Thetownend.com

Just started and denley out first ball to a dodgy lbw decision.

That was a home town decision.

Trott just hit Steyn for 18 in an over. 45 for 2 off 5.

202-6   Morgan 85* off 45 balls

Giles Clarke on the Radio going absolutely apeshit about the Ashes on free to air TV. I struggle to find sympathy.

The Ashes should never have gone to Sky. In fact none of it should. Sky are just rip off merchants.

Their coverage was miles better than channel 4's though

Fully agree on that. At least Sky doesn't divert their coverage in favour of horse racing.

hahahaha heavy rain and we are 1 ahead in d/l

SA 127-3 off 13

Now it's pissing with rain, with England ahead on DL by ONE RUN !!!

get with the times mate

If they lose it's their own fault as they were studying the DL numbers, and the scoreboard also told them what they needed.

What's it with South African's not being able to look at a piece of paper properly !!

Match abandoned...England win by 1 run !!!

Ha didn't the Windies do this against us as well?

They did..but it's funnier when it's against the South Africans !!!

Maybe 6/4 England at the local bookies was taken.....................only kidding,best ive seen England bat in 20/20.

Eoin Morgan is ace, that one six was practically in Zimbabwe.

That was class, hope we're going to continue to be positive in limited overs cricket.

My only criticism would be Cook playing, drop him, play another slogger and get Lukey Wright opening with an absolute license to tee off.

Sick batting by Morgan. What a talent.

Interesting that the Saffers continue to bowl full length to him. He'll put that away until the cows come home.

In the summer the Aussies went short to him and he scored hardly any runs at all.

But we've tried that and it doesn't work. Can't have a team of sloggers because it won't work every game. They'll get out trying to hit a six when a single or 2 will do.

Yeah, its the singles win you T20s me old chap, another great point well made.

As opposed to the all out slogging for 80, you mean ?

were they slogging? can you talk us through some of the shots because i haven't heard much about it? i just thought it was a very slow wicket, which england underperformed on

Well a single a ball is 120 runs. Now that is better than being all out for 66 because we tried hitting too many sixes. I think it's a valid point well made myself. And the idea is that you get 5 singles and a boundary of each over and you're looking at 180ish which is a fairly healthy total in T20.

I don't recall any really falling on their sword slogging - 4 run outs, a couple of balls that rolled along the floor, and remember the Saffas lost 6 (I think) wickets getting there themselves. You've missed the point neville but thats not unusual for you is it.

IOB- it's T20, not ODI... you've got to look to hit big. Thats the whole point. Also, the field HAS to be in for 6 overs so that rules out the easy working of the singles for that time, so you've got to look for boundaries. Yes running between the wickets is important, but why do you think it's the people who smash the ball out of the park that have the best T20 records, domestically or internationally, cos they do.

But if you dont get the boundary Onion your struggling big time....i prefer the option of hitting big as it puts even the best bowlers of the stride....Morgan was brilliant yesterday.

Ahh but the best teams are the ones that can do it. I suppose there are 2 sides to the coin. As DMR said the best players will slog successfully but the not so good ones (ours in most cases) will try a really silly shot and mis time it. More often than not we try and be positive and fall on our arses. If we played a slightly more tactical and less predictable T20 game we might see results improve.

I disagree... we've played the English conservative way for too long and we still get beat more often than not. Might as well lose by going out and teeing off and giving yourself a chance. 100 all out in 12 overs or 140-5 after 20, we'll lose either way against a half good team.

Holy crap, the Saffers are off to a flier. Mahmood went for about 90 off one over.

Edit: 107-0 off 8 overs. Rashid just went for 24.

205-4 off 16.2

Pretty brutal, what is the biggest defeat in 20-20 internationals? I think we might witness it today.

no chance, we will win. watch the next hour and a half going to be fucking lush.

dont get playing cook in this form of the game, im with dave on this one get wright in as opener and fucking slog the thing.

Ooh, there's the traditional shit run out. Once every time we bat. At least.

I think you put an extra comma in there!

I was shocked until I saw we had Saj Mahmood playing. I soon changed my mind and just decided that defeat was always on the cards.

I well and truly rest my case!

Arise Sir Collingwood, great ton. ;)

I'm sure Colly must be a scion of that great son of the North East...Cuthbert later Lord Collingwood, who ensured victory at Trafalgar over the cheating surrender monkeys, after Nelson made the fundamental mistake of getting himself shot. Collingwood gets little popular acclaim for his heroics, whereas there's plenty of pubs called The Nelson.