England tour of South Africa 09/10

[irottev]

I think Ntini's day is up. Well done to England, good to see them fighting. Cook was about due to score big I think, he'd gone a bit quiet. They're in a strong position now.

 

[Robelinda]

Steyn showing again that he is hugely overrated. Completely ineffective against England at home and away, and couldnt even trouble Phil Hughes earlier this year! Just shows that terrorizing NZ and Bangladesh means absolutely nothing.

 

[Dabi]

Steyn showing again that he is hugely overrated. Completely ineffective against England at home and away, and couldnt even trouble Phil Hughes earlier this year! Just shows that terrorizing NZ and Bangladesh means absolutely nothing.

He's not ovrrated mate! He just got back from injury, give him atleast one Test to recover. He's bowled tidily enough, though not looked threatening.
Currently he has to be the best fast bowler around.

 

[stefan]

Steyn showing again that he is hugely overrated. Completely ineffective against England at home and away, and couldnt even trouble Phil Hughes earlier this year! Just shows that terrorizing NZ and Bangladesh means absolutely nothing.

I suppose you were sleeping during that melbourne test.

 

[Robelinda]

Yes he had a good MCG test. That was 12 months ago. Ask England what they think about his bowling. Av of 47!

 

[stefan]

Yes he had a good MCG test. That was 12 months ago. Ask England what they think about his bowling. Av of 47!

Average is inflated due to the fact that most of those games against england happended on his debut series when he wasn't ready for test cricket. His record against all other nations except sri lanka and england speaks for it self. We will see against the english what happens in the last two tests.

Steyn records:

vs Aus: 34 wickets @ 27.79
vs India: 21 wickets @ 19.85
vs Pakistan: 13 wickets @ 23.76
vs Sri lanka 8 wickets @ 36.50 (two tests in sri lanka haven't played them at home)
vs West indies 20 wickets @ 19.19
vs New Zealand 36 wickets @ 16.66
vs Bangladesh 22 wickets @ 17.18
England 16 wickets @ 48

 

[Owzat]

50 up for Bell, off just 65 balls as well. Been basically chanceless (wouldn't really count the one to Amla off Duminy as a real chance) and he's looked good at the crease. Best I've seen him look at the crease for England in a long time, looked really scratchy in the Ashes and in the 1st Test of this series. Time to kick on and make a big one now Belly!

We need to push the run-rate up, my rule of thumb for Tests is you need both sides to have completed their first innings by the end of day three to have a good chance of a result. If England bat on much beyond lunch that will leave them maybe 150+ in front, but with only 4-5 sessions to bowl the saffers out and chase any runs. England need to get on with it, it may take four sessions to get them out and we need to score as quickly as possible. Prior needs to start accelerating, I think too many of our players think about their past scores and play for themselves more than the team

It's hard to be criticial of a centurion, but he (and Collingwood) took their sweet time making their runs, Prior needs to get into second gear or get out :

England SRs as at 410/5 (131 overs)

80.60 Strauss : 54 off 67 balls
60.87 Bell : 70 off 115 balls
59.62 Pietersen : 31 off 52 balls
58.06 Trott : 18 off 31 balls
44.87 Cook : 118 off 263 balls
43.18 Prior : 19 off 44 balls
42.33 Collingwood : 91 off 215 balls

Now we're ahead we need to push on, the onus of forcing the pace lies with the side in charge which has to be us. Any wasting of time, deliberate or otherwise, lets them off the hook. We need to push fast for 500 by lunch or before and declare, or get bowled out trying. We won't win this match batting for 600, we need to bowl them out again and so time is on their side on a pitch where both sides have made 300+

 

[Dutch]

Bit lonely around here! Ah well! Well done Bell. Brilliant innings by a man under pressure! Sweeeet!

 

[barmyarmy]

It is incredible that all his 9 test centuries have come when someone else has scored one first.
As Aggers said he's a cake icer.

 

[Robelinda]

So good to see Eng showing SA how its done. Maybe we'll finally see a team that has beat Aus actually back it up with a good performance, instead of failing straight after, like Eng in 05, and SA last season.

 

[Highlander999]

If we beat South Africa in this test series we are the true number 1 test side

 

[madmusician]

I half wish that Bell hadn't scored that century today. Is he the kind of player we really want playing for England? As you said Colin, it's shocking that he's never scored a century to rescue the team before, only icing the cake.

And only England could injure the player who scored 91 the day before in the warm-up...:sarcasm

 

[stefan]

So good to see Eng showing SA how its done. Maybe we'll finally see a team that has beat Aus actually back it up with a good performance, instead of failing straight after, like Eng in 05, and SA last season.

Talking a bit soon. Lets see how the england bowlers go in the second innings. They had the better bowling conditions in the first.

Hardly the first time a side has really struggled on day 3 at Durban. Happended the last two times england has played SA at Durban.

If we beat South Africa in this test series we are the true number 1 test side

True number 1 sides don't lose to the west indies, like you did in the caribean.

 

[TumTum]

Ian Bell :hpraise

He should play in the next Ashes

 

[Ollie_H]

Talking a bit soon. Lets see how the england bowlers go in the second innings. They had the better bowling conditions in the first.

Hardly the first time a side has really struggled on day 3 at Durban. Happended the last two times england has played SA at Durban.



True number 1 sides don't lose to the west indies, like you did in the caribean.

True number ones with a bowling attack last year that was the self proclaimed best since the Windies attack, shouldn't be being trounced around the park.