***Official*** South Africa in England

[jakob1978]

They might just want to give him a bit of game time as he didn't get to do much on Friday?

I presume that's the reason, because Collingwood played today as well (scoring 65no from 55 balls, and taking 2 wickets).

 

[andruid]

Yea probably, Bopara should go tho.

Wright may be relatively crap overall but at least he offers something a bit different, has a bit of an x factor that Bopara hasn't shown. I think it's worth investing with Wright and somewhere he might just smash a 30 or 40 or bowl a couple of very good overs that'll win you a game. Lets face it whichever one of those two you play they're not going to get the opportunity to do much more than that anyway.

Better someone who guarantees rapid 30s and 40s at 6 or 7 and the occasional fifty with he bonus wicket from 5 tidy overs than someone who lives of the occasional fluke performance.

 

[Goughy]

Better someone who guarantees rapid 30s and 40s at 6 or 7 and the occasional fifty with he bonus wicket from 5 tidy overs than someone who lives of the occasional fluke performance.

You are talking about Bopara right? the same guy with one of the slowest strike rates in modern ODI cricket?

 

[Woodster]

Don't know if anyone has previously mentioned this, but it is ridiculous that a UK bank holiday has just passed and they have not played an ODI on any of the days. Surely the odds of a packed house would dramatically have increased, unless they are all sold out anyway. Even so, it has denied the general public the chance of watching a full game. Bad planning imo.

 

[GIMH]

Completely agree, instead they are playing one tomorrow, mindless

Played an ODI on August Bank Holiday last summer, summer before played a T20

 

[Woodster]

Didn't know if I was missing something, whether there was a logical explanation behind it. If there isn't, it's farcical. Still, will be able to watch the second innings tomorrow when I get in from work, and hopefully England can build on their success in the opening game.

 

[Richard]

I thought exactly that FTR. And FTR else, I'm back in this thread after an interminable break. Weather looks poor today and hopefully there are no interruptions.

 

[gettingbetter]

Collingwood in for Bopara. I think that means Wright bats at 8 and Broad at 9.

 

[Richard]

BTW given the amount of posts directed at me about the Harmison matter I might as well say this...

Harmison has both a better average and econ rate than the following players

I Sharma
RP Singh
S Sreesanth
JEC Franklin
MR Gillespie
MJ Mason
DJ Bravo

His record puts him in the same class as

SR Clark
Z Khan
JM Anderson

Those bowlers are all exceptionally poor (though Clark has been better in recent times). Harmison has been very, very poor for a lot of his ODI career as well as good for some amount of it. What's also worrying is that he doesn't appear too keen to play with any longevity. Of course it's very possible the Stanford cash has something to do with it and frankly anyone who uses any cynicism when talking of that is being highly unrealistic - if you're offered massive wads of cash, you're going to take it and there's really nothing wrong with that. Even if it means going back on a decision you've made earlier.

 

[Richard]

Collingwood in for Bopara. I think that means Wright bats at 8 and Broad at 9.

I also might as well comment on the last game:
Not sure if Swann was dropped but if he was that's abysmal form;
Having 4 players (Flintoff, Bopara, Wright and Patel) who seem to have been picked with both bowling and batting in mind is never good unless they're obvious class-acts like Flintoff is with ball and to an extent with bat;
SA did dreadfully to lose the thing as they had it in the bag. Only woeful batting lost it.

 

[Richard]

And back today, due to the overcast weather I can see the ball doing absolutely all sorts as night falls. If SA don't win this game they need to kick themselves even harder than they needed to for losing on Friday.

 

[Prince EWS]

Not sure if Swann was dropped but if he was that's abysmal form;

He was dropped and I don't think there was nearly enough criticism of that selection here. As I said here, it made pretty much no sense to me. Wright was basically picked as a specialist #8 batsman despite the fact that it meant England only had four frontline bowlers, and Swann has been very good in his ODI career so far.

 

[Richard]

Smith almost runs himself out in the opening over - direct hit that'd have been all over.

And incidentally, Pietersen is going Anderson-Broad today having gone Broad-Anderson on Friday.

 

[Richard]

And a catalogue of errors in the 2nd over ends-up with a two that should have been either a single or a run-out.

 

[Richard]

Gibbs gooonnnnnnnneeeeeeeeee early, daym.

 

[superkingdave]

yep that will do for a start, still think we'll be lucky to make 150 chasing though

 

[NUFAN]

OMG Prior what a catch!

 

[Richard]

FFS, Smith edging Broad. Damn good catch from Prior mind, unusually so.

 

[Richard]

One other thing as should be mentioned is that Prior took that out of Shah's hands, which meant he probably had to take it else that wasn't out. Why does Shah continue to get placed in the slips? He's a shocking close-catcher.

 

[Richard]

And sure enough, he takes one.

FFS, 3 for Broad, WTF are they playing at?