So England after a bad warm up match against the 'A' team have dominated against South Africa on day one and two.

South Africa were dismissed for 337 Hoggard and Flintoff taking three wickets each with Harmison, Giles and Jones taking the rest. Rudolph and dippenaar gave the only real resistance from South Africa with 93 and 110 runs respectively.

England reached 227/1 with Andreww Strauss making 120no in his first away England test match Trescothick made 47 and butcher is on 24no.

Can England continue their good run of form and take this series, I knoe it's early but I think they can do it.

I think this will be a good test against a good quality South African team :D

Just what the lads need, some proper competition.. Although SA's first innings wasn't upto much :suspect:

Tomorrow is another day.. Don't get too happy about it just yet :?

After watching many, many England matches on tv I know not to get over exited early on in a match/series.

Well it looks like I spoke too soon. Mark Butcher who was having a good innings went and took a silly swipe at the ball and was caught out. Fair enough you may think but then what followed seems to be typical of England cricket, 4 wickets went for 12 runs:gag: Now the with two wickets left it's damage limitation for England whilst trying to add to their lead before they're all out.

Yeah overnight we needed to be looking at lead of 150- 200 looks like we will be strugging for a 50-100 lead now

We should hope that S'Africa deliver more nb's to boost up the score.

425 all out. Not a bad score but ffs, first 2 wickets went for 238, the rest followed at an alarming 187 - 8!!

I was hoping the days of the England middle/bottom order collapse were behind us :suspect:

Mat:(

Originally posted by mat1978
I was hoping the days of the England middle/bottom order collapse were behind us :suspect:

So was i, but i guess not. :(

I was hoping England to get 500-550+ and have a chance at winning without having to bat again. I still think we'll win tho. Famous last words...................................

I watched the last 20 mins or so of the England innings, some comedy moments there :clap:

Well, end of day three and SA are 11 runs ahead with 8 wickets left. I think the game is slanting in Englands favour at the moment. It would only take one big innings by Kallis or Dippenaar to put the game beyong Englands reach.

Anyone fancy a draw?

Mat

Looks like the draw could be on, definately some comedy errors towards the end of the England innings, how many times were they given a lifeline?

At least three, 2 drops and a no ball :hihi:

Apparently the amount of no balls given away was one of highest amounts by a South African team.

SA 229 all out.. England needing 140+ to win.. and we're 11-2 .. WTG England :suspect:

70 for 3, we're gonna get there crawling on our hands and knees, one single at a time. Come on boys, lets make it 8 wins in a row, and 11 wins in 12.

There's something odd going on here, I've actually got confidence in them, I'm worried now!

Originally posted by Yodameister
70 for 3, we're gonna get there crawling on our hands and knees, one single at a time. Come on boys, lets make it 8 wins in a row, and 11 wins in 12.

There's something odd going on here, I've actually got confidence in them, I'm worried now!

well i'm pretty confident - after all this is our best run in years!

Originally posted by Bedhead
well i'm pretty confident - after all this is our best run in years!

Sorry but I've no confidence, I think we will lose wickets straight away in the morning :help:

Sorry but I've no confidence, I think we will lose wickets straight away in the morning

well we only need 49 with 7 wickets remaining... I know we have had some bad collapses in the past but surely we cant blow this one ... can we !

Well after thinking a draw was on the cards the outlook is at the minute good. 41 runs with 7 wickets left hopefully the will make easy work of it, but as we know England can let go and loose it.

Why did they go off for bad light when they had the floodlights on?

Originally posted by carcrash
Why did they go off for bad light when they had the floodlights on?

I dont think you can use floodlights in Test matches can you ?

The lads have done it :clap: 7 wickets isn't just a win we whooped their asses, Strauss with 94 must be the best prospect to come thorough in the past year.

Well done England but its the first test.

I dont think the England team are competant enough to keep this up through the whole tour.

problem with them is they think they can win everything they enter.

Maybe they will. Maybe they wont. I dont think they will.

A tenner says they dont win the next one

Wooo! well done England:thumbsup: that's 8 wins in a row a think, Strauss was a fantastic again. C'mon lads keep it up and lets wint the series at least now.

I dreamt last night that we lost by one run, after a ninth wicket stand of 20!

God knows how I ended up dreaming about cricket, but at least it didn't come true, eh?

we're class - a good sign for the ashes next year - that's the litmus test and that's how we will be judged (by me anyhow)

i would luv it if we stuffed the ozzies

Originally posted by Bedhead
we're class - a good sign for the ashes next year - that's the litmus test and that's how we will be judged (by me anyhow)

i would luv it if we stuffed the ozzies

It would be good to beat Australia, but we shouldn't be too disappointed if we don't, they are quite possibly the best test team ever, and being second to them in world cricket is not a bad position to be in.

Originally posted by Dolouz
Well done England but its the first test.

I dont think the England team are competant enough to keep this up through the whole tour.

Why not? We didn't even play that well. There's definitely a lot more to come from the likes of Vaughan, Harmison, Trescothick and Flintoff.

problem with them is they think they can win everything they enter.

How can this possibly be a problem? We've got confidence running through our veins and believe we can come back and win from any situation, just like the Aussies at their best - in any sport, that is a very special state of affairs indeed.

Maybe they will. Maybe they wont. I dont think they will.

A tenner says they dont win the next one

Well, there are some people who will never be happy. I'll put a metaphorical tenner on an England victory in the next test!

Yes, I do fail to see what the problem is of believing that you can win everything you enter, provided it is based on some realism and does not spill over into arrogance or over confidence.

I think lack of belief and fear of failure have been two of our biggest opponents that we have now defeated.

You have to remember that this was the first test and we had very little preparation time so this was going to be the one that we would be most likely to lose. The S Africans were fired up for this one and expectations for them were high

We will improve the longer we're there so i remain confident!

Well the second test is not going to well. SAfrica lead by 153 runs on a wicket that favours the bowlers, so England will need a huge score to go for a draw at least.

Well, were now 88 in front after a magnificent effort by Strauss (132 no) and Trescothick (132).

Can we do it again?? 250 for Strauss a ton for Butch - Declare on 500 for 1 and bowl them out before the end of tommorow:D

Wishful thinking?

Mat:thumbsup:

Yes it looks good for the draw but it would be amazing to see the guys win and some great innings from Trescothick and Strauss (again)

I think if England have a good few hours tomorrow then they will be forcing SA to hit runs (Can't imagine they'd settle for a draw)

Mistakes can be made.. Look at our First Innings :roll: We swung at everything at it went against us

I'm probably tempting fate, but England seem to have developed the Australian quality of never giving up as long as there is still some hope left.

Previously, any close match we would almost always lose, and we really had to absolutely demolish teams to win matches.

Now we generally win close matches and even win matches when we just have a thin sliver of a chance - we just grab that chance the moment we see it.

All i'm going to say is its a right rocking rollercoaster of a match.

The game could go either way. At the moment england are 385/4 which is a lead of 192. I think if we can get a lead in the region of around 300 plus we stand a chance of forcing a win but that would be a tall order as the wicket appears to be getting better and not worse.

If we get the sort of lead that would require them to score at 3.5 an over or higher (so if we give them a day to bat thats just a shade over 300) then we shouldn't lose, I reckon if they went for the runs they'd definitely get themselves out.

But any score up to then could go either way, but England have got to be favourites now.

And the 1st SA Wicket goes... :clap:

C'mon Lads.. Tomorrow is another day

When England were rubbish we consoled ourselves with the fact that it'd be boring to win all the time.

Well, we now know that thats just not true!!

Originally posted by Deejay
And the 1st SA Wicket goes... :clap:

C'mon Lads.. Tomorrow is another day

Should have been at least 2. I'm fancying a England victory tomorrow!!

Originally posted by mr craig
Should have been at least 2. I'm fancying a England victory tomorrow!!

I'll settle for one today... 5 or 6 in the morning and the rest just after lunch :thumbsup:

Well, there 4 down at Lunch.

Come On England!!

212-7... what a turn around... C'mon :clap:

Three wickets in a session, it can be done. Set an attacking field and get at Pollock. Once he has gone the rest should follow.

Looks like a draw as bad light stops play.

Would have been a brilliant victory and but for a terrible batting display first time around, and a brilliant innings from Kallis would have won I'm sure.

At least we are unbeaten in 2004 with 11 wins out of 13. I'd say on current form definitely in the top 2 teams in the world.

AHHHHHH GUTTED.......

unlucky on the boys - I think they deserved the win, but the SA's played really well toward the end - Pollock always seems to come up with the the goods even with a bat in his hand.

Perhaps a broader question should be asked, why not play on under the floodlights??


Whatever, its been a good year for the England team - hope they'll be able to follow it next year.


Mat :thumbsup:

Originally posted by mat1978
Whatever, its been a good year for the England team - hope they'll be able to follow it next year.

Lets hope so mate.. Maybe 2005 will be better than this year :clap:

Umh, in saying that don't we take on the Aussies in 2005 :suspect:

Yes, who have just become the first nation to win 300 test matches a few days ago when they annihilated Pakistan.

Originally posted by Lickszz
Yes, who have just become the first nation to win 300 test matches a few days ago when they annihilated Pakistan.

Oh well, the winning streak was good while it lasted then :hihi:

No, I seriously think in our current form we stand to give them a good run for their money :)

I agree. We stand as good a chance as we have for a long time. Can't afford any collapses in the batting though.

Lets bring the Ashes home :clap:

Firstly, lets get the rest of the SA Test Series outta the way :D

All guns blazing in the 3rd test ;)

Originally posted by Lickszz
I agree. We stand as good a chance as we have for a long time. Can't afford any collapses in the batting though.

At least the batting collapses are a lot rarer than they used to be. England and Austrailia are the real in-form teams at the mo so it should be a cracking test series.

Plus i'm looking forward to the England V's Austrailia 20-20 game, Which i've got a ticket for!:hihi:

I'm not sure of our chances in the Ashes.

If we had the team we've got now in 89, 93 or 97 then we would be firm favourites, trouble is Australia seem to be getting better all the time.

Oh well, we are still unbeaten in 8 matches and are looking good I still think we will win the series and take in the good form for the Ashes.

Originally posted by duffman
I still think we will win the series and take in the good form for the Ashes.

Ditto Mate, in fact I may even put a bet on England to win the Ashes, see what the odds are ;)

Sorry chaps. i have just got in at- god knows what time in the morning, but fortunate to have permanent connection to radio 6 on my home DAB I can't think of anything better than a quick listen to the who while two dJs have a quick Who debate, while I enjoy a quick cup of english char (TEA), before bed,
while finding out what is being said on the forum about cricket. I hate all sport but love cricket.

Good luck to you all and happy new year.

Muddy Coffee

:cool: :) :thumbsup:

oh dear..... perhaps 2005 isnt going to be as good as 2004 for Vaughn.

441 SA and England at 94 - 4 :(

Originally posted by mat1978
oh dear..... perhaps 2005 isnt going to be as good as 2004 for Vaughn.

441 SA and England at 94 - 4 :(

Oh well....

I just have to accept that 2004 was the best that England will ever be in my lifetime!

You never know it might rain or summat :rolleyes: , cant see us surviving or getting 500 plus to win it though :confused:

500 works out at less than 3 an over and the pitch seems to be holding up well. ONe of the bolwers has got a broken hand. I think it is do-able.

England 63-1, Only 439 runs needed for victory :suspect:

I give our last 2 wickets about half hour before SA claim the victory :(

This is what I was talking about. Batting collapses...Making under 200 runs in an innings and your always going to struggle.

Credit to the South Africans, they out classed us this time. 2 tests left to go, Despite the dreadful 3rd test Im still going with England to win it.

I think they should win the last 2 tests but I hope Flintoff is ok as he is a key player for them.

Wish they got the recognition they deserve with how well they have done with games lately.

I can't believe there is so much carping in the media because we lose one match.

Yes, we didn't play very well in the last one but its like the success of the last year means nothing. Yes we should try and continue the good run, but you can't win ALL the time.

The way you react to losing gives a clue as to the quality of a side, and we haven't been tested in that way for a while, and I think its important ahead of the ashes to actually have the experience of losing, because Australia will almost certainly win at least 1 in the summer.

An England captain accepting defeat then coming back with this Statement (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/4151819.stm)

Expect more he promises

Need 2 wickets to win with the light closing in, looks like it could be Durban all over again.

They have won it. great performance from hoggart .

WAHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BARMY ARMY BARMY ARMY BARMY ARMY :banana: :banana: :banana:

A fantastic performance to win it.

Giles makes 30 odd with a dislocated thumb.
Flintoff has forgotten which end of a bat to hold.
Harmison is bowling worse than I can.
Ditto Anderson.

All of the players look fairly knackered, like the long year has taken its toll, but we still have the quality to beat a good team on their home ground.

Lets just hold on for at least a draw in the final test, and although the Aussies are a different proposition I think we can claim to be at least the second best in the world.

Top man Hoggy, :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: Barmy Army, Barmy Army, Barmy Army.

Originally posted by Yodameister
...All of the players look fairly knackered, like the long year has taken its toll, .....

That'd be the 'long year' that recently included a 3 month break???

Ahhh, poor souls....

Now would Hoggy have been man of the match if he hadn't taken all those wickets ?? I would have personally given Tressy the MOM :D

I thought the weather was going to save SA again. A nice victory though.

Originally posted by Lickszz
I thought the weather was going to save SA again. A nice victory though.

3 days rest and back to it again :) and with a depleted squad too :)

ENGLAND :clap:

Rain delayed start of play - anybody know who's won the toss??
a green wicket this one - should favour the bowlers - SA have 5 seamers and a spinner!!!!

Originally posted by Bedhead
Rain delayed start of play - anybody know who's won the toss??
a green wicket this one - should favour the bowlers - SA have 5 seamers and a spinner!!!!

Play abandoned for the day I think, they haven't had the toss yet.

I'm fairly confident of our chances of at least a draw, I think that the better a pitch is for seamers the more chance we have as I think our seam attack is better, and we have more high quality batsmen (the South Africans are a good batting side but they have a lot of average batsman, as opposed to our several very good several not very good)

Even though we've lost a day i still think they'll be a result - we want them in first on this very plush wicket and i'm confident we can pull this one off too..... we're definately the better side and it would be a shame if the series were drawn

SA 80 runs behind with 2 wickets down, 1 day to play. Its gonna be a good one if it stays dry and bright tommorow. I think we still might have a result, especially if England can bowl them out for Tea. By then they should have about 100-150 lead. Would be an all out slog for last session.

So annoyed Im at work:rant: :rant:

Edging towards a draw for this one, still win the series 2-1 :banana:

wahoo!! England win the series 2 - 1 !!!!!!!!!! :D :banana:

Good result overall for England against a tough SA team. Bit of shame after a thrilling series that it petered out. But we'll take the result deffo.

Bring on the Aussies:D

It was a good show by the bowlers as the SA pitches suit fast bowling so not much room for giles to do any damage. A well deserved win for them.

If we can't win the Ashes then let's bridge the gap between the Aussies and ourselves at least.

The Aussies are going to be a different kettle of fish, but this team have got into the habit of winning, so we know (hope) that at least they will give it a go.

I thought Strauss had a good series.

Originally posted by Lickszz
I thought Strauss had a good series.

I think he and Kallis were the highlights of the series :D

Anyone catch the ODI tonight?? What a game! Who would have thought after 50 overs you wouldnt be able to seperate the two teams? Thought Kabir Ali was the weak link, first class perfomance's from Peterson and Gough.

Thrilling to the end! Even better than watchin footy!!

i watched every ball it was nailbiting stuff! fantastic! :thumbsup:

When Tresco tossed the ball to Ali I feared the worst. When his first ball went through for 4 byes and a no-ball I thought that was game over.

But, credit where it's due - and this is why I rate the current England set-up - they kept their nerve and saved the game! Previous England sides would have just assumed that they'd lost the match. This side has a collective belief I haven't seen in English cricket for over 20 years.

Good entertainment. But that Yorker from Goughie was the best thing! STOP THAT!!

What was Michael Vaughn doing last night? Chasing 311 they made about 60 from the first 15 overs - when the fielding restrictions were in place. Now I understand the need to keep wickets in place for the last 10 overs, but with a total like that we needed to take some chances. We left Peterson with far too much to do - but WHAT an effort, I reckon if Solanki or Collingwood would have stayed in for another over we'd have beat them.

Bonus is though, Imagine Peterson and Flintoff in the side, if we can be more consistant in bowling England would be an excellent one day side.

What anyone else think?

Well I have not watched any of the one day games and I usually do as I find them easier to watch than the tests. But why are we 3-1 down? I know SA have a good one day side but so do we, or are we still experimenting with new players and orders? I will be watching the next two games to see if we can pull out a draw in this series.

It seems that the better we get at Tests, the worse we get at One Dayers.

Personally (and I'm probably an old fogey) I'd prefer us to be better at Tests because it is a better all round measure of cricketing ability.

But it is infurating that we don't seem to be able to get simple things right in the one day game. The most important thing is to vary your pace when bowling, and we just dont seem to have players with the ability to do it or the knowledge of when to do it.

SA won the toss and are bstting first on what looks like a good batting pitch. Two changes for SA and just one for England, Hoggard out can't remeber who's in, I think Sa will wrap up the series and then the next game will just be a formallity for them so I reckon we will take that one.

I wonder if people take the one day games as seriously as the tests? As Yoda said the tests are a better measure of how good you are than a 50 over game, but you can't hold a world cup in test cricket, it would go on for months!

Well there is a Test league. Its not exactly definitive because its not consistent with who plays who how often and where etc. (eg until very recently India and Pakistan refused to play each other)

I think its generally agreed though that Australia are top by some way, and then England, South Africa, India and New Zealand are reasonably close with England just in second.

England potentially have the core if a good one day team for the world cup with:

Trescothick, Strauss, Geraint Jones, Kabir Ali, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood.

Just need to find another 5 players of their quality (easier said than done) Worrying lack of strike bowlers though (Gough is still very good but may not be by the World Cup)

England seem to be doing well, SA are 172-6 with 9 overs left. A. Wharf who replaced Hoggard has bowled 3-36, Gough is 1-12 and Ali is 1-27. Gibbs is on 97 not out for SA but it's looking good, come on England!

7/2... Oh dear :shakes:

Oh dear indeed, has rain stopped play again? let's hope we can sneak this one but it doesn't look good now.

Nope, Match Abandoned. England Lose the series:(

Its a shame really but they threw it away Port Elizabeth, they could have really won that one. If Vaughn would have pushed abit earlier in the last match we would have won that too. Anyway never mind, the SA's have done really well, before this series they had lost 12 out of 13.

I think for SA they have found a good one day player in Kemp - Pick of the rest I would say were; Pollock, Gibbs and Kallis and Nell.

England wise, Trescothick has had a mare (as have most of the batsman) Peterson the obvious 'find' but Gough has been the Man of the series so far. Really nice to see other Yorkshire boys doing really well; Hoggard (Tests) Wharf and Vaughn (well not so good this series).


Hope the missus dont want owt doing on Sunday, its the Last One day match 7.30 - 4.30 and United kick off at 3.30 on SKy
:banana: :banana:

Vaughn appears edgy when batting or is that just me on edge :?

Praise to SA :) Played a good set of ODI's :thumbsup:

Ugh another loss, but now England can go home for some well earned rest. What a disaster again with the starting batters, again Peitersen had a glorious game. I think another reshuffle may be brought in for the next set of ODI's.

I agree, I think Jones has to go. I feel abit sorry for him batting wise as they have asked him to do something he clearly wasnt comfortable with. Having said that I wouldnt be surprised if he outscored Trescothick. His glovework was poor though, I would like to see Chris Reid in.

Harmison needs to get himself back into the form he showed last year to lead the attack with Gough. Good performances from Ali, Giles and Collingwood.