Thetownend.com

Starts tomorrow, both teams could be very, very interesting.

England seem to be unsure about the balance of the team- 6 Batsmen with Bell, 5 bowlers with Sidebottom or Plunkett or hedging their bets with Wright. I expect Wright to get the nod, although I'd probably go with Plunkett myself (what do I know though eh DMR)

Seth Ethrika seem to have Kallis back able to bowl, which helps their balance. Steyn seems to be fit, so he'll be back in, seemingly for Friedel de Wet despite his brilliant performance in the first test, with Ntini keeping his place- you gotta wonder if that decision has been made for the right reasons.

Could be a very interesting one, certainly on a pitch which offers the occasional hour or so of excitement every now and then. Thoughts?

I bet we'll be shitting ourselves about the ball doing a bit and thus name an unchanged side.

As usual the Saffas have let us off the hook with De Wet, as I've said before I think Steyn isn't as great as made out and was bowling gash in the ODIs.

cracking start by anderson and onions.

10-2 Morning Everyone. Smith and Kallis at the wicket, another wicket would be tremendous.

England batting now, on 54 without loss of which Strauss has 46 and Cook 7.

Spot the one in form.

Great batting..ive started to enjoy English cricket again..Strauss is getting better as a captain and his batting is entertaining...i predict Cook will get a century.

Strauss given out, refers and he's...not out! Hurrah!

Come on Cookie...cream always rises,will watch him get his Ton.....as i predicted!
Wouldve got big odds on it i suppose...97 not out at the moment.

Cook's 100- Good work, glad for him, attritional as anything but we needed that.

Good prediction Leefer 242-3, and Cook 100 no

What's the betting we still get less than them?

Come on England.

It's Cook's 50th test match, blimey.

Unbelievably low, stop being a cunt.

Colly is a god

Colly is ace
We had a good day today

Colly seems to have hurt himself.

Who is this chap batting and what has he done with Bell? Still, another hundred for Bell and still none when somebody else in the team hasn't already scored one. Interestingly, we've scored as many 100s in this innings as we did in the whole Ashes series.

Bumble tipped Bell for a 1st innings century @ 8/1. Wish I'd put some money on it now.

Bell's got more ability than any England batsman save KP, glad he's showing what a good player he can be

I dont question his ability, i question his concentration.

I question his temperament

I? Question?

I question our tactics...seem intent on letting a great winning opportunity drift away..get on with it...number 7 blocking with less than 2 days to go is pants.

theres not less than 2 days to go though is there?

It's the fourth day no, so we have 4 sessions if we declare at tea.

So how long is left?...thaught it was day four.

Bell gone, here comes the declaration then.

Not declared, Onions just headed one for four.

575-9 dec...lead of 232.

its day 3 leefer

or is it day 4?

Nope, it's day 4. We have 4 sessions and the remainder of this to go.

Swann gets Prince out first over, good catch for Bell.

Swann bowls Amla on the stroke of tea, that's terrific.

If we can get Smith or Kallis, or ideally both before the close of play we're right in command.

Great delivery that.

Bye bye Kallis

44-5 what the hell!!!

:)

Hat trick beckoning?

Tremendous!

Smith out??? Review time

Smith gone! We might finish this tonight by an innings.

Arise Sir Ian of Bell!

And Alistaire of Cook......two of the least likely candidates.

And shut up Sir Ian Botham, the current captain knows what he is doing and when to make a declaration and what time he needs to bowl them out.

You as a captain were crap.

End of day 76-6...and Botham's still going on about it !!

They've got 76 runs now. We've let them off the hook, same old england.

Stop trying to be me Dave.

Well I have to admit i'm impressed and we should win this now.

Is the forecast OK in Durban for tomorrow?

An interesting post on the Beeb live text today - something along the lines of Swann/Broad looking like Warne/McGrath...

Woot.

Hope some of you who are so negative about England re-read your posts, ffs we've won the Ashes, about to dick the Saffas (again), the players you all slag off have got runs/wickets....

Come on leefer/Nemo/IOB etc, we're actually quite fuckin good at cricket.

hear hear david

good grief somebody on there must have started their new years eve drinking earlier

Won by an innings...Swann MoM again !!

While we're not the most consistent of sides, there was an interesting comment om BBC Radio 5 this morning to the effect that England's attack is now showing the ability - on occasions - to rip through an opposition during a golden spell.  Happened against the Aussies and it happened again yesterday.  We need to bottle that.  Good times for English cricket.

I'm delighted we've won, although I'm not exactly sure how I ended up being typecast as being negative, I just have a mostly irrational hatred of Ian Bell, partially because I don't like playing only 4 bowlers as a tactic on all but the most dangerous of pitches.

What on earth the Saffers were doing though, how the heck did they get bowled out for so few on that pitch: We bowled very well, but not unplayably so. They had Jeremy Snape (Saffers Sports Psychologist type) on the radio at Tea yesterday, I think he might have quite a lot of work to do now.

Swann is my hero.

Are you blind DMR?..read the thread again dippy...all ive done is backed the team...oh and predicted a Cook ton....as for you Tonga you didnt even realise what bleeding day it was when you decided to have a whinge yesterday....DMR when are you going to realise that debating is healthy..if i decide ime unhappy about something thats my perogative and what a healthy forum is all about....stop being a twat.

We're doing well at the moment for sure. But we were good at Cricket 4 years ago as well and look what came of that. I'll believe we are good if we dick the Aussies down under next winter.

:)
killed any prossies tonight leefer?

Heh heh, "Ime"

Sure you mean tonight....or last night Tonga?

have to say i have often wondered why leefer has created and uses the word 'ime'??

top stuff from england - bell displaying the aggressive intent he should have done ages ago. what's the point in having all the shots if you don't go out there and use them and be positive. cook on the other hand, is so poor through the off-side, he has to strip back his game and let his temperament shine through. fair play to both of them. swanny - hero.