*Official* England in South Africa Thread

[marc71178]

Gibbs fined 40% of his match fee for 'misleading the umpire' by pointing to his arm when England went up for a catch.
But he was actually right that the ball did hit his arm .... so dunno how you could say he was misleading the umpire!

That's strange phrasing there, but what he did was a breach of the code of conduct, so the fine is fair.

 

[chris.hinton]

England are gonna win

 

[chris.hinton]

We are proving to be as good as the Aussies. South Africa are a good side but we have too much class for them Flintoff,Thorpe,Vaughan,Harminson, Stauss, Trescothick would get into the other 8 test sides easy (Well apart from India the batsman would not)

 

[The Baconator]

i think a couple of the batsman would make it into the indian side, an opener and maybe thorpe

 

[Scaly piscine]

Strauss, Vaughan (it's either him or Ganguly as captain), Thorpe, Flintoff, G Jones, Harmison and possibly Hoggard (depends on the conditions) would make the Indian side.

 

[djwolf]

We have had a great 18 months or so and in this series we have looked strong BUT we haven't really played any top teams for a while. I think we will struggle against the Aussies although we should still win one or two tests against them and it will surely be closer than the last encounter.

 

[Swervy]

We have had a great 18 months or so and in this series we have looked strong BUT we haven't really played any top teams for a while. I think we will struggle against the Aussies although we should still win one or two tests against them and it will surely be closer than the last encounter.

Arent SA at home meant to be a top team??? Give the team a bit more credit, they deserve it

 

[Langeveldt]

England are gonna win

Dankie Nostradamus...

 

[pskov]

Arent SA at home meant to be a top team??? Give the team a bit more credit, they deserve it

I know what you mean.

Before we played the West Indies, everyone said how it would be very tough, WI have a lot of promising youngsters coming through, England are inexperienced etc. Then we won easily and everyone said that WI were rubbish.

Then when New Zealand toured everyone spoke of how this would be a real test and that NZ are a reallealy good test side. Then we beat them comfortably and everyone said that NZ reall aren't that good.

Then when WI came again everyone expected them to be far better than they were at home. Now Lara was in form and they'd be much improved. When we pasted them everyone remarked how they had probably gotten worse since we played them in February.

So when we tour SA, the whole world says how this will be the new Englands first real test and already after a easy win in the 1st test not playing near our best and a very good performance so far in the second, people are already saying how South Africa are not really as good as everyone said and that they are a team in transisition etc. etc.

What exactly do England have to do to convice some people that they are a good side? I imagine if we win the Ashes (if!), all the detractors will say how Australia are on the decline, McGrath and Warne are past it etc. It does my head in sometimes!

 

[superkingdave]

Nah i think the problem is if we don't win the Ashes next year.

 

[shaka]

I cannot believe they fined Gibbs, why cant he aid the umpires decision. Its no different to saying it came off bat when fieldsman go up for an LBW. Those people dont get fined.

 

[Neil Pickup]

It's great isn't it - two days ago I was pretty much the only one of us giving us a prayer of saving this game, and now everyone's ****sure that we're going to win.

I'm not. 30%/69%/1% I think - the pitch really doesn't seem like a minefield and South Africa have batting to nine, early wickets are needed and fairly badly to prevent it from drifting straight down Draw Street. SA to close 260/6, I reckon.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

I don't think anyone as yet expects England to win the Ashes. IMO Australia is still a far superior side, yet England is clear second best atm. However, England must beat Australia to truly get the compliment they deserve. This is a good think for English cricket right now, as they've not exactly had the greatest joy in the sport over the years.

 

[Pratters]

Interesting to note that Pratyush hasn't appeared yet.

I have exams on 1st and 8th else I would have surely commented more often

The series is not yet over

England have played such awesome cricket showing why they are an awesome side. Strauss is truly world class and nothing needs to be said about G.Thorpe.

And what a partnership between Freddy and Jones.

Well played England and I still have faith in South Africa to not lose the series. If they do, it would mean they will be a long way away from a resurgence to come close to calling themselves one of the best teams again.

On a personal note thank god I have exams and didnt have to watch the onslaught by Jones and Flintoff. Wouldnt mind the batting of Flintoff of Thorpe but against South Africa it would have been very painful.

 

[tooextracool]

teeheehee..

pervert?

 

[tooextracool]

Go the happy hookers!!!

finally some sense prevailed!!!

 

[tooextracool]

oi
he got us runs didnt he?

long time coming too.

 

[tooextracool]

Goodbye Mr Smith (again)!

good to see smith and co take harmison and co to the cleaners......

 

[djwolf]

Arent SA at home meant to be a top team??? Give the team a bit more credit, they deserve it

Yeah of course, don't get me wrong we have done really well so far in this series, I also think we thoroughly deserve to be 2nd in the world. Although we shouldn't get carried away and presume that we will beat Australia now, they are still masters of the game with superb discipline and consistency. We will see in the summer!

 

[badgerhair]

I find it interesting that people have such short memories with regards to Butcher. It's not so long ago he was the mainstay of the middle order - or that he made 79 in the first innings at Port Elizabeth.

The guy doesn't lose class over night.

No, but over quite a time. It is 32 innings since he last made a Test hundred. Even Vaughan, the other current underperformer in the top order, has made four hundreds in that time.

I don't want to take anything away from what Butcher has done for England over the last 3-4 years. There was certainly nobody better around. But I don't think anyone believes that Butcher is going to get any better than he already is, whereas we can probably all name someone who we think is going to be better, whether it be Bell, Key (ptui!), Pietersen or what have you.

Look, quite a few of us can remember when England didn't have a single batsman score a century all year and a draw was quite a positive result in a Test match, considering, and blokes who chipped in with regular 60s and 70s were pretty valuable.

But with this England team, we now expect at least one of them to make a hundred in every game, and Butcher hasn't been doing his share for some time now.

Butcher is a good Test batsman. But England aren't automatically satisfied any longer with the merely good, or at least shouldn't be. If he won't deliver hundreds, let's get someone who will. This is the kind of pressure on players to perform that England need - hungry young men snapping at their heels, rather than the old retributive regime of dropping players at random after we lost a match.

Since I am mortally afraid of Key getting established, I'd prefer that the axe doesn't fall on Butcher now. I'd rather wait until the English summer, when perhaps the selectors will see the sense of promoting Bell ahead of Key.

Cheers,

Mike