South Africa in England

[Sureshot]

Tough day for England, the strength of this South African batting line up is showing.

We have to do what they did at Lord's. A marvellous rearguard action is required, I'm not too confident of achieving that. I can't see Broad staying in the team after this, or Pattinson.

I would bring in Shah and Sidebottom. Play Fred as part of 4-man attack.

 

[Skater]

MY team for the 3rd Test:

1. Andrew Strauss [Middlesex]
2. Alastair Cook [Essex]
3. Michael Vaughan [Yorkshire] (captain)
4. Kevin Pietersen [Hampshire]
5. Ian Bell [Warwickshire]
6. Owais Shah [Middlesex]
7. Chris Read [Nottinghamshire] (wicket keeper)
8. Andrew Flintoff [Lancashire]
9. Ryan Sidebottom [Nottinghamshire]
10. Chris Tremlett [Hampshire]
11. Monty Panesar [Northamptonshire]

 

[shravi]

If Simon Jones continues to maintain his fitness, will he take the Broad/Tremlett position in the side? Broad has the talent but he just isn't there yet. The selectors have started couting their chickens before they've hatched. In test cricket, you should always go in with an assurance policy and that comes in the form of experience. In my opinion and probably many others too, Broad isn't there yet.

 

[Skater]

Tremlett just isn't given the chance.

 

[Simbazz]

MY team for the 3rd Test:

1. Andrew Strauss [Middlesex]
2. Alastair Cook [Essex]
3. Michael Vaughan [Yorkshire] (captain)
4. Kevin Pietersen [Hampshire]
5. Ian Bell [Warwickshire]
6. Owais Shah [Middlesex]
7. Chris Read [Nottinghamshire] (wicket keeper)
8. Andrew Flintoff [Lancashire]
9. Ryan Sidebottom [Nottinghamshire]
10. Chris Tremlett [Hampshire]
11. Monty Panesar [Northamptonshire]

You're team is pretty much one version i'd have, but in all fairness, i'd drop Vaughan.

My ultimate team would be;

1. Andrew Strauss (C)
2. Alistair Cook
3. Owais Shah
4. Kevin Pietersen
5. Ian Bell
6. Matt Prior
7. Andrew Flintoff
8. Stuart Broad
9. Ryan Sidebottom
10. Jimmy Anderson
11. Monty Panesar

I'd drop both Vaughan and Ambrose (Whether you claim he's out of form etc. its the same case with Vaughan) and replace them with two players who look in form and are both capable of making huge scores, i'd have Broad in there because his time will come...and it'll be soon but i can only feel that if he put on a bit of muscle he might find a touch more pace and be so much more threatening.

 

[Skater]

Vaughan is simply too good a captain to drop. The team are lost without him. Bat him lower down, whatever, but don't drop him.

And Read is a better player than Prior. Why doesn't anyone like him? Without a shadow of a doubt the best gloveman in England, and averaging 49.00 with the bat for 2 seasons.

 

[shravi]

I reckon England should stop looking for that 'Gilchrist' type wicket-keeper and face the fact that they possibly don't have that type of player. They are a very rare breed. They shoud look to get the best out of their batsmen instead and make a brave decision by dropping Michael Vaughan. It's been 'close but no cigar' for Vaughan for quite some time now. If England really need his captaincy that badly, make him sit at the boundary line as a sub or spectator and call the shots, because he isn't offering anything positive to the batting line up.

 

[Skater]

I don't care about his batting as much as his captaincy TBH. And if Vaughan is dropped KP is likely to take the cap *shudder*.

 

[WestIndian]

Tough day for England, the strength of this South African batting line up is showing.
We have to do what they did at Lord's. A marvellous rearguard action is required, I'm not too confident of achieving that. I can't see Broad staying in the team after this, or Pattinson.
I would bring in Shah and Sidebottom. Play Fred as part of 4-man attack.

I tend to agree with you, playing Flintoff as part of a 4-man attack, I mean looking at the amount of overs he has bowled thus far, he might as well play the role. You mentioned two changes, Pattinson out Sidebottom in, Shah in Broad out. So you would play 3 quicks and Monty??
What of Vaughan and Ambrose?? Say England goes on and lose this test, is there any possibility that these two would come up with a question mark??

 

[.Mob]

By the way, you guys, Read played in the ICL, so the BCCI would wreck havoc if he was chosen.

 

[Valaskjalf]

Awesome work by the boys today....Prince is really impressing me thus far, never thought he had the minerals but seems like i was wrong. Smith will prob get us to bat until tea with a 220 - 230 lead and very possibly, if the cloudiness hangs around, get england out pretty quickly. Innings win and off we go with a 1 - 0 lead. Now thats test cricket!

 

[MasterBlaster76]

You know, they made a very interesting point today in commentary about the 2005 Ashes. Michael Vaughan never asked for the ball to be changed, because it wasn't swinging and the reason for that is he had other things going for him if the ball wasn't swinging. Whereas now, we rely on swing. If it doesn't swing, we're stuffed in all areas, apart from when Flintoff is bowling. Apparently, S. Jones and Harmison are in good form now, isn't it time they were recalled? I don't get why we've chosen this Pattison guy. He doesn't look anything special at all! At least Flintoff's bowling is excellent, let's hope his batting returns soon as well. Why wasn't he in the last Test?

England to lose this, go 1-0 down and lose the series.

 

[PhilD123]

Me thinks Read burnt his metaphorical bridges with his comments after the Ashes in 06. Ambrose seems in poor form because of the ODI's, where he should never have played. You seriously wouldn't play Anderson, Lee?

Vaughan deserves a little bit of loyalty, at least until the end of the series.

On Pattinson, I'm sure in swinging conditions he's a decent bowler, but I think he just seems a little innocuous.

 

[Will_NA]

Awesome work by the boys today....Prince is really impressing me thus far, never thought he had the minerals but seems like i was wrong. Smith will prob get us to bat until tea with a 220 - 230 lead and very possibly, if the cloudiness hangs around, get england out pretty quickly. Innings win and off we go with a 1 - 0 lead. Now thats test cricket!

Hangs around lol. It's a travesty if there's a single cloud in the sky when England bat. SA have had nothing but sunshine.

We need a huge partenership to garner any hopes of saving thsi match but neither opener looks solid enough and if Vaughan wasn't such a good captain, he would have been out of the team long ago.

Don't see England saving this.

 

[WestIndian]

By the way, you guys, Read played in the ICL, so the BCCI would wreck havoc if he was chosen.

And who would they sue, if he is chosen?? Then again I guess cricket does revolve around the BCCI or should I say Lalit Modi and the IPL.