England v South Africa 2012

At least England's late batting showed some balls...

With the best two England batting performances coming from wicketkeepers maybe we should think about the top seven batting slots being filled with

1. Onions.. Durham
2. Keiswetter.. Somerset
3. Davies ... Surrey
4. Jones ... Kent
5. Baistow... Yorkshire
6 Foster... Essex
7 Prior.. Sussex

It was a decent effort by England in the end. If not for a few dropped catches they could have won this match.

What do people think re Andrew Strauss? Is he the one to lead England back to a number 1 place ?

(20-08-2012 17:20 )Charlemagne Wrote:  At least England's late batting showed some balls...

With the best two England batting performances coming from wicketkeepers maybe we should think about the top seven batting slots being filled with

1. Onions.. Durham
2. Keiswetter.. Somerset
3. Davies ... Surrey
4. Jones ... Kent
5. Baistow... Yorkshire
6 Foster... Essex
7 Prior.. Sussex

Charle thinks you've mixed up your Mustard with your Onions ! Were you thinking about hotdogs !

(20-08-2012 17:49 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  Charle thinks you've mixed up your Mustard with your Onions ! Were you thinking about hotdogs !

We need Namibia to tour and play a match against Durham - with 3 players called Burger in the team, there's a good chance of seeing Burger ct Mustard b Onions on the scorecard!

(20-08-2012 17:38 )Money_Shot Wrote:  What do people think re Andrew Strauss? Is he the one to lead England back to a number 1 place ?

As a public face he is an excellent leader of men the team in the main respect him. As a captain tactically on the pitch,fucking hopeless! He aint even worthy of a starting place in the team. I saw this coming when we made hard work of the West Indies. Time to put himout of his misery and give the whole kit and kaboodle to Cook. He is far more aggressive in the field and is clearly captain in waiting.

As a sidenote congrats to the ECB for their stand on KP he has been a nightmare for a while now and his arrogrance is unbelieveable. Not a team player. Good player yes but a disruptive influence.

(20-08-2012 23:18 )sweetsugar007 Wrote:  

(20-08-2012 17:38 )Money_Shot Wrote:  What do people think re Andrew Strauss? Is he the one to lead England back to a number 1 place ?

As a public face he is an excellent leader of men the team in the main respect him. As a captain tactically on the pitch,fucking hopeless! He aint even worthy of a starting place in the team. I saw this coming when we made hard work of the West Indies. Time to put himout of his misery and give the whole kit and kaboodle to Cook. He is far more aggressive in the field and is clearly captain in waiting.

As a sidenote congrats to the ECB for their stand on KP he has been a nightmare for a while now and his arrogrance is unbelieveable. Not a team player. Good player yes but a disruptive influence.

Yeah fair point. Whilst I do look Strauss and I think that guy is really sound, his captaincy is merely okay to be honest. Nothing special really. Plus with Strauss as captain his batting has long been suffering, especially against the top teams who just get right handers to bowl around the wicket and trap him LBW.

Strauss has KP to thank for those texts to Steyn about how South Africa should bowl at him lol. But it is common knowledge on how to get Strauss out anyway to be fair.

Cook should get my vote, or maybe Trott perhaps?

While i am disappointed with the outcome of the current series against South Africa, there really is not much to choose between the two sides. The main difference was shot selection, the England batsmen at times played as though it was a one day series with Bell and Trott guilty of some truly appalling strokes, especially in the first test which we lost by an innings. In the last 3 or 4 years Strauss and Flower have taken England the pinnacle of world cricket in all formats of the game and deserve any and all plaudits that come their way. Strauss has proved himself to be a fine captain in that time and does not deserve the criticism that is being thrown at him. Losing their number one spot does is only a temporary blip and England will be back on top next year with Strauss at the helm.

I think since they've become number 1, England has been pretty complacent. They worked so hard to achieve that status and yet since then they've not particularly shown the consistency and performances to deserve that title.

However I do agree Strauss has been a good captain, it is just his run rate since being captain has dropped some what, but then the same could be said for Vaughan and he was a great captain.

South Africa have played such consistent cricket over the past 1/2 years, they deserve the #1 position. Amla, Smith, Kallis, De Villiers, Morkel, Steyn and Phillander....what a talented bunch!

Interesting thing about England's tenure at the top was they still failed to win a series in the Subcontinent!

Today's ODI was a washout