Thetownend.com

Can't see it. The only positives from the last 3 days is Vaughan is batting well- only continuing his from from against a very sorry Zimbabwe.

Key Man for Series? I'd say Freddie if he can handle the hype (and I'm sure he can) and strangley, Marcus Trescothick, he seems to like batting against the SA

Of course we will win. Butcher will get a couple of hundreds.
Can't wait for the boxing day tests. Aussies at night and England in the morning.

I'll go for a draw, which to be honest I'd settle for. For more than one reason.

Key man as always is Steve Harmison, to win a Test match you need to take 20 wickets regardless of how many runs you score. Trescothick could do with showing he can bat away from home, whilst I think the 'King of Spain' may be very important bowling long, tight spells on the flatter wickets. For them, you can't look further than Jacques Kallis, that man's a run machine.

Butcher score a couple of hundreds?! I'll eat my hat if he does. Butcher's biggest failing is that he can't convert his starts and 50s into tons.

The 2nd point... couldn't agree more. I can't wait for 12am on Xmas Day night, I'm not sure where sleep will fit in in that week.

What about 'Greg' Smith (nice one Nasser!), the boys are still going to be shit scared of him IMO

Rubbish.

He's been one of our most consistent since returning to the side in '01 with 'that innings.' He's just faltered a bit before the injuries.

Butcher has been consistent. Consistently quite good. Not many tons in there though and that was my point.

Well of course he's good, but the fact we bowled on his legs for two Test match didn't help. Our bowling attack in that series was nowhere near as good as the one we've got now as well.

I'd rather have that security than 'ton or nothing' Vaughan. Graham Thorpe- now that is consistency.

Plus this series will suit Butcher- not a decent SA spinner in sight

I don't disagree with you Dave, at the minute Butcher's doing the job fine. Ian Bell is the obvious future number three as he has an excellent technique (Key's failing) and makes tons consistently (Butcher's failing).

Although I am worried about the amount of batting Butcher's done in the last 4 months. Practically none.

I didn't rate robert key. Till he had that wonderful inns in the summer.
I like to see Simon Jones play, even if he does give a few runs away.
What would be your team then?

In batting order....

Tresco
Vaughan
Butcher
Bell
Thorpe
Jones (wk)
Freddie
Giles
Hoggard
Jones
Harminson

Maybe swap Freddie and Jones

What's that side for?

Bell isn't even in the squad.

Definitely swap Flintoff and Jones.

Eh? Blimey.

Is Key? Him in then.

ME Trescothick
AJ Strauss
MA Butcher
MP Vaughan
GP Thorpe
A Flintoff
GO Jones
AF Giles
MJ Hoggard  
SP Jones
SJ Harmison

Someone told me Strauss is injured so I didn't go for him... otherwise he'd be in

blinkpip's got it spot on.

What have you got against Strauss? He's a superb player in my opinion.

Strauss is a bloody cracking cricketer! Read above...

Because we didn't tour SA for all those years, I haven't got the feel for the conditions etc, that you get from years of exposure to the other venues.

 I get the feeling it will be a very close series, Gary Kirsten is a big miss for them, and I think his absence may tilt it England's way overall, but  with England you can never be wholly confident.

this is a footy forum ffs!

This is the general section ffs....

:soapy tit wank: Cricket  :soapy tit wank:

We should petition dazza for a cricket section  :idea:

I think SA will win cos I've met the England team and to put it politely they are not exactly atheletes!

What do you mean the England team are not exactly athletes?

The Australians smoke like chimneys and they've been the best in the world for 10 years.

play prior and we wil win


SUSSEX SUSSEX SUSSEX

Got my sussex season membership today, 3 and a hlf months from sitting in a  deck chair at hove in the sun. 8)

Matt Prior can't keep for shit thoug, quite an issue if you're a wicketkeeper

bollocks and shit dave, i watch him every week and hes first class, hes improved hugely

Bring back Stewie I say

Haven't seen enough of him to really comment, but seems a talent nonetheless. Rod Marsh thought his keeping last winter for the Acad was facking shite, although it may have improved over the summer.

yeah but who the fuck is rod marsh, hes a quitter thats who. :)

Not a bad day today,
SA 1st inns 273-7

Matthew Hoggard with the second new ball- was the best spell of bowling I've seen in ages

Definitely first day honours to England. On a slowish but very good batting wicket the South Africans would have wanted at least 350+ which seems pretty unlikely now.

Hoggard and Freddie were the real thorns in SA's side in terms of wickets today and deservedly so, but the way Giles and Jones bowled in the middle session even though we didn't take a wicket, was superb.

A fine knock from Rudolph, although I'm not sure what he was doing when he was dismissed. I'm still not that convinced by him - he doesn't like short bowling so I look forward to getting on some bouncier wickets, plus his lack of footwaork must make him vunerable to sideways movement. Still, in this Test neither can be exploited.

What a day! Straussy you feckin legend.

Is Gibbs injured? And who is that S.A. bloke with that funny beard.

Gibbs has a hand injury but should be back for the 2nd Test. If their coach wants him - he said some pretty nasty stuff in the papers leading up to the Test.

The guy with the beard is Hashim Amla, the first South African of Indian origin to represent them. He's a devout Muslim and on his shirt the 'Castle Lager' logo is blanked out because of this.

what a fuckin day today...

if we dont win this test there is something seriously wrong.

kallis and smith went for nothing yesterday but i think the performances with the bat today topped even that   :D

Just seen the scorecard...what a day. :D  Strauss is only the second englishman to score centuries on both home and away debuts. Lets hope he can keep this form up for the ashes.

I know you probably don't mean it, but this really pisses me off. It was the same as Linekar on the Sports Personality, people only seem to care about the Ashes and couldn't give a toss about the rest. Currently this tour is far more important, possibly the biggest tour for nigh on 20 years, so that we can say we are number 2 in the world. Then, only if we can do that, then we can move on to the Ashes.

Sorry :oops: . I agree that the current tour is all that matters at the moment, and the team are doing a brilliant job.

But with the ashes in the summer it is great to see Stauss, and a few others in the team, in this kind of form. Gives a great chance to beat the Aussies.

When I lived in SA for a number of years, I met the SA cricket team on a few occasions.  I even had the priviledge of playing againt Jacques Kallis and Paul Adams on a school tour of the Western Cape when I went to school out there.  I remember Adams getting tonked by one of our players (Bruce Philp, played SA Schoolboys) and I cant believe that a few months later Adams was in the Test side!  Kallis though, was sheer class back then, and he has become of the greatest all rounders in world cricket

I think we all know why Adams was picked - look at the colour of his skin.

Freddie's in, wahey!

Butcher's out...booooo!

351-5 isnt bad at all though. I reckon we can still get a lead of at least 150.

353-7, in trouble now cos we need a fair lead.

Typical Ingerland collapse. Too much pressure on Freddie.

Quite true, that pitch is going to crumble like Michael Jackson in a court of law.

At least SA lack a decent spinner

Damn. 358-8 :x

It's falling apart :/

I'm not particularly confident of winning this one now

Makeyha Ntini is ripping us to shreds and he's the shittest quickie on the planet. He bowls from so wide everything should just be carved through the leg side.

grrrrrr

Bucther did alright, like I said. (but still, what a crap shot)

Butcher played extremely well. It's a massive shame that Butcher and Thorpe got out to awful shots.

Unfortunately that's the way it is now.

Only 49 runs to win 8) . Will be England's 8th consecutive test win, previous record was 7 set in 1920's.

Simon Jones, I fackin love you, you Welsh sheep shagger.

Dale Steyn looks the business. The new Shane Bond, but without the injuries? I hope so.

49 runs with Pollock completely fresh is still a difficult task, I'm nervous already!

Although it pisses my off it being on Sky, at least it means I get some work done.  The amount of times my mate came round to get me in the summer and we never ended up leaving :)   Then again even when we went we probably spent as much time playing cricket as working.

Role on the ashes 8)

I bet we lose at least 3 wickets getting those last 49 runs. It just wouldn't be England if they knocked them off without bother like the Aussies would. Ashley Giles and Jones will see us home though.

its a good win, looked dodgy, and butcher kind of proved me wrong, as Key was in good form.

hope tresco wakes up abit! Sabres legend!  8)  the cider army!

Don't tempt fate Johno, please!

No he doesn't. The ocassional gem but he bowls at least one four-ball an over.

1) He's 21
2) He's quick as fuck
3) He's got as good an action as anyone in world cricket

I can't think of a better fast bowling talent in the world. The peach he got Vaughan out with was a demonstration of this. He's bowled okay on a flat wicket on debut, I'm not particularly looking forward to seeing him on a more bowler friendly wicket when he has more confidence.

ha! Hardly the finished article, try potential?

Well done Dave, you're really sharp, aren't you. When I say talent I mean young talent, obviously.

I'm not a fucking mind reader am I?

No but you're a thick cunt!

C'mon Dave, it doesn't take a genius to work out that when someone is talking about a talent, they are talking about a player who has talent but has yet to prove it.

I'd say Shane Warne is a talent though...

I wouldn't, I'd say he is a proven world class superstar.

That was a fluke! Vaughan was clearly put off by Steyn's scabby lip.

:D  8)   :soapy tit wank:  :)  :D :D  8)   :soapy tit wank:  :)  :D :D  8)   :soapy tit wank:  :)  :D :D  8)   :soapy tit wank:  :)  :D :D  8)   :soapy tit wank:  :)  :D :D  8)   :soapy tit wank:  :)  :D :D  8)   :soapy tit wank:  

Wooo! We won...without losing anymore wickets :shock:

The first ever England side to win 8 consective Test matches. A fantastic win.

A great win, lets hope we have a good boxing day test. A game I actually get to watch.

SA have brought back Gibbs and Boje, whilst giving a maiden call up to Charl Langeveldt (the guy who bowled very well for SA 'A'. There is also a distinct possibility that Tsolikelle will be dropped and AB de Villiers will keep wicket and bat lower down the order. On paper, South Africa look set to have a much stronger side for the Boxing Day Test.

ECB reveals county one-day revamp (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/counties/4120869.stm)

Sounds like excellent news to me, such a revamp of our stale domestic one-day cricket has been long overdue and we are now going to playing as much 50 over cricket as the rest of the world - about time!