Eng v Sth Af 4th Test

[crudbucket]

South Africa are 2-2 are winning the toss and electing to bat.

Graeme Smith is out, no double century this time !!

 

[JUBJUB]

Goold old England blow it again.They had SA at 7/142,but SA ended up at 7/260 at stumps.

Kirsten is 109 n.o and a bowler playing his first test,Zondeki [sounds like a marathon runner], is 50 n.o .His previous highest first class score was 27.

 

[Dipper]

Yeah England blew it but IMO we blew it in the selection meeting.

I said on the thread for the 3rd Test that the trap that the selectors always fall into at Headingly is packing the side with swing bowlers, my view is firstly that 4or 5 can't do anymore than 2 or 3 & secondly when the ball swings at Headingly it's a wicked batting pitch but when it doesn't it's actually very good for batting.

So what happens?We have them on the ropes but Kirsten battles on & sees off the swinging ball & then the attack becomes innoccuous in the afternoon.They've got an old ball the sun's out & there's no variety in the attack, bravo to the selectors, they fall for it every year but some year they get let out of jail when we manage to bowl sides out before the ball stops swinging or condition are just so terrible for batting, but yesterday afternoon we were crying out for either a spinner, a genuine quick or someone who gets steepling bounce AND(ie not Flintoff) who can beat the bat.


As Harmison was injured that takes out about the only option for genuine pace &/or big bounce so at least we needed a spinner in there.

Anyway SA made 342 & we're 48/1 with Vaughn out & worryingly unable to make runs as skipper.

 

[Nige_Bix]

Well its day 3 and SA are about 70 ahead with 2 wickets down - England should have got closer - poor effort by their tail and Hussain should get a kick up the butt for getting out to Rudolph.

Flintoffs knock was enjoyable.

But for the 2nd test in a row the pitch looks dodgy - on one occasion a ball flies past the ears, and next one in about the same spot is around the ankles! - more like day 5 last session! not on 3rd day - still it makes for an interesting contest and good viewing.

 

[thewhippersnapper]

Well the score now is:

South Africa 342 & 192/5 (68.2 ov)
England 307

South Africa have a 227 run lead at the moment.

Boucher is not out 13 and McKenzie is 33.

I think SA is on top at the moment. I believe they deserve to be leading this series 3-0 so it would be pretty much crap if England won this series.

 

[thewhippersnapper]

Score now:

South Africa 342 & 365
England 307 & 43/1 (14.4 ov)

England require another 358 runs with 9 wickets remaining

A day and 35 overs to go. Should be a great finish. If England dont get bowled out they should win this one.

 

[BT]

Originally posted by BomberAUS
Score now:

South Africa 342 & 365
England 307 & 43/1 (14.4 ov)

England require another 358 runs with 9 wickets remaining

A day and 35 overs to go. Should be a great finish. If England dont get bowled out they should win this one.

SA should win by 150 +. You'd expect the pitch to die as it did in the previous test. England threw this one away on the first day...

 

[thewhippersnapper]

Well England are not looking good at all now as the last day has just started.

The score is:

South Africa 342 & 365
England 307 & 178/6 (52.0 ov)

They have already lost an early wicket.

England require another 223 runs with 4 wickets remaining

SA are going to win this one.

 

[thewhippersnapper]

Final Score:

South Africa 342 & 365
England 307 & 209 (61.4 ov)

191 run to South Africa I think it was.

Kallis cleaned up England getting 6/54 in the 2nd innings.

 

[Dipper]

A poor show by us there were a number of genuine chances for us to grab the game by the throat but we blew them all.

The most shameful was late in the afternoon on the 2nd day, Trescothick & Butcher were literally smashing the SA bowlers all over the park, for about the last 4 or 5 overs they'd hit about 2 boundaries every over, the SA bowlers were in disarray & then the umpires offered England the light, well I assumed that we'd decline & stay on to keep knocking & shades of s*** out of them but that gutless wonder Trescothick made Butcher go off, the SAs must have loved it they had a chance to regroup & Tresco was promptly out within 2 overs of coming back getting a leading edge to a mistimed shot.

Serves him right.

It was cowardice of the highest order & it was the point whre we lost the initiative big time.

A big mention also to Andrew Hall, he may not be the most talented allrounder in the world but he's awhole hearted player who play aggresive attacking cricket, seems to enjoy it & isn't scared, how we could do with a few like him.

 

[Dipper]

Originally posted by BomberAUS

I think SA is on top at the moment. I believe they deserve to be leading this series 3-0 so it would be pretty much crap if England won this series.

How do you work out that they deserve to be leading the series 3-0? ok they drew the first Test when in a dominant position so you could say it deserves to be 2-1 to them you could even say (though not with great justification) that England won ona dodgy pitch & so we don't deserve our victory so that would make it 2-0 but how can you possibly say that they deserve to have won a Test match that they lost?

It was a crap pitch it was bad for both sides we were fortunate to bat first & we won so please tell me why they're the moral victors of that game?

 

[red+black]

Originally posted by DIPPER
A big mention also to Andrew Hall, he may not be the most talented allrounder in the world but he's awhole hearted player who play aggresive attacking cricket, seems to enjoy it & isn't scared, how we could do with a few like him.

An impressive knock, but not getting a hundred was his own fault. A marvellous effort to get so close but shouldn't have taken a single on 99 when there were i think 4 balls left in the over.

 

[Wicked Lester]

I'm a big fan of Kallis as a player - class batsman, but I'm intrigued with his bowling figures.

I only saw a little bit of the match on Foxtel. The part I saw was the English first innings and Kallis was bowling. As is often the case Jacques looked a little overweight (or at least very solid!!) and fairly sluggish. The spell I saw was fairly wayward and he looked pretty innocuous.

To my astonsihment he cleaned up England in the second innings and in fact seems generally to have a knack of getting regular wickets.

Did anyone see his wickets? How did he get them?

 

[Dipper]

Originally posted by Wicked Lester
I'm a big fan of Kallis as a player - class batsman, but I'm intrigued with his bowling figures.

I only saw a little bit of the match on Foxtel. The part I saw was the English first innings and Kallis was bowling. As is often the case Jacques looked a little overweight (or at least very solid!!) and fairly sluggish. The spell I saw was fairly wayward and he looked pretty innocuous.

To my astonsihment he cleaned up England in the second innings and in fact seems generally to have a knack of getting regular wickets.

Did anyone see his wickets? How did he get them?

Well on that last morning it was pretty overcast & the ball was doing a lot & Kallis as a bowler if nothing else is a swing bowler, he was getting some good shape on his away swingers & they were rampant we were (mentally) beaten & he cleared up.

To be honest he's always bowled well over here, I can imagine that when he goes down to Australia his bowling isn't that dangerous but up here he's a threat when it's swinging.

I think he had Vaughn, Butcher, Flintoff & Bicknell all caught in the slips or by the wicketkeeper.

The likes of him, Hall & Pollock are a formidable block of players they're tough & to varying degrees are all allrounders, in this match they're tail outscored ours ridiculously.

 

[EagleBlue]

Originally posted by Wicked Lester
I'm a big fan of Kallis as a player - class batsman, but I'm intrigued with his bowling figures.

I only saw a little bit of the match on Foxtel. The part I saw was the English first innings and Kallis was bowling. As is often the case Jacques looked a little overweight (or at least very solid!!) and fairly sluggish. The spell I saw was fairly wayward and he looked pretty innocuous.

To my astonsihment he cleaned up England in the second innings and in fact seems generally to have a knack of getting regular wickets.

Did anyone see his wickets? How did he get them?

As a bowler I believe he is an overrated hack, although the stats dont back that up (Nearly 150 wkts at avg 28) I would like to see the quality of batsmen dismissed. Everytime he plays Australia he gets carted. His look of astonishment when Gilly, Ponting, Hayden etc cart his mediocre bowling all round the park is one of the funniest things I have seen on the cricket field. Similar to Caddick.

His batting is a different story, an absolute gun. 3rd best batsman in world cricket behind Tendulkar and Lara