South Africa in England

[lancashire666]

its been a great knock from KP, really enjoyed watching it, and we have past 300 today so its a very good day, its totally englands day, after winning the toss and putting England in SA should of done so much more today than this, not been that impressed with the SA seamers so far, Styne looks like anderson, skiddy bowler with a bit of swing who can bowl a jaffa or a long hop at anytime, good but unprictable, Morkel has looked better than styne at times, but not really threatened as much as you would expect after they choose to bowl, Ntini is a bowler who i really like but he hasnt done much, and Kallis.......great player..........how fat has he gotten! and harris doesnt look much good at all

was expecting more from them today, but it is the first day of hte series and im sure we will see players like styne have much better days before the end of the series, england will be hoping to get well over 400 now, and they are totally set up to do it, KP has hit almost 100 runs in the final session! excellent day for england

 

[Leicester Fox]

Great knock from KP, just hope Bell can get 100 now, he needs it. KP's conversion rate is unbelievable, I can relax every time he gets to 50!

300-3 is very good, but I expect 450 tops, Steyn will usually clean up the tail and we only have Colly, Broad and Ambrose to come.

 

[Sureshot]

That's still quite a bit of batting, Joe. It's not that hard a pitch to get in on, or it shouldn't be.

 

[lancashire666]

hopefully with the sun shining on it today the pitch might liven up a bit for when england bowl

 

[m_vaughan]

Good start by England. Pietersen looked really solid and confident and the pitch does seem to be a good one to bat on first. Like Michael Holding said, it might get quicker later on, so the second innings, I expect Ntini, Morkel and Steyn do be a lot more dangerous. But England have done most of the job they needed to in the first innings, and only the famous "collapse" tomorrow can get the Saffers back in this game.

 

[w3lshrugby]

Great innings by KP with awesome support from Belly (nice to see he's back in some form!)
309/3 at the end of day 1 is a very good platform, and England should be eyeing up at least 500 to give the Saffers a large first inns total to "chase".

Nothing can really be said until SA have had the chance to bat aswell, as they have a strong batting lineup.

 

[manee]

Interesting first day of the tour. The toss was amongst the most interesting. It was evidently the wrong decision to field first due to the slowness of the pitch and subsequently giving Monty a chance to bowl in the final innings, but Vaughan did say that he would have fielded first. Heavy rain followed by sunshine can evidently create either a slow pitch or a quick one rife with movement. Unfortunately, South Africa got the former.

The bowling from South Africa was poor, imo. Poor lines and an attempt to bowl too quick, too early instead of settling in to a threatening line on the Lords slope, which can be tough for some bowlers. Ntini could not dismiss the left handed openers, despite this being his strength and this cost South Africa because Morkel and moreso Steyn struggle to bowl to left handers - Morkel and Ntini struggled with the slope and Steyn always struggles against left handers. Good to see Morkel up in the post-85mph range, getting up to 94mph and Steyn always up in 88mph area (quite surprisingly not relenting from above 87mph) and getting up to 90mph.

Strauss' innings was an impressively gutsy one, scoring at a slow rate merely because he, through chance, did not get the majority share of the poor deliveries. He batted with concentration and poise and was unlucky to get an extremely poor decision. Umpires must return to being conservative with LBW decisions because, although the balance is far too much in the batsman's favour, umpires getting adventurous with LBW decisions is just not the way to go.

Cook batted well, but most of his runs were gifted to him through poor bowling. He has continued his ascent as the future long term opener of England with a fine start to the series. He was dismissed with a good display of quick, accurate, short bowling from Morkel. Morkel could really become a world beater if he could refine his game to produce probing spells more often than not rather than stringing a good over together almost by chance.

I am unsure about Vaughan's dismissal, tbh. Yes, it was a good ball which swung late at a high pace, but Vaughan's feet were rooted to the ground and he played a poor line. Vaughan could become a bunny of Steyn's in the series if Steyn can probe the off stump line with outswingers early in Vaughan's innings. I have no doubt that this deficiency will not plague Vaughan after his first half-an-hour or so.

As for Bell and Pietersen, what can I say. Both were sublime! What a way for Pietersen to debut in Tests against his home country. He batted with all the flow that turned him into a superstar early in his career. On another note, I thought that Harris bowled poorly, but that South Africa should have played Nel instead of him. I do not think that Harris has what it takes to succeed in England, where 90% of the time, the ball will not spin or leap off a length.

 

[The_gas]

Interesting first day of the tour. The toss was amongst the most interesting. It was evidently the wrong decision to field first due to the slowness of the pitch and subsequently giving Monty a chance to bowl in the final innings, but Vaughan did say that he would have fielded first. Heavy rain followed by sunshine can evidently create either a slow pitch or a quick one rife with movement. Unfortunately, South Africa got the former.

The bowling from South Africa was poor, imo. Poor lines and an attempt to bowl too quick, too early instead of settling in to a threatening line on the Lords slope, which can be tough for some bowlers. Ntini could not dismiss the left handed openers, despite this being his strength and this cost South Africa because Morkel and moreso Steyn struggle to bowl to left handers - Morkel and Ntini struggled with the slope and Steyn always struggles against left handers. Good to see Morkel up in the post-85mph range, getting up to 94mph and Steyn always up in 88mph area (quite surprisingly not relenting from above 87mph) and getting up to 90mph.

Strauss' innings was an impressively gutsy one, scoring at a slow rate merely because he, through chance, did not get the majority share of the poor deliveries. He batted with concentration and poise and was unlucky to get an extremely poor decision. Umpires must return to being conservative with LBW decisions because, although the balance is far too much in the batsman's favour, umpires getting adventurous with LBW decisions is just not the way to go.

Cook batted well, but most of his runs were gifted to him through poor bowling. He has continued his ascent as the future long term opener of England with a fine start to the series. He was dismissed with a good display of quick, accurate, short bowling from Morkel. Morkel could really become a world beater if he could refine his game to produce probing spells more often than not rather than stringing a good over together almost by chance.

I am unsure about Vaughan's dismissal, tbh. Yes, it was a good ball which swung late at a high pace, but Vaughan's feet were rooted to the ground and he played a poor line. Vaughan could become a bunny of Steyn's in the series if Steyn can probe the off stump line with outswingers early in Vaughan's innings. I have no doubt that this deficiency will not plague Vaughan after his first half-an-hour or so.

As for Bell and Pietersen, what can I say. Both were sublime! What a way for Pietersen to debut in Tests against his home country. He batted with all the flow that turned him into a superstar early in his career. On another note, I thought that Harris bowled poorly, but that South Africa should have played Nel instead of him. I do not think that Harris has what it takes to succeed in England, where 90% of the time, the ball will not spin or leap off a length.

I don't need to type anything, as this is basically what i thought, thanks for saving me some time.

 

[manee]

 

[lancashire666]

On another note, I thought that Harris bowled poorly, but that South Africa should have played Nel instead of him. I do not think that Harris has what it takes to succeed in England, where 90% of the time, the ball will not spin or leap off a length.

totally agree, the only place where i would play Harris is Old Trafford and there not playing there in this series, i always like to see a spinner playing in any team, and have critised the Windies when they have gone all seam, but in this case SA would be a better side with Nel in the team insted of Harris, if he stays int the team KP is going to milk him all series,

i personally think that Ant Botha would be a much better player for them other than Harris, however i dont know if he would play for them since hes been playing as a kolpak (or possible registered for england now) in england for a while now, hes not excatly a world class player, but a very good county professional who can turn the ball and is a all rounder, he knows english pitches really well now as well so i would of loved him to get a chance for them

 

[Sureshot]

I think you summed up Vaughan's dismissal well. But we all know that Vaughan is a dodgy starter.

Got to agree about Harris too, yes there wasn't much in it for him. Though it was spinning at times, his accuracy was very poor. You have to bowl at your best when the conditions are against you the most.

 

[evertonfan]

fantastic. I get off a 4 hour flight from Greece to find Pietersen has absolutely destroyed this 'amazing' and 'deadly' bowling attack. Ha.

Of course my arrogance will obviously leave me with egg on my face later, but i'm smashed off my face and have been for a week.

Come on England you little beauties!

 

[Sureshot]

They certainly didn't live up to their hype. That's not to say they aren't good bowlers. But I don't think they can be compared to the West Indies pace attack of the 80s. (A comparison I saw/heard somewhere). It wasn't as though it was bowler friendly, but then they didn't give the pitch a chance to help them out.

 

[manee]

It was the 1984 attack that they were compared to: Holding, Garner, Marshall, Baptiste and Harper.

 

[irottev]

Comparing the West Indies attack with this one is a joke. This attack is over-rated. Ntini is a shadow of what he once was. He's down in pace and bowls too short. He bowled barely any balls which would have hit the stumps. Morkel is new. He has very little control though he's fast and bounces the ball. Steyn is of course the best, but he bowled hardly at all in the first session with the new ball. It was wasted on Morkel and Ntini who didn't threaten the stumps.

I'm glad to see England score lots of runs. Makes our effort in the tests seem pretty respectable. He even got Bell out of form for SA and they've put him back into it instantly.

Ntini bowls a lot like Chris Martin. They both move the ball away from the left handers and into the right handers as their natural movement. England will be used to that. They bowl at simular pace and lengths as well. Martin makes the batsman play more often.