off the top in ODI.

We have no back-up whatsoever!

Stop whining! Just call another country and ask them to send you a really good player, and plop him in the middle order. But maybe leave South Africa alone, they've helped you out enough.

 

[Scaly piscine]

And another one gets going, looks ominous then throws his wicket away.

 

[chris.hinton]

Let's break down Kabir's wickets:

1) AB de Villiers = short ball of little threat hit to Solanki
2) Mark Boucher = holed out on the boundary, wholly inappropriate shot
3) Andy Hall = he wouldn't have been out of his ground in any other situation

Contrast that to the four over-stepping no balls and generally short and wide bowling where he was comfortably the weakest link in the attack. Yes, he did well at the end, but it's pretty much his doing (plus his fielding was horrific) that it was 8 runs needed and not 20+.

Wickets are Wickets Neil just because it a poor ball does not mean it should not be a wicket... Botham made a career out of this

Give him credit... not discard him cos he play for Worcester

 

[chris.hinton]

And that for me shows why England are still a way off the top in ODI.

We have no back-up whatsoever!

And we have a guy who hates Worcester

 

[chris.hinton]

7 rund a over is nothing if you get at least 3 wickets

you moan if someone had

10-0-62-7

GROW UP MARC!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Scaly piscine]

7 rund a over is nothing if you get at least 3 wickets

you moan if someone had

10-0-62-7

GROW UP MARC!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The last 2 wickets were freebies, his figures stunk when you look at the overall context. Sure he bowled the last 5 balls well but lets face it before that he was complete rubbish - even Collingwood & Trescothick showed him up badly.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Nice to see Solanki filling in Vaughan's batting precisely, looks good and flashy, hits the fielders with unerring accuracy and averages below 30...

 

[Swervy]

Wickets are Wickets Neil just because it a poor ball does not mean it should not be a wicket... Botham made a career out of this

Give him credit... not discard him cos he play for Worcester

botham didnt make a career out of it at all

 

[Scaly piscine]

Reasonable innings from Solanki, *shouldn't* be enough for him to take Bell's spot tho when Vaughan comes back.

 

[Adamc]

Pietersen got out. His average peaked at 267 but sadly is now cut in half.

 

[Scaly piscine]

You'd think England had never seen a slower ball before the way they've utterly failed to score any runs in these last overs. 33 off 7 overs with 5 remaining, absolutely rubbish.

 

[Scaly piscine]

67 off the last 12 overs with 2 batsmen in and 7 wickets remaining, pretty awful effort - Bell was especially ropey, 267 is still a good score but they should have gotten 300 and that would have almost put SA out of the game.

 

[andyc]

You'd think England had never seen a slower ball before the way they've utterly failed to score any runs in these last overs. 33 off 7 overs with 5 remaining, absolutely rubbish.

yeah pretty bad- 19 off the last three overs. what is that!??

 

[Neil Pickup]

Wickets are Wickets Neil just because it a poor ball does not mean it should not be a wicket... Botham made a career out of this

Give him credit... not discard him cos he play for Worcester

Screw the statistics. The point is that he bowled 7.1 very poor overs. I know I sound like Richard but it's absolutely no way to his credit that Boucher played such a poor shot. The ball was as bad as they come.