England v South Africa, 2nd ODI, Nottingham, Aug 26th

Dello wrote:

= day game or good weather?

Dello wrote:

Kevin Shine will be returning as bowling coach.

An ironic sun.

Probably rain. Don't know, haven't checked the forecast, but if in doubt, assume it'll rain.

Odds on getting at least 10 mentions of the new stand in the commentary are pretty good I should think...

Forecast doesn't look too bad. The start of an Indian Summer maybe

Basil wrote:Forecast doesn't look too bad. The start of an Indian Summer maybe

You mean we're going to get a day without rain?

JKLever wrote:

Basil wrote:Forecast doesn't look too bad. The start of an Indian Summer maybe

You mean we're going to get a day without rain?

Yep, standby for a hosepipe ban

SideBum out for the rest of the series.

He's the new SiJo

Not been at the races all summer, young Sid.

Wonder if he'll even make the squad to India - how many seamers do they need for a two Test series on dead, spinning tracks?

Bit of a fall from grace.

I don't think they will take anyone who is a fitness doubt, anyway. Chances are they'll take Flintoff, Harmison, Anderson, Broad and one "spare" (probably the professional drinks-carrier Tremlett!)

I doubt anyone believed Sidebottom would have the success he has done when he got the call-up at the start of last summer (yes, it was that recent). Looks like he's gone from nowhere to England's number one bowler and perhaps back again in the space of about 15 months.

It would be incredibly reckless to discard him just because he's picked up a few niggles this summer (especially considering how statistically inferior bowlers like Flintoff, Anderson and Harmison, etc, are constantly rushed back from injury).

His 'fall from grace' this summer has been:

17 wickets at 20.47 vs New Zealand and
6 wickets at 32.33 vs South Africa

England haven't had a bowler averaging 25 over a career for ages (since Willis?), so clearly he should be selected if fit - to see if he can maintain his excellent start. If he'd had a competent wicket keeper for the India and Sri Lanka series that average would be close to 20 not 25 as well.

I like Sidebottom because he pitches the ball up and creates chances, while a lot of our bowlers are too content to bang it in short of a length and not pose enough questions of the batsmen. Plus, he has excellent discipline, which means when the batsmen are on top, he will bowl economically and not let the game get away from us. We will need Ryan to be fit for the West Indies tour and the Ashes, I feel.

I like Sidebottom too.

But England don't have a good record of putting up with bowlers who are only fit every three games or so.

And, should Flintoff stay fit, Harmison remain on the straight and narrow and Jimmy maintain his steady improvement, Sidebottom might well find himself competing for just one place - that of fourth seamer - with a guy like Broad whose batting balances the side better.

Might find it hard to get back in, IMHO.

Well its excellent to have competition for places.

I think following Sidebottom's years of consistent effort for Yorkshire and Notts his injury problems this year are very much the exception not the rule. Especially compared to the other 4 bowlers you've named who have had a lot more injuries between them over the past few years.

With the demands of international cricket its good to have a squad of quality pace bowlers to choose from - someone is bound to break down somewhere along the line.

Do we reckon we'll be unchanged for this?

Or will we continue to pick the tea boy in the XI?

They won't leave out Collingwood now he's available again. Seems in some decent nick too.

Peter Sussex is just going to have to choke back the tears and tell Luke Sussex that - due to "unfair politics" and "blonde discrimination" that is out of his hands ("I fought so f*cking hard for you, champ, offered to resign, got down on my knees. Bastards.") - he's outta there.

Bell
Prior+
Shah
Pietersen
Flintoff
Collingwood
Bopara
Patel
Broad
Harmison
Anderson

The batting's a bit of a piss-take in terms of its length (Bops and Patel 7 and 8), and the openers haven't convinced as a partnership yet, but it does look a solid, steady kind of team (compared to some of the bollocks we've put out in recent years).

Actually, looking at it now, perhaps Bopara (or Shah?) might be eased out to keep Lussex in the team. His late-innings biffing might be more suited at seven or eight than asking a proper batsman to do the job.

Perhaps - definitely not Boparas game.

Agree that its stronger than a lot of the pap we've fielded, bowling still looks weak though - theres not much else apart from Flintoff you can throw the ball to to take a wicket for you.

1- Shah should NOT bat at #3.
2- Shah should NOT be in the final 11
3-Harmison should walk in to the team

My team

1- Bell
2- Prior(seems like a very average cricketer to me)
3- Ravi
4- KP
5- Flintoff(Saffers don't have a quality spinner allowing Flintoff to bat at # 5)
6- Collingwood
7- Wright
8- Broad
9- Swann/Patel( haven't seen Patel bowl)
10- Anderson
11- Harmison

This is potentially a great ODI team(just need to replace Prior with some one like gilly )

I disagree PP, Shah can deliver the goods when the time is right, his inclusion is based on merit and nothing more.


1. Bell
2. Prior
3. Shah
4. Pietersen
5. Flintoff
6. Collingwood
7. Wright
8. Patel
9. Broad
10. Harmison
11. Anderson

Patel at 9 in one team then 8 in the next. Jesus wept. Samit's a batsman, not a bowler. His left-armers are good, yeah, for a batsman. But he is a batsman. A very talented one at that. He has a better record in every form of the game than half the other players in the team, especially Luke Sussex who has done ****** all. If he bats at 8, it's a travesty. If he bats below Luke Sussex, it's a TRAGEDY.

It's odd that Collingwood is available when he was banned for a T20 match which was subsequently abandoned at least a day ahead. Seems an anomaly in the rules. In addition he was banned for a wash-out against the Scots. He got off lightly for his crimes.

What crimes were they?

JKLever wrote:What crimes were they?

Poor overrates and cheating re. the kiwi run out with Grant Elliott.

I suppose the cricket world has to have its bland ginger-haired players though so we don't begrudge him a game.

He wasn't banned for the run out of Grant Elliott.

JKLever wrote:He wasn't banned for the run out of Grant Elliott.

I know, but he was for the overrates and possibly should have been for the Elliott fiasco for breaching the spirit of the rules. My comment was that with the weather affected Scottish and T20 matches, the penalty ending up being rather lenient. I suppose with ODIs there's an element of who cares anyway, so it would be much more significant if it had related to test matches.