Life is a Rollercoaster - England Story

[Chasjs]

Yeah, I've been tempted to. I think he's a good player in the game all round and I think he'll improve aswell. He had a very poor time against Australia, hopefully he can have better performances against South Africa and replicate the form he showed against the West Indies.

[Chasjs]

First ODI

The team for the first Test is a good mix of batting depth and bowling strength. Flintoff, Harmison, Anderson and Broad provide the pace attack while Swann can use his spin. Using two spinners was succesful against Australia but the wickets here are a batsmans paradise so only one is picked. Collingwood can provide backup for the bowling if needs be, as can Pietersen, Bopara and Vaughan. Cook openers with the absense of Strauss and is hoping to make an impression on the one day scene in a hope to earn a place in the World Cup side in just over a years time. Vaughan will be hoping to carry through his good form from the Australia Series while BOpara will be looking for an improvement as his Test place isn't entirely secure.

England win the toss and opt to bat.
Afer a decent, if slow, start England lose the wickets of Vaughan, Bopara and Pietersen in quick succession. Cook puts in a good innings but maybe didn't score fast enough.

Collingwood chipped in but was even slower than Cook. Flintoff and Prior got good scores and a good strike rate aswell with Swann and Broad helping to push the score up to 200.

From the moment South Africa started to bat it was clear that the total was below par. The South Africans cruised to their target without much fuss with none of their batsmen failing. Harmison was tight and economical. Swann conceded a few more runs but did pick up a pair of wickets. Anderson didn't have such a good game and was quite expensive.

South Africa win by 7 wickets
Man of the Match - Amla
England Man of the Match - Cook
Other Notable Mentions - Swann, Harmison, Flintoff, Prior
Poor Game - Anderson, Bopara, Pietersen

[Chasjs]

Second ODI

The same team was picked for the second ODI and went into the game with hope of drawing level.

England lose the toss and are put in to bat.
The openers both departing early leaving Bopara and Pietersen alot of work to do. They don't disappoint, both getting to their half centuries before Bopara gets out. Pietersen, though carries on and despite Collingwood losing his wicket for 17 England power on. Flintoff comes in with just enough time to get settled before the last ten overs. Pietersen and Flintoff go on to hit 90 runs in this period with Pietersen getting to his second ODI century of the year.

They reached their 100 partnership on the last ball, Flintoff unbeaten on 42, Pietersen unbeaten on 132 as England with a score of 252.

South Africa start well and quickly charge ahead of Englands poor start. Wickets are hard to come by for the England bowlers. Broad picks up two in his first spell followed by the uncharacteristicly expensive Swann bowling a rare good ball which decives Smith who is caught behind on 91. Broad then takes another couple in his second spell but South Africa appear to be cruising. Harmison, Broad and Flintoff start hauling the run rate back down in the last ten overs and the required rate creeps up to 6 an over. Two overs left. One for Broad, one for Flintoff. South Africa require 14 runs to win. Broad has a shocker of an over. He concedes 11 runs to finish his 10 over spell, he took a few important wickets but was very expensive, going at 6 an over. South Africa need 3 runs off 6 balls. Surely it's over. Only Flintoff stands in their way. First ball, dot ball. The second goes for a single to bring McKenzie on strike. Flintoff charges in, HOWZAT!!!! is the cry as the ball rattles into McKenzie's pads. There's a pause, then the finger goes up. He's out. But South Africa are still 2 runs from victory. 1 run from a draw. Boucher takes gaurd. Flintoff bowls a dot ball. Then another dot ball... is it possible, it might just be. Flintoff bowls, Boucher draws his bat back, he connects, but it's stopped at silly mid on!!! No run. England have won by the smallest of margins.

England win by 1 run
Man of the Match - Pietersen
England Man of the Match - Flintoff. Until that last over it was Pietersen nailed on, but even after a good batting performance towards the end of the innings Flintoff went above and beyond taking 1-36 at 3.6 RPO and defending a lead of 2 runs in the last over.
Other Notable Mentions - Pietersen, Bopara
Poor Game: Vaughan, Cook, Swann

[Chasjs]

Third ODI

For this match Anderson was dropped and replaced by Rashid. This is partly down to Anderson's poor form but mainly because the pith looks quite suited to spinners.

England lose the toss and are put in to bat.
Vaughan and Cook batted well and got England off to a good start. It was a little too slow a start though with them both finising with below par strike rates. Bopara never really got going. Pietersen did and so did Prior, but both fell victim to some good bowling. Collingwood did a good job but didn't do what was expected of him in the closing stages. Flintoff was poor with the bat though, as was Rashid and Swann.

South Africa were always withing touching distance of the England run rate but could never quite touch it. The opening spell was good but it was when Swann came on that the England attack started to turn the screw. He picked up the wicket of Duminy and finnished with exceptional bowling figures of 1-2 at 1.2 RPO.

Rashid showed wicket taking ability but couldn't keep it tight enough and turned out to be quite expensive. Broad and Flintoff finished off the game well keeping it tight and the run rate quickly went up. With Flintoff having the last over and South Africa needing 15 runs to win it looked to be all over. In the end the over went for 8 runs, a poor one by Flintoff's lofty standards but enough to give England another fairly narrow victory and a 2-1 Series lead.

England win by 6 runs
Man of the Match - Rashid
England Man of the Match - Swann. His 1-12 changed the game and put England firmly in the driving seat.
Other Notable Mentions - Vaughan, Collingwood, Pietersen, Prior, Broad, Rashid
Poor Game - Bopara

[patrickF690]

I Think you shoul only Post the scorecard instead of the two innnings

[Chasjs]

For Tests yes, mainly though because only 4 pictures are allowed, but I think that showing the full scorecards for both innings in one day games shows who made what scores in how many balls and bowler's RPO and wickets without me going into too much detail on that in my usually brief overview.

[Chasjs]

Forth ODI

Anderson came back into the side as the pitch and weather should be more suited to pace. This means Rashid misses out despite taking some wickets in the last game.

England won the toss and decided to have a bat.
Vaughan and Cook both got runs on the board but it was yet another steady start. Bopara, Pietersen and Collingwood all added some runs at good rates to push Englands score up to a respectable 244.

Amla went early but the Englands pace bowlers failed to push the advantage as Smith and Duminy both scored alot of runs. Flintoff comes back in for a quick spell and instantly takes the wicket of Duminy. Smith and De Villiers fall in quick sucession with Prince going shortly after. Lucky break, in the 44th over with South Africa 37 short Kallis retired hurt after a bouncer from Anderson.

Boucher is then run out next ball as Philander tries to get off the mark with a suicidal single and suddenly the game had swung in England's favour. Anderson then completes a madien to push the rate above 6 an over. Broad takes Styen for a duck next over. FLintoff takes Philanders wicket in the first over of his last spell. Broad takes the wicket of Zondeki in the second ball of the next over to win the Series for England with an unassialable 3-1 lead.

England win by 25 runs
Man of the Match - Cook
England Man of the Match - Pietersen, he came in quite late but made sure he picked up some runs quickly to push England on to a defendable total.
Other Notable Mentions - Vaughan, Cook, Collingwood, Flintoff, Broad, Harmison
Poor Game - Swann

[Chasjs]

Fifth ODI

Bit of a change really. Nothing to play for so Wright and Clare get their chance. Rashid was going to come into the side but since it is seriously cloudy all day the 4 bowlers competing for places in the Test team get a chance to impress and gain some form under the poor weather. Wright opens with Vaughan in an attempt to get get the innigs off to a bit more of a bang. The only other changes are Clare in for Swann and Bell in for Pietersen. Bell is moved up to 3 to keep the balance of the side.

England won the toss and again decided to bat.
The England innings was well constructed with only Bell failing. The innings got off to a good start, this time with a good scoring rate in the powerplay overs. Bopara excelled and put together a good score of 72.

Collingwood partnered him for most of the innings and reached 49. Flintoff and Prior finished the game off well as England reached the highest score of the Series so far.

Sotuh Africa got off to a good start in their chase. Smith, Duminy and De Villiers fell in quick succession. Amla lasted a little longer and posted a very respectable 84. Prince came in and played a realy good innings hitting 20 4s on his way to 103no off 88. He and Morkal finished the job with an over to spare. England take the series 3-2.

South Africa win by 6 wickets
Man of the Match - Prince
England Man of the Match - Bopara
Other Notable Mentions - Collingwood, Vaughan, Wright, Flintoff, Prior
Poor Game - Bell

Series Reaction
England win ODI Series 3-2
England Man of the Series - Flintoff. It's close and could've gone to Pietersen, Cook or Swann aswell but Flintoff never really had a bad game and usually chipped in with a few quick runs near the end. Combined that with taking wickets at important times and some great bowling at the death he probably did more than any other player did to tip the scales in Englands favour.

Cook and Vaughan both got decent scores in most of the games getting runs on the board early. Cook averaged 40.75 and Vaughan 23.6. But they didn't really do it fast enough for my liking. One idea is could be to open with Strauss and Bopara and possibly having Vaughan coming in at 3 for the Series against Pakistan. With Wright up at the top of the order in the last game it felt better. Maybe something to try out again, although opening with Davies is a long term option, possibly with either Cook or Morgan, who has impressed in T20s. Each bowler perfromed well in at least one game but none of them acheived any sort of consistency. Prior did a good job averaging 30 and might be selected as a backup keeper to Ambrose for the Tests, although Foster and Davies are also in the frame. Collingwood had a good Series averaging 56.67 and looks to retain his place in the Test side. For Bell it could be tocuh and go. He isn't in good form and failed in the chance he got. England are up to 5th in the ODI rankings now and could overtake Australia in 4th by the end of the winter.

[Imager36]

Loving the picture of Kallis

[Chasjs]

Yeah lol. It's a nice picture of him getting hit by and Anderson bouncer and retiring hurt...

[Imager36]

Yeah, loving your story by the way, you put exactly the right amount of detail in! Good luck against whoever you're up against next!

[Chasjs]

Yeah I try to put a good amount of detail without going overboard. I only go into real detail when there is some sort of dramatic climax.

Next up it's South Africa in the Tests, then it's off to Pakistan for a Test Series followed by a few ODIs. Next year I think Bangladesh tour England at the start of the summer. Then a long tour from the West Indies, again, but you'll know about that one. That winter it's the Ashes in Australia followed by the World Cup. So alot to look forward to in both Test and ODI formats towards last season and the games leading up to those two events will be used to try and find the right squad to tour Australia.

[Chasjs]

The ECB Selection Committee has announced the 18 man squad for the Test Seires in the tour of South Africa:

ECB Selection Committee
A Strauss*
T Ambrose^
J Anderson
I Bell
R Bopara
T Bresnan
S Broad
P Collingwood
A Cook
S Davies
A Flintoff
S Harmison
G Onions
M Panasar
K Pietersen
G Swann
J Trott
M Vaughan

The only change from the provisional squad selected to play in the Ashes is the call-up of Davies as reserve keeper to Ambrose.

The player to miss out is Sidebottom, despite good county form. Bresnan was the other candidate to be dropped but he has been saved by his batting capability. Rashid is unfortunate to miss out after a couple of good ODI performances lately. This is more due to his poor season bowling in the County Championship compared to Panasar's good form. Rashid runs him close though as he has a good batting average and might've got into the squad as a backup batter instead but Trott, Bell and Bopara just edge him out. There was speculation that Newman, Key, Denly or Moore could find themselves in the squad but missed out mainly because it is though the opening pair won't change through the Series.

[Chasjs]

First Test

The team chosen to play in the first Test is the same that played the last Test against Australia. Collingwood would've lost his place but he came good in the ODIs so gets a chance in the first Test. Bopara starts at 6 after playing well there in the last Test against Australia. Vaughan keeps his place at 3.

England win the toss and chose to bat.
The first session went poorly with England losing 4 wickets. Vaughan and Bopara started rebuilding both reaching half centuries. Vaughan fell late in the second session for 75. Ambrose went soon after. Flintoff put 30 runs on the board before falling lbw to Morkal. Swann was another to get out cheaply bringing in Broad. Boipara reached his century before the end of the day.

However, Broad lost his wicket just before the close leaving England 296/9. Bopara went first over for 109, England posting 298 all out on a pitch which seriously deterierated in the first day.
South Africa powered ahead of Englands score with Smith playing amazingly. A Morkal was the only other player to score alot of runs as Sotuh Africa batted until afrter lunch on the third day, declaring on 507/8 with a commanding lead of 209 runs. Smith still there unbeaten on 238.

Strauss(12) was again out cheaply and Vaughan(0) this time followed in the same over. Cook(32), Pietersen(20), Collingwood(42), Bopara(24) and Ambrose(13) were all out before the end of the day leaving England 7 down and still 30 runs behind staring at an innings defeat. The forth day started badly for England with Swann going second over. Flintoff and Broad went shortly after as England lost by an innings and 19 runs.

England Man of the Match - Bopara
Other Notable Mentions - Vaughan
Poor Game - Cook, Strauss, Pietersen, Ambrose, Anderson, Broad

[Chasjs]

That didn't go very well. The axe may be wielded to a few players for the next game, possibly going to a 5 bowler system as the bowling was shocking with Anderson and Broad going for almost 5 an over!!!

South Africa are also playing a spinner which I didn't really expect after the ODIs.