*Official* England in South Africa

[marc71178]

If all are fit Shah should definately be in the best ENG ODI & T20 XI..

Where exactly?

He's well behind Trott, Pietersen, Morgan and Collingwood in terms of ability, and if we're going for best then Flintoff is also in there.

Add in 2 openers and a keeper (or an opener and Davies) then he'd have to bat at 8

 

[Uppercut]

I'm not exactly Shah's biggest fan, but I would forget about using regular openers in T20. Unless you have a particularly well-suited one like Hayden, Sehwag or Gambhir, just pick your best batsmen.

 

[King Pietersen]

This game against SA A's not looking promising. Rapidly falling behind the run rate, even with Pietersen at the crease. Trott's going ok, but only striking at 69.56 and atm Pietersen's just not got going at all, scoring just 4 runs off 16 balls. The required run rate's risen to 6.56, and since Strauss got out the runs have been incredibly slow in coming.

Edit: Oh great. KP gone for 4. Trott really could play himself into the coach/captain's favour if he plays a match winning innings here. Going to need it.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Disagree. I think an order of Strauss, Trott, Pietersen, Collingwood and Morgan includes 5 better players than Owais Shah. Our main issues are the keeper and the bowling attack. Without Flintoff our attack seems to completely lack penetration. Anderson bowls well when conditions suit, but on a flat deck even he gets slapped around. I personally wouldn't have Shah in my XI.

Yep I would go as far as to say most England sides have 11 better players than Shah - it's only because the selectors are so unrelentingly dire that arguably worse players like Prior and Mahmood are involving. Shah should be done and dusted as far as international cricket is concerned.

It's going to be so blatant that England need Davies/Mustard opening when all 5 main bats are available that maybe even the clowns picking the side might finally pick one of them.

And if Flintoff is actually fit again England would be getting dangerously near a competent ODI outfit.

 

[Uppercut]

This Dean Elgar fellow keeping England in a straight jacket has curious statistics with the ball.

 

[King Pietersen]

Hopefully Davies. Mustard's still a hack as far as I'm concerned. Would much rather see Foster in the side when Fred's fit, with Fos batting at 7 than see Mustard slogging at the top again. Davies would be a good pick, stick him at the top with Strauss, with Trott 3, Pietersen 4, Collingwood 5, Morgan 6. That actually could be a somewhat consistent and competitive batting order. Just the bowling we need to sort out. Desperately need Flintoff back.

Finally another boundary, Morgan hits a 4 and a 6. Trott's done nothing but get singles in the last half hour. Bat like you do for Warwickshire lad!

Edit: Yep. The game's done. Morgan gone. Prior comes to the crease, with us needing 115 runs from 16.4 overs at a RR of 6.90 with only Luke Wright to come. Going to need a monumental effort from Jonathan Trott.

 

[Manee]

This Dean Elgar fellow keeping England in a straight jacket has curious statistics with the ball.

Extremely curious, indeed.

 

[popepouri]

Just noticed something.

Morkel = 0 no balls.

 

[inbox24]

With Trott and Prior at the crease this looks like a South African domestic one day game

 

[King Pietersen]

Eugh. People not bored of making those comments yet? Prior's hardly South African either, played all his age group cricket for England.

RRR upto 8.47. Not looking likely. The only boundaries that are coming atm seem to be coming off Prior's edge. Trott needs to explode now.

 

[grecian]

Eugh. People not bored of making those comments yet? Prior's hardly South African either, played all his age group cricket for England.

RRR upto 8.47. Not looking likely. The only boundaries that are coming atm seem to be coming off Prior's edge. Trott needs to explode now.

I'm afraid it's going to be this series' "Stuart Broad looks like a girl LOLZ". Already unbearably tedious.

Anyway, Mahmood, Rashid, Bresnan and Denly all looking out of their depth predictably. I'm not sure Plunkers being called up is going to change things massively for the better, either.

 

[Howsie]

Eugh. People not bored of making those comments yet? Prior's hardly South African either, played all his age group cricket for England.

RRR upto 8.47. Not looking likely. The only boundaries that are coming atm seem to be coming off Prior's edge. Trott needs to explode now.

(Looks at his piss poor record) Yeah we can tell.

 

[King Pietersen]

Shut up Howsie. Just jealous that we stole the decent South African's and your boys got left with Grant Elliott.

Trott gone for 78. Good effort and should surely confirm his place in the starting XI come Friday. Just gotta hope that Collingwood recovers so that we can drop that hack Denly. Would be nice if Prior could be the next name on that injury list as well, so we can get Steve Davies in the side.

 

[Flem274*]

Shut up Howsie. Just jealous that we stole the decent South African's and your boys got left with Grant Elliott.

Trott gone for 78. Good effort and should surely confirm his place in the starting XI come Friday. Just gotta hope that Collingwood recovers so that we can drop that hack Denly. Would be nice if Prior could be the next name on that injury list as well, so we can get Steve Davies in the side.

Not jealous at all, Elliott in limited overs owns Prior.

EDIT: Would you like to borrow Kruger van Wyk from us? He's a good keeper AND he can bat in List A

And if you need a replacement for Mahmood you could ask us nicely for Neil Wagner

 

[King Pietersen]

Thought Howsie agreed that Prior's not actually South African? Therefore our Saffa's, Pietersen and Trott > Grant Elliott Even if you consider Prior to be a Saffa, how many stumpings has Elliott taken in OD's? Statistical proof that Matt Prior > Grant Elliott in Limited overs cricket. Prior's scored double the amount of limited overs hundreds as well, so I'd say he was at least twice the player Grant Elliott will ever be.

Prior's actually doing alright so far. 45* from 44 deliveries. Most of his early boundaries came off the edge, but he's playing a good knock for England here. Now only need 20 off 18 balls. Just hope Prior and Wright don't bottle it.

 

[Flem274*]

Thought Howsie agreed that Prior's not actually South African? Therefore our Saffa's, Pietersen and Trott > Grant Elliott Even if you consider Prior to be a Saffa, how many stumpings has Elliott taken in OD's? Statistical proof that Matt Prior > Grant Elliott in Limited overs cricket. Prior's scored double the amount of limited overs hundreds as well, so I'd say he was at least twice the player Grant Elliott will ever be.

Uh huh.

Priors bowling record obviously superior to Elliotts, along with his average..

List A hundreds don't mean much considering Priors played 189 List As to Elliotts 105. Plus there's a lot more county games than NZ domestic games.

Trott and Pietersen are obviously better than Elliott.

Would you like Johan Myburgh to complete your middle order?

Oh...hang on...its just come through that Daniel Flynn and T Mac suck so we might need to hold onto Johan for now...

 

[Howsie]

Elliott 43.57 with the bat and 22.1 with the ball. If Elliott was to retire now he'd go down as statistically the best ever ODI all-rounder. Of course he want's to improve on that record so he's going to keep playing for the next 20 odd years.

And Trott averages 0 in ODI's, he's mud He wouldn't even be fit to carry Grant Elliott's gear bag.

 

[Flem274*]

Elliott 43.57 with the bat and 22.1 with the ball. If Elliott was to retire now he'd go down as statistically the best ever ODI all-rounder. Of course he want's to improve on that record so he's going to keep playing for the next 20 odd years.

And Trott averages 0 in ODI's, he's mud He wouldn't even be fit to carry Grant Elliott's gear bag.

I'm going to sig this. I love you Howsie.

 

[aussie]

Disagree. I think an order of Strauss, Trott, Pietersen, Collingwood and Morgan includes 5 better players than Owais Shah. Our main issues are the keeper and the bowling attack. Without Flintoff our attack seems to completely lack penetration. Anderson bowls well when conditions suit, but on a flat deck even he gets slapped around. I personally wouldn't have Shah in my XI.

Where exactly?

He's well behind Trott, Pietersen, Morgan and Collingwood in terms of ability, and if we're going for best then Flintoff is also in there.

Add in 2 openers and a keeper (or an opener and Davies) then he'd have to bat at 8

My mistake, should have said "The best ENG ODI T20 XI", Shah has to play. He indeed can't start in ODI XI @ full-strenght anymore:

Best T20:

Trott
Kieswetter/Davies
KP
Shah
Collingwood
Morgan
Flitnoff
Mascarenhas/Rashid
Swann
Broad
Anderson


Best ODI:

Strauss
Trott
KP
Colly
Morgan
Flintoff
Prior
Mascarenhas
Broad
Swann
Anderson

But right now without Flintoff in the ODI set-up, Shah should be in the best XI:

Strauss, Trott, KP, Shah, Colly, Morgan, Prior, Broad, Swann, Bresnan/Sidebottom, Anerson - STRONG top 7.

Obvious lack depth in bowling without Freddie. But no need to replace him as we are doing now with a useless player like Wright. Just have to accept we have to depend on the Trott/KP/Shah filling in some overs to back-up Anderson/Broad/Swann/Sides/Colly.

 

[King Pietersen]

List A hundreds don't mean much considering Priors played 189 List As to Elliotts 105. Plus there's a lot more county games than NZ domestic games.

Poor manipulation of stats there. 189 is less than double 105, and Prior's scored double the amount of hundreds. So that proves he is comfortably better than Elliott.

Trott and Pietersen are obviously better than Elliott.

Would you like Johan Myburgh to complete your middle order?

Oh...hang on...its just come through that Daniel Flynn and T Mac suck so we might need to hold onto Johan for now...

We didn't want this Myburgh fella anyway. No need for mediocre South African's in our side, when we run out of South African's we steal from the Irish instead. You Kiwi's really haven't got the hang of this stealing players lark have you? Just because they're South African doesn't mean they're going to automatically be good. Check Grant Elliott for details. He's not fit to lace Luke Wright's boots.

Prior's out. Effectively won us the game, good effort Matty! Just make sure you do that in the actual ODi series. Show us how good a player with a List A average of 26 can be.