South Africa in England

[TruSachFan]

patel :happy:hpraise

 

[angryangy]

I wouldn't be too worried about this slow-ish start. Building a platform is in vogue nowadays as Twenty20 has shown what can be scored in the last few overs. Of course being able to score quickly at the start and the end would be magnificent but let's take it one step at a time.

Yeah wickets > runs. At this rate, they'll clear 250 with much ease.

angryangy added 2 Minutes and 56 Seconds later...

Ya, Luke Wright is much changed now. His bowling quality has changed dramatically over last few months. Captain can now actually rely on him.

But hardly a necessity behind Anderson, Flintoff, Harmison and Broad. What's more is that a captain scarcely wants to bowl 40 overs of pace in an ODI because the over rate will get him suspended. At this point Wright is a spare part and if the selectors feel the batting is running well, they may well return Swann to the side.

 

[King Pietersen]

What a partnership this is turning out to be. Maybe it was a good plan to stick Freddie in above Bopara. Pietersen's playing a beauty though, pfft, captaincy affecting his batting, yeh right. What a player.

 

[Themer]

Really good batting performance by England especailly by Pietersen and Flintoff. Flintoff looks like he can be a good batsman again and the Captaincy has only enhanced Pietersen's batting.

 

[evertonfan]

Denly scored another hundred today. I'm more than willing to give him a go opening the innings for us in odis. Bell just can't do it against teams who aren't Pakistan.

Flintoff is just class. Time for Harmison to repay the faith now. Come on son.

 

[The_gas]

Wow, i have waited so long to watch Freddie and KP bat together and make a class partnership and it was great, such enjoyable cricket. Gives us real hope in this game.

I hope it will be enough, but it was so enjoyable to watch that i could just about stomach a loss now.

England's openers must play better next time though.

Rock On EvertonFan! :cool:

 

[Vcassano]

Denly isn't quite there yet in one day cricket. We really need to stop putting players who perform in First Class cricket into the ODI team. Good domestic one day performers should go into the ODI squad and good First Class performers into the Test squad.

Anyway a very impressive performance from Flintoff today. He didn't fall into his "recent" failings of trying to hit hard. With his natural strength middling the ball is more than enough as he proved today, with appropriate placement of course. He still did that frustrating early movement forwards that bowlers see and pitch shorter which he then prods at but still, very nice.

What marks Pietersen out from the rest is what he doesn't play. He rarely plays big shots early, he gets across and picks the singles. Bell always tries to get his cover drives going but ends up wasting balls as he finds fielders. Pietersen may not find the early boundaries but he gets himself into touch by picking off singles so he neither bats slowly nor takes too many risks. This means that when he does hit the boundaries the score is going to rocket along.

The Flintoff-Pietersen partnership was for me the perfect example of how to build a strong one day partnership.

 

[manee]

Denly isn't quite there yet in one day cricket. We really need to stop putting players who perform in First Class cricket into the ODI team. Good domestic one day performers should go into the ODI squad and good First Class performers into the Test squad.

Truer words have never been spoken.

 

[Chetan0304]

Excellent 1st innings for england it was the way the wanted and the best part for me seeing Andy & KP bat..

KP was just soo good all over the grounds..

I hope South Africa beats the target or i ll lose my 20k

 

[The_gas]

Pietersen and Flintoff are legends among men, and are twice the men of anyone on this forum, and that includes Sir Noobsalot Zmario. :cool:

 

[Collingwood50]

great innings from Freddie and KP, great commentary by Aggers and Blowers

 

[aditya123]

Pietersen and Flintoff are legends among men, and are twice the men of anyone on this forum, and that includes Sir Noobsalot Zmario. :cool:

Hey,but Pietersen is no Inzamam !

aditya123 added 2 Minutes and 41 Seconds later...

England could have pushed on for 290-300 with both KP and Freddie in there.
Nevertheless,this should be a good game.
Can`t wait for Harmisson and Freddie to bowl in tandem.Being a day-nighter, can`t catch the whole game live though.
Will watch the first 20 overs.

 

[Chetan0304]

Pietersen and Flintoff are legends among men, and are twice the men of anyone on this forum, and that includes Sir Noobsalot Zmario. :cool:

lol Zmario misses another great post

 

[Leicester Fox]

If Denly was picked ahead of Cook for at least another year i would never support England again. Cook even has a better strike rate in list A cricket.

This games in the bag. Sadly it's a bag made by an Englishman so no doubt we'll let it slip.

 

[DPRA]

Some very decent batting from KP and Freddie has got us up to a very respectable score there.

Quite happy with that myself.