*Official* England in South Africa Thread

[Scaly piscine]

Well done Hoggard, 3 looseners to help the SA forget the previous carnage

 

[Langeveldt]

Harmos looked like his previous self so far in South Africa

 

[superkingdave]

England's bowlers seem to be under the impression that bowling at Smith's legs is the way to go.....stupid

 

[Langeveldt]

good lumber jacking by Steyn.. Hopefully De Villiers can come up with the goods

 

[Scaly piscine]

Bowling has been complete garbage so far

 

[Tom Halsey]

Bowled Gilo.

 

[Scaly piscine]

The way SA have took the lead sums how pathetic England have been today.

 

[Tom Halsey]

It hasn't been amazing, but you can't call it 'pathetic'.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Plus points time: we've batted crap and bowled crap - but they're still effectively 3 for 2.

A few breakthroughs tomorrow morning please - fingers crossed we'll be well on top by the time I wake up!

 

[Scaly piscine]

How else would call a performance where Thorpe, Butcher and Flintoff completely throw their wicket away and at best some of the other dismissals were a bit poor. They've then turned a position where they should have batted SA almost out of the game to a position where the game is very close. The bowling has been just as bad with run after run handed on a plate with leg-side rubbish and they've managed to let SA score at over 4 an over when they've not even tried to attack the bowling.

 

[Tom Halsey]

As I said, it wasn't good, but 'pathetic' would be losing your last 9 wickets for 50 or something, and then getting 0 wickets for around 100.

As Neil says, we still effectively have them on the rack.

 

[Swervy]

I think in general the standard of play by both teams has been poor

 

[Tom Halsey]

I thought SA were good - until the end of our innings.

 

[Swervy]

I thought SA were good - until the end of our innings.

i think it was a case of SA played better than yesterday, but nothing outstanding..England played poorly...that last half hour of SA fielding was shambolic,almost as bad as some of the cricket the WI's played in the summer..and England havent bowled particularly well..and yet SA still lost two wickets before a hundred is on the board on a motorway of a pitch.

To me it looks like a day of poor cricket all round

 

[Tom Halsey]

I see where you're coming from, but I think they bowled farly well int he afternoon.

 

[Scaly piscine]

I don't think it's reasonably possible to lose 9 wickets for 50 on this pitch. Losing Butcher, Flintoff, Jones, Hoggard for 12 runs is about as awful as you could realistically get. The last 2 partnerships were more of SA's doing than anything, there was dropped chances involved and you couldn't really say the tailenders were having a good seeing day because they kept skying the ball. The fact that England are still just about ahead isn't any reason to defend them, SA were 12-1 to win before today's play and SA were poor but still overwhelmingly took the honours for the day.

 

[Langeveldt]

As I said, it wasn't good, but 'pathetic' would be losing your last 9 wickets for 50 or something, and then getting 0 wickets for around 100.

As Neil says, we still effectively have them on the rack.

How come? SA are effectively 11 odd for 2 with England having to bat last, which isnt the best at PE.. So its almost honours even..

 

[Tom Halsey]

With your batters having to start again tomorrow, I think we're still favourites.

Plus, we have a decent spinner - you have Graham Smith.

 

[Tom Halsey]

I don't think it's reasonably possible to lose 9 wickets for 50 on this pitch. Losing Butcher, Flintoff, Jones, Hoggard for 12 runs is about as awful as you could realistically get.

Hoggard isn't a batter - all the other 3 were poor shots, but the bowling was fairly good there.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

The ball did stop in the pitch for Jones to be fair to him, maybe he should have got himself in more before trying to play a shot like that maybe. But Butcher and Flintoff were pathetic shots! Butchers especially when they had done the hard work of seeing off the new ball and then to play a shot like that was just poor. Then Flintoff should have aimed to consolidate for a while.