England's cricket tour to South Africa

(19-12-2009 21:59 )mrwotzup Wrote:  I'm not sure of the weather forecast tomorrow so that might save England (or South Africa )

There are thunderstorms around and they are forecast for tomorrow, so the draw is the most likely event.....However, as Nasser Hussain said in commentary, it's a good thing for England that the Kookuburra ball is used in S.A, as after 20 or so overs the seam disintegrates and the ball has all the hardness of a christmas pudding.


If they were using the Dukes ball (the ball of choice in this country) England would be deader than Dillinger....No way would they survive the whole day the way that ball swings around and moves off the seam.

(19-12-2009 22:15 )colino Wrote:  

(19-12-2009 21:59 )mrwotzup Wrote:  I'm not sure of the weather forecast tomorrow so that might save England (or South Africa )

There are thunderstorms around and they are forecast for tomorrow, so the draw is the most likely event.....However, as Nasser Hussain said in commentary, it's a good thing for England that the Kookuburra ball is used in S.A, as after 20 or so overs the seam disintegrates and the ball has all the hardness of a christmas pudding.


If they were using the Dukes ball (the ball of choice in this country) England would be deader than Dillinger....No way would they survive the whole day the way that ball swings around and moves off the seam.

Spot on about the Duke ball. We'd have been well beaten butat least we did just about hang on for a draw.... very difficult to watch it when the wickets tumbled this afternoon though.

typical england, take it to the last ball

they new what they were doing, just toying with SA

we done the same to the aussies at cardiff

First Test Day 5 Centurion

England 2nd innings 228/9 off 96 overs

Match Drawn

England got off to a terrible start and were 27/3 really struggling for runs however Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott put on 145 runs for the 4th wicket but dodgy communication meant that Kevin Pietersen got run out for 81 then Paul Collingwood shared 33 runs for the 5th wicket with Jonathan Trott but once he departed for a gritty 69 then wickets tumbled very quickly and at 218/9 with around about 3 overs left i thought England were going to throw this match away but thankfully it was a draw.

http://www.cricinfo.com/rsaveng09/engine...87570.html

All us England cricket fans should really be used to this by now.......Trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of a draw is part and parcel of our game!!

Getting the job almost done, then very nearly falling flat on our faces is part of being English, notice how when playing England no opposing cricket captain EVER wants to shake hands and call it quits when there's still an hour of play left?

(20-12-2009 23:17 )colino Wrote:  notice how when playing England no opposing cricket captain EVER wants to shake hands and call it quits when there's still an hour of play left?

That would be a rule infringement anyway, as the earliest the captains can call it a draw is when the match reaches it's last half an hour.

The teams are so evenly matched it really it is down to who can take 20 wickets. I think Swann is better than Harris but Stein and De wet have more penetration than Anderson and Broad.

I have South Africa as the winner by the series 1-0

(21-12-2009 12:52 )cosmonaut Wrote:  

(20-12-2009 23:17 )colino Wrote:  notice how when playing England no opposing cricket captain EVER wants to shake hands and call it quits when there's still an hour of play left?

That would be a rule infringement anyway, as the earliest the captains can call it a draw is when the match reaches it's last half an hour.

Mmmmm...No.....That rule was amended a while back, they can call it quits with an hour to go now, provided that there aren't more than 15 overs left in the final day's play. Once there are only 15 overs left they can quit at 45mins or whatever, so long as there's not more than an hour to go.

I reckon that if they can't get a result in a test, they should have a beer match for an hour!!

On a serious note, i think that S.A are maybe just a little stronger than we are, Kallis only bowled a couple of overs of medium paced "dobbers" in the last test as he was still carrying an injury, he'll be back at full bore on boxing day. Also Smith hasn't gotten out of bed yet, fortunately so far we've managed to keep him quiet, but on his day he's probably the best opening bat in the world (after Sehwag, maybe)

Hopefully Anderson and Onions have got the indian sign on him, the same as Hoggard had a few years back.

Saw earlier that Flower was backing Bell and saying he isn't a poor player. Which of course he isn't in the test before this he got a good 50 against Australia in an important match, but in this test he was poor with the bat and I'm thinking he has to go for a bowler more liking Plunkett or Wright could add Sidebottom to the list of course but he is a bit too much like Anderson and to a lesser extent Onions.

England 575 for 9 dec

South Africa 2nd Innings 50 for 6 !!!!!!!!!

Still 180 behind