England in South Africa

[Trescothick]

Absolutely dismal performance by England. Chasing 311 and scoring 59 off the first 15 overs. The top order should be beaten black and blue with the bats. It's absolutely foul cricket.

Kevin Pietersen has been a collussus all series. None of the other England players deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as him.

 

[tommyhorn35]

watched game today England need to get Srauss back opening
and Jones back at 7 great game great series will be sad
when tour has finished ,but England need 2 get steady team
when Feddie gets back look 4 fireworks with Pieterson

 

[Stephen Bailey]

Absolutely dismal performance by England. Chasing 311 and scoring 59 off the first 15 overs. The top order should be beaten black and blue with the bats. It's absolutely foul cricket.

Kevin Pietersen has been a collussus all series. None of the other England players deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as him.

Is it not possible for the South African bowlers to have actually bowled well in the first 15 overs? I think we lost it in the first 12 overs of the South Africa innings to be honest. Pietersen supurb again, only real positive in this game.

 

[Inside_Edge]

Biggest 6 of the day award goes to....Giles of all people!

 

[Sureshot]

hoaggard really shouldnt be in the 1 day team he doesnt bowl well at the death hes a TM specialist i think Wharf should be in as he is brillaitn in OD cricket

 

[Rangeela]

6th ODI - South Africa vs England

11 Feb @ Durban

Odds:

South Africa - 8/11
England - Evens (1/1)

Bets will be accepted until 12:00 GMT on 11th February and bets will be settled once the one day match is over. In the case of a drawn match due to the weather or a tie, all bets will be refunded.

 

[Stephen Bailey]

hoaggard really shouldnt be in the 1 day team he doesnt bowl well at the death hes a TM specialist i think Wharf should be in as he is brillaitn in OD cricket

Whilst you may be right in the fact he's not a one-day bowler, it is obvious he is very, very tired, who wouldn't be when you've bowled as many overs as he has on this tour. I think it was a mistake to send Simon Jones home. Not only has Jones bowl less overs than most of the other bowlers on tour, he was bowling better than the rubbish Harmison and Anderson were 'bowling'. But thats gone, we can't win the series and we'll have to deal with it, lets see if the boys can put in two more big efforts to get a draw.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

I, personally would like to see Flintoff and Pieterson batting at the death versus Austrailia this year......

 

[barmyarmy]

I, personally would like to see Flintoff and Pieterson batting at the death versus Austrailia this year......

Who wouldn't? It's a hell of a prospect.

 

[andrew_nixon]

What would your England ODI line up be, when Flintoff is fully fit?

Mine would be.

1. Trescothick
2. Vaughan
3. Solanki
4. Strauss
5. Pietersen
6. Flintoff
7. Collingwood
8. Gerraint Jones
9. Giles
10. Kabir Ali
11. Gough

Batting down to 8, with 9 and 10 being able to knock it around it a bit too.

 

[barmyarmy]

I'm not totally convinved by the bowling options. Only three specialists. Who takes the extra overs if Collingwood or Ali have a bad day.
That said the batting looks great (and Goughy can swing the log a bit too).

 

[squiz]

I don't think you can rely on Collingwood to bowl 10 overs every game

 

[Trescothick]

Is it not possible for the South African bowlers to have actually bowled well in the first 15 overs?

They didn't bowl badly, but they didn't bowl especially well. England just didn't attack them. If you use your feet and attack the bowler with only two men outside the circle, there's no reason for going at less than 5 an over - even with Pollock on.

Trescothick and Vaughan hung around too long and didn't score enough. I've said it before, scoring too slowly loses one-day matches. If you're not going to get on with it, get out the way and let someone else do it.

England had no right to be as close at 7 runs at the end, it was a superhuman effort from Pietersen, and it's not fair on him. It's unfair to put that much expectation and responsibility on an inexperienced 24 year-old because nobody else in the team is pulling their weight.

Also, I was willing to give them a chance with the Jones opening idea, but it bordered on stupidity yesterday. They needed 300+ to win and started with a No6 batsman at No2, and a No2 batsman at No6. Fair enough, give Jones a chance, but common sense should prevail when the situation calls for it.

 

[andrew_nixon]

Collingwood's bowling has improved a lot recently. But there are other bowling options there. Trescothick is improving his bowling, Vaughan is a better bowler than he thinks he is, and Pietersen is a half-decent bowler at times.

 

[Trescothick]

Despite the pathetic performance from the vast majority of England's batsmen, they do have the talent to put up enough runs. The major crisis is in the bowling, they need five proper bowlers, bowling properly, or else they'll concede 300 runs and lose matches.

I'm a bowler of nothing more than local team/ex-county youth standard. If I bowl like Kabir Ali has bowled in this tournament it's disappointing and frustrating, because I know where I should and shouldn't be putting the ball. When a professional, international cricketer bowls to that standard it's an inexcusable, intolerable disgrace.

Although for the record I think Ali is a good player, and should be in the side, but he needs to learn how to bowl at the end of an innings, soon!

My England XI would be:

Trescothick
Strauss
Vaughan
Pietersen
Flintoff
Collingwood
Jones
Giles
Ali
Gough
Harmison

50 overs from 5 full-time bowlers.

Also, the batting order needs to be flexible. The first 15 overs of a one-day match are absolutely vital. If you lose a wicket between the 5th and 10th overs, promote Flintoff or Pietersen in with clear instructions to hit boundaries. Both are talented enough batsmen to play "proper" innings once the fielding restrictions are lifted.

Time is wasted and games are lost because people don't play one-day cricket properly, and it's not just England, every side in the world is guilty of it. South Africa played the perfect innings yesterday, but there's no excuse for it not being the norm in 90% of games.

First 4 overs - openers play themselves in - rr3
5-15 overs - absolute onslaught. deliberately and fiercely attack the bowling - min rr8
15-35 overs - build the total, play sensibly, force singles everywhere - min rr4
35-45 overs - accelerate, build aggression, be inventive, start looking for boundaries - min rr6
45-50 overs - attack, look to hit at least two boundaries an over + singles - min rr10

Anything less than 275 is a failure.