England ODI tour of South Africa

(29-01-2023 07:38 )Snooks Wrote:  2nd ODI - Bloemfontein

South Africa v England

SA won toss and field

England innings: 342/7 (50 overs)
Buttler 94no, Brook 80, Moeen 51
Nortje 2/64.

South Africa innings: 347/5 (49.1 overs)
Bavuma 109, Miller 58no

South Africa won by 5 wkts and win the series.
Very disappointing . Way too many four balls on a plate for the SA batsmen.
Poor. Very, very poor.

You could say that this was more of a SA win than an England screw up than the first match, but the same issues arose all the same for Buttler and co. Credit though to the way SA built their innings after England made early inroads (the pitch conditions must have been very difficult first up, because when I joined the match, the track was - sadly from my point of view once again - very batsman friendly overall. The stand out though (he and the medical team have to sort out his fluid intake as not for the first time) was Tenda Bavuma. A century from the top of top drawers.

SA one step closer to the WC without the banana skin of qualification competition, but still work to do! England stuttering, but with time and the knowledge that other players will join the squad/team going forward on their side, they should be ok to at least give the best they have got in the WC itself!

A good toss to win, plenty of movement 1st up. Brook played a quality knock, defended the ball & scored freely off the spinners. Every innings is sprinkled with eye-catching strokes.
Despite the conditions favouring South Africa, England couldn't find enough consistency with the ball, Curran & Rashid bowled well at times, but only Stone would be happy with his work.
Bottom line is that South Africa put together a textbook chase, & never really looked like not getting home apart from the last few overs. Contributions throughout the top order with meaningful partnerships.
At present England's 50 over side is work in progress. Root, Bairstow & others will hopefully add some stability.

(29-01-2023 18:47 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  A good toss to win, plenty of movement 1st up. Brook played a quality knock, defended the ball & scored freely off the spinners. Every innings is sprinkled with eye-catching strokes.
Despite the conditions favouring South Africa, England couldn't find enough consistency with the ball, Curran & Rashid bowled well at times, but only Stone would be happy with his work.
Bottom line is that South Africa put together a textbook chase, & never really looked like not getting home apart from the last few overs. Contributions throughout the top order with meaningful partnerships.
At present England's 50 over side is work in progress. Root, Bairstow & others will hopefully add some stability.

Complete agreement there!

South Africa 3rd ODI Kimberley 11.00 GMT
South Africa elected to field
ENG 346-7 (50 overs) Buttler 131 Malan 118 Ali 41 Ngidi 4-62 Jansen 2-53
SA 287 (43.1 overs) Klassen 80 Hendricks 52 Markram 39 Bavuma 35 Archer 6-40 Rashid 3-68
England won by 59 runs

^ great credit to England for posting such an imposing total after the first 15 - 20 overs they had! Having said that, at last we had conditions that required the skills of a cricketer to be used to the fullest in first compiling such a total, and also in terms of the bowling in working out - when an innings was being established - how to stay in the game (eventually in one bowlers case) - not before time!! The pitch looked though as it was settling down towards the back end, so I wonder whether England will be able to extract the kind of pressure bowling that SA did. Perhaps the start of each innings with the new ball will see a similar path being laid out - can Bavuma do it again for example?? Right getting back to it. Certainly an argument for reverting to one ball again!

Just a mile or two too far for SA with 9 down as I type! Quality chase and effort all the same! Limited overs cricket is finished is it?? If they can be played in conditions that allow both teams a fair crack - and all skills - it is cricket to T20/T10 i don't what you call them that is remotely complimentary! Klaasen just needed to hang in for a handful more overs or so, and all the difference in the world.

Pleased for Jofra Archer after such a long spell out. Malan and Buttler batted very sensibly early on and built a solid platform before accelerating beautifully.
A better bowling effort too.

Nice to finish with a win.

It was good to see a top performance from some of the team. But it lead to wonder where some of the other top players are.
Duckett is a decent t20 player but not suitable for ODI. So where is Joe Root who I feel is a better no3. Also where's Alex Hales & Mark Wood. And I take it that Bairstow is still not fit and Stokes won't be playing limited over cricket.

I believe the door has been left open for Stokes to return to the 50 over fold if he wants to.

Given his major tournament record he would be a difficult player to reject if he made himself available .

(02-02-2023 19:48 )Charlemagne Wrote:  It was good to see a top performance from some of the team. But it lead to wonder where some of the other top players are.
Duckett is a decent t20 player but not suitable for ODI. So where is Joe Root who I feel is a better no3. Also where's Alex Hales & Mark Wood. And I take it that Bairstow is still not fit and Stokes won't be playing limited over cricket.

Root is cashing in, play in the ILT20 in the UAE. The 2nd most lucrative tournament after the IPL, with 3 of the 6 teams owned by IPL franchises. As the UAE isn't a full ICC member, the players stats will not count towards their T20 career records. But hey, it's all about the money. Even worse it clashes with 4 other T20 comps, too much.