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Eng v South Africa 3rd Test

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KGC83 said:
The Saffers have surprised me and have been by far the stronger team.
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Stronger attack, stronger batting line up, not beaten them in a series for years, not really sure why anyone expected them to lose. It's the toughest team this England generation have faced by far. We would have to have been playing at our very very best to have won.

A draw could still be on if two of our top 6 can get in, although they would have to be at their best. Whoever wins' tomorrow's day will have deserved it, as is usually the case in cricket, it's rarley unfair like football
 

Dreamboat said:
I love how people are treating this series as if we've just suffered three consecutive innings defeats to Zimbabwe B team.
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Weve been comprehensively outplayed at home throughout the series. At the risk of sounding like EB, we need a bit of a review of our Test set up as its been a pretty poor year of Test cricket from England
 
Aberdeen Angus said:
Weve been comprehensively outplayed at home throughout the series. At the risk of sounding like EB, we need a bit of a review of our Test set up as its been a pretty poor year of Test cricket from England
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There wasn't one last time we lost at home to SA and there won't be one this time, becuase sometimes the other team is just better than you. SA haven't fluked anything, or played out of their skins, they have been demonstrably and consistently better. England have been poor by thier own high standards as well. This really is just one of those times when a team has been better than the other.
 
sonson said:
There wasn't one last time we lost at home to SA and there won't be one this time, becuase sometimes the other team is just better than you. SA haven't fluked anything, or played out of their skins, they have been demonstrably and consistently better. England have been poor by thier own high standards as well. This really is just one of those times when a team has been better than the other.
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Its not just this series. Weve now been poor for a year almost. Captaincy, opening batting slot, middle order and seamer situation needs resolving.

Does Strauss stay on as skipper? If so, does he continue opening? Who replaces Pietersen if he doesnt come back / does Pietersen come back? Do we stick with Broad, Finn and Anderson as seamers which makes the tail long?

All questions that need answering.
 
Aberdeen Angus said:
Its not just this series. Weve now been poor for a year almost. Captaincy, opening batting slot, middle order and seamer situation needs resolving.

Does Strauss stay on as skipper? If so, does he continue opening? Who replaces Pietersen if he doesnt come back / does Pietersen come back? Do we stick with Broad, Finn and Anderson as seamers which makes the tail long?

All questions that need answering.
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That's a joke, right? Broad's batting average is 26 (That's only five less than Ravi Bopara). That's more than enough for a number 8. Swann is a very useful number 9. Anderson can play a shot or two and is a decent blocker.
 
Well according to beefy, Australia are getting closer to the number 1 spot :lol:
 
Aberdeen Angus said:
Its not just this series. Weve now been poor for a year almost. Captaincy, opening batting slot, middle order and seamer situation needs resolving.

Does Strauss stay on as skipper? If so, does he continue opening? Who replaces Pietersen if he doesnt come back / does Pietersen come back? Do we stick with Broad, Finn and Anderson as seamers which makes the tail long?

All questions that need answering.
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I would be inclined to drop Strauss soon, obviosuly you can't knock his record per se but he's not added much with the bat for a while and I don't rate him tactically, one thing I have noticed this series is that SA's field positions seem to have been far more controlling than ours. Can't see the argument for keeping him beyond just hoping things come good.

Tremlett is a miss of course. I'd be inclined to go with 5 bowlers while the tail is "long" and turn a weakness into a strength, as it were. If you can get a side out for cheap you don't need to score loads of runs, it's called an attack for a reason. Throughout this series what's cost us has been that we've taken so long to get 11 wickets, immeditaley putting our batsmen under pressure. Likewise it's been SA's attack that has won them games. Can't win without taking 22 wickets, even if you get a million runs
 
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Dreamboat said:
That's a joke, right? Broad's batting average is 26 (That's only five less than Ravi Bopara). That's more than enough for a number 8. Swann is a very useful number 9. Anderson can play a shot or two and is a decent blocker.
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It was obviously aimed at Anderson and Finn (Broad is part of the seamer package). England don't like having two number 11s. Anderson cant play a shot or two. He can block, much like Matthew Hoggard used to be.
 
sonson said:
There wasn't one last time we lost at home to SA and there won't be one this time, becuase sometimes the other team is just better than you. SA haven't fluked anything, or played out of their skins, they have been demonstrably and consistently better. England have been poor by thier own high standards as well. This really is just one of those times when a team has been better than the other.
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Absolutely fair but having said that it all boiled down to a really careless session of batting when we were 290 for 3 in the first test on a flat deck. Sensible cricket and would should have got into a position where we couldnt possibly lose the first test.

Credit to them though they have been excellent.
 
Bell just got impatient there, flayed at one a minute ago and went after that when there really was no need.

We're fucked unless Taylor and Trott can put on at least 100 together, but at least Trott is starting to show signs of settling in and this could be the perfect opportunity for Taylor to cement his place in the side.
 
Got no chance. Once they got a lead of 300 we were always going to fall short. In fact I still dont think we'll get to 250. Saffers attack is too good for us.
 
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