Struass out... gone to review...

and he's out.

48-3

Oh at well, at least there are two Kent players in the South African attack.

There are currently eleven useless kents in the england team.

Ah I forgot "Kent" means something else on here.

All eleven being useless is harsh. Some have been pretty poor/rubbish though. Incredible the worst we can do is draw this series, given the team's overall performance.

Pieterson

Gone chasing a wide one! He really should have left that one

When is enough enough?

Bell gone. This will be over by lunch time.

Prior goes 2nd ball.

103-6

Its all over, bar the crying

Broad gone after a review...

104-7.

... and Swann

From TMS

Perhaps we can ask KP and Prior to watch the video of Atherton's 185 in the second Test in SA '95. 11 hours, 492 balls. Get them to count how many ridiculous pull shots or chasing wide ones were in the whole innings. Atherton wanted to save the game. You have to wonder if KP and Prior really have the desire to grind it out, or if they simply don't care?"

Would be nice to see Colly get a century, although I'm sure his mates may let him down on that. He and Swann have been our best performers of the series. And on Swann, he is a much more capable batsmen than Broad in my opinion and should move up to 8 and Broad to 9.

Colly gone off Duminy....

Sidebottom and Anderson to get a 400 wicket stand, then for them to bowl SA out for a few odd runs.... heard it here first!!!

Done.

SA win by innings and 74 runs.

1-1. But we won the one day matches, so we win

Finished before I get up. Yeah, nice one England.

Bowlers with over 5 wickets in the series
Swann, G P (ENG) 21
Morkel, M (SAF) 16
Anderson, J M (ENG) 16
Steyn, D W (SAF) 14
Broad, S C J (ENG) 13
Harris, P L (SAF) 11
Onions, G (ENG) 8
Duminy, J-P (SAF) 6
de Wet, F (SAF) 6

Batsmen with over 100 runs in the series
Smith, G C (SAF) 427
Kallis, J H (SAF) 363
Boucher, M V (SAF) 341
Amla, H M (SAF) 311
Bell, I R (ENG) 309
Cook, A N (ENG) 287
de Villiers, A B (SAF) 276
Collingwood, P D (ENG) 273
Trott, I J L (ENG) 190
Pietersen, K P (ENG) 174
Strauss, A J (ENG) 170
Prior, M J (ENG) 158
Swann, G P (ENG) 151
Duminy, J-P (SAF) 114

The obvious conclusion is that only Bell, Cook and Collingwood offered any consistency with the bat.
It also raises the question about using only 4 bowlers. The Saffers have used a lot more bowlers throughout the series.

None of the England bowlers were as menacing as Morkel, and we desperately need an all-rounder.

Strauss needs a rest, Trott needs more test match practice and KP needs his head examined. I would also be tempted to give Anderson a rest.

If we play like this is Australia, the Ashes will be lost very easily

Funny to think we have the Ashes again in under a year. Luckily, South Africa are better than Australia and we still managed to get an away draw, but plenty of work still needs to happen between now and then.

Despite some moments of individual brilliance, we have been outplayed this series. Ideally, five bowlers would be the way foreward, but it would make our batting even weaker. Prior is not good enough to bat at six, and on the basis of this series, I'm not very optimistic if Broad is "our new Freddie". Swann is clearly a better batsman right now, but I'd have neither at seven personally. This England team clearly lacks balance.

I see that both Strauss and Anderson are to be rested for the Bangladesh tour. Very sensible - Strauss is clearly knackered and Anderson has a knee problem that needs attention.

The captaincy will be good experience for Cook, while Broad, Trott, KP and a few others have a point to prove before the Ashes series. The inclusion of a few newcomers might help their concentration

Struass not going isn't sensible at all. He's the captain and England have a big year ahead, they need the captain to be part of build up for the Ashes. Pretty disgraceful actually. He's in poor nick, the team are a fair bit off they're best and he captained pretty poorly in this last series. He surely needs to go on a tour against a "lesser" team, and get his personal form up, get a team playing the way he wants towards a huge Ashes series.



Also, why have they dropped Rashid for Bangladesh?

Strauss is physically and mentally knackered. He's no spring chicken and he needs a rest - as simple as that. We need him fresh for the Ashes but I don't think he has a lot to prove as a cricketer, and his lack of form is due to tiredness. He's had a long season

The Rashid decision is a strange one, I agree.


Trott needs test experience, as does Broad. Pietersen needs to regain the form that he had before his injury and get his head right. He is a player that will benefit from playing against a lesser team.

No dount he's tired, its been a long tour and hard year, but I'm sure he's not the only one in the team who is tired. The first test in Bangladesh is nearly 2 months away - surely he can rest up until then?

Ditto. A bit like Younas Khan deciding to sit out of Aussies v Pakistan which ended in a 3-0 whitewash for the Aussies. I don't understand tiredness argument in modern day sports at all.

Cricketers are human. They get tired, pick up niggling injuries and need the occasional break just like the rest of us. In Strauss' case, the captaincy also takes it toll mentally. Give the guy a break

Comparing Strauss's omission against Bangladesh with ducking out of a test series with the Aussies is ridiculous. Strauss wants to be fresh for the Ashes series

Understand your pooint ET, but do you not think dropping out of the one-dayers and coming back for the tests is enough rest (nearly 2 months), physically and mentally? He could even drop the captaincy for the tour. He needs runs, form and an understanding of how his team is going to work to get ready for the Ashes, as well as being fresh. Just doesn't make sense to me.

That's probably why you're not and England selector

Good response, ET.

I take it you must be one of the few in the world who believe Geoff Miller does a good job for English cricket...

We've just drawn (away) to a side who were ranked 2nd in the World. We've also won the Ashes against th top ranked side, so I don't think that he does a bad job.

On the subject of tiredness in modern day sports stars, I laughed at David Bentley complaining of fatigue and dropping out of the U-21s. At that age, you have energy to burn and should recover very quickly (if you're not on the lash all the time).

Things are a little different the wrong side of 30 (or 40), as your body takes much longer to recover after a match. I used to ache the day after a game - now I ache for a week

We'll just have to agree to disagree, etc...

I think Bentley's situation is slightly different in the fact that he had just finished a full season of playing 90 mins every week and 2 hours training everyday, and then was asked to go and play a tournament straight away. I still think he's a cock for srooping out though.

Cricket isn't as energetic as football, but I do understand that standing in the field all day, or batting all day is very draining, so I understand he needs a rest, I just think nearly 2 months is long enough to rest up...

Cricket is a much more cerebral sport

2 hours training isn't very much.

2 hours on the training field doing work with the ball is pretty standard. Then they'll obviously do additional workouts on other days, such as gym work, pool work, aerobic, SAQ, etc, etc...

Yeah, but it's still not that hard.

I appreciate that players do get tired, but I wish they wouldn't complain about it ffs. It's not like they don't have most of the fucking day to chill out and watch tv.