South Africa in England July-Sept 2012

[barmyarmy]

To be honest they should be worried about the batting but I'm not sure that picking Bres is the solution.
Batsmen are there to score runs and you play the best bowlers imo. Should be Anderson, Broad, Finn.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

we've had a really wet summer and the conditions will be closer to early may than july. I don't think the best method of getting a win would be to turn the match into shoot out. philander, steyn and morkel would be absolutely delighted getting to bowl at a team a batsman light in wet engligh conditions.

to be honest, if it's really green they may consider dropping swann. could see south africa playing four quicks, tstobe offers a left hand option and test matches have been really short in england recently so the fatigue of rotating them (especially with kallis chipping in) might not be such a worry.

still think bresnan's done enough to keep his place though. mom in the 2nd test v the windies and finn didn't out bowl him in the 3rd or anything.

 

[War]

He doesn't even bowl for Somerset much in T20 or One Day cricket, if at all, so he's not going to be batting at 7 and bowling overs, as he's not really good enough. Last year or the year before was his time to get into the side, much in the same way that we played Luke Wright at 6 and got the odd over out of him when we won the T20 World Cup, but that time has passed.

I do feel privileged that you replied to the same message from me twice though.

Haa @ the priviledged point. You made a good point, so it was worth deliberating on my friend.

For real?. Admittedly i don't watch county T20 as attentively as i should, but i do recall seeing Trego bowling fairly often in big games i caught over the last 2 years on Skysports for Somerset though.

Plus recently this year in the Bangladesh Premier League - he bowled every game for his team, sometimes even taking the new-ball.

Don't get me wrong, i don't think he would be a world beater or anything. But given we are using Bresnan @ 7 in the limited overs games (as a seam bowling all-rounder), while also grooming a similar player in Chris Woakes for the same role.

I think Trego is the best batting/seam bowling all-rounder on the county circuit and could be of some use.


On the England bowling, deep down i also suspect that England may not play 5-bowlers - especially versus this S African team with that bowling attack.

But in all the debate of who should bat @ # 6, every since Collingwood retired. Outside of the main 10 players who have brought England all the current success in Strauss, Cook, Trott, KP, Bell, Prior, Broad, Swann, Anderson, Bresnan. The one player these days who deserves to be in the test team more than anyone is Steven Finn - not any new # 6, whether is Bopara, Morgan, Compton, Hildreth.

So I'm always been of the view that potentially the selectors should put take the risk and give Prior the extra batting responsibility to be a Kumar Sangakarra/Flower/Stewart top six keeper batsman. While Bresnan take on the extra batting responsibility and be the new Flintoff (although he would be more of circumspect batsman).

If the experiment fails no biggie, since we can fall back on the tried and tested 4-bowler strategy - but if it works, it would give England test team a new dimension.

 

[angryangy]

they score quite slowly, there's a lack of intent in their stroke play I think de villiers is the one that can really take the game to the opposition. I suppose he wouldn't necessarily be out the top 4 (er 5 actually, he playes 5 doesn't he?) but the experiment never worked when sri lanka gave the gloves to sangakkara, the responsibility of batting in the top order and keeping wicket proved too much.

In a direct comparison, a lot of the South Africans are more grouped together in the middle, whereas England has both stodgier and flashier batsmen. Still, Smith is arguably one of the more attacking in the two teams.

 

[MUFC1987]

Haa @ the priviledged point. You made a good point, so it was worth deliberating on my friend.

For real?. Admittedly i don't watch county T20 as attentively as i should, but i do recall seeing Trego bowling fairly often in big games i caught over the last 2 years on Skysports for Somerset though.

Plus recently this year in the Bangladesh Premier League - he bowled every game for his team, sometimes even taking the new-ball.

Don't get me wrong, i don't think he would be a world beater or anything. But given we are using Bresnan @ 7 in the limited overs games (as a seam bowling all-rounder), while also grooming a similar player in Chris Woakes for the same role.

I think Trego is the best batting/seam bowling all-rounder on the county circuit and could be of some use.

He's bowled brilliantly in the County Championship at the start of the season and bowled a bit more often than normal in the CB40 games, because we were so short of bowlers. He's been a short of 6-7th bowler for the last couple of years though. His economy rate hasn't been that great when he's bowled and he's not a prolific wicket-taker. Bowled 14 overs in 16 T20 games last year and 3 overs in 6 games this year. He does bowl a bit more in CB40 games, but I'd say he's never been picked to bowl 8 overs and just fills in when needed really.

I'd say he's a genuine all-rounder in First Class cricket, but the last couple of years his batting has been really good in limited overs cricket, so he plays as a batsman who can bowl the odd over when needed. Which he doesn't tend to do too often, as he's not as good as the other options at Somerset even really. He has days where he'll bowl good spells and days where you wouldn't want to rely on him to complete his overs. That doesn't matter for Somerset though, because like I said, he's picked for his batting, but he wouldn't be good enough to guarantee 10/4 good overs for England, so not worth the all-rounder spot really.

 

[jacobfelix]

First of all, how's the weather there...with just 2 days ahead of the first test.....

 

[barmyarmy]

It's meant to be ok for the Oval. Possibly rain on Monday and plenty of seam and swing.

 

[Gaurav_7]

This is the series to watch. Great timings as well for me here. Hopefully, it's a cracker!

 

[shravi]

Ugh, starts at 5am here. Great. I'll just watch a replay of the first session in that case.

 

[Ahmad94]

Should be a cracker to watch with Dale Steyn swinging and seaming the ball

 

[Epic]

6 AM for me, and going by my summer sleep schedule, should miss about 5 hours of cricket.

 

[War]

Does anyone recall now how long has investec being England's home series sponsor? For some reason i didn't even realize that Npower left them.

 

[barmyarmy]

The WI series was Investec if it helps. Think that was their first series as there ws a lot of stuff on twitter about the free goodies for the journos.

 

[barmyarmy]

Apparently Dale Steyn is potentially out of the first test.

 

[War]

He's bowled brilliantly in the County Championship at the start of the season and bowled a bit more often than normal in the CB40 games, because we were so short of bowlers. He's been a short of 6-7th bowler for the last couple of years though. His economy rate hasn't been that great when he's bowled and he's not a prolific wicket-taker. Bowled 14 overs in 16 T20 games last year and 3 overs in 6 games this year. He does bowl a bit more in CB40 games, but I'd say he's never been picked to bowl 8 overs and just fills in when needed really.

I'd say he's a genuine all-rounder in First Class cricket, but the last couple of years his batting has been really good in limited overs cricket, so he plays as a batsman who can bowl the odd over when needed. Which he doesn't tend to do too often, as he's not as good as the other options at Somerset even really. He has days where he'll bowl good spells and days where you wouldn't want to rely on him to complete his overs. That doesn't matter for Somerset though, because like I said, he's picked for his batting, but he wouldn't be good enough to guarantee 10/4 good overs for England, so not worth the all-rounder spot really.

Ye fair enough. Seemingly Luke Wright is the preferred option in that area.

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The WI series was Investec if it helps. Think that was their first series as there ws a lot of stuff on twitter about the free goodies for the journos.

Yea i just researched it and found that out. Still miss the days when Cornhill Insurance sponsored test cricket at home.

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Apparently Dale Steyn is potentially out of the first test.

Hmm well if true, that would be disappointing from a series perspective.We want the best players fit.

But it will expose S Africa bowling depth given that De Lange is injured and Tsotsobe will have to play. Don't rate Lopsy and i reckon, England's batsmen would destroy him.

Also not calling up Ryan McLaren to replace De Lange, but picking Albie Morkel could also prove to decisive if the Steyn situation proves true.