England v South Africa, 3rd ODI, The Oval

First topic message reminder :

England can snatch back the No.1 ODI Ranking with victory today and level the series but that will be unlikely with all the negative off-the-field drama that is happening. On the other hand, South Africa will be looking to cement their No.1 ODI ranking and go 2-0 up in the series. Should be a cracker of a game then.

England 1 Alastair Cook (capt), 2 Ian Bell, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Ravi Bopara, 5 Eoin Morgan, 6 Craig Kieswetter (wk), 7 Samit Patel, 8 James Tredwell, 9 Jade Dernbach, 10 James Anderson, 11 Steve Finn.

South Africa 1 Graeme Smith, 2 Hashim Amla, 3 JP Duminy, 4 Dean Elgar, 5 AB de Villiers (capt, wk), 6 Faf du Plessis, 7 Wayne Parnell, 8 Robin Peterson, 9 Dale Steyn, 10 Morne Morkel, 11 Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

Need a good start now. Never easy to chase low scores but if Bell can get us off to a quick start with Cook hanging around to see off Steyn then it should be an England win.

South Africa struggling at 211 for 9 and Tsotsobe is given out first ball but he's reviewing it.
Meanwhile Kevin Pietersen smashed 58 of 47 in Surrey's CC match against Somerset on top of his fine first innings effort.
Umpire's call on that Tsotsobe review and SA are allout for 211. I would be very surprised if England do not even the series at the end of the day.

Clinical from England so far today. Nice to see, they've all bowled well today.

well that was decent!!

well played england..

That's a rather lovely piece of bowling from Anderson, setting Morkel up with a couple of balls outside off (both well fielded by Morgan thus ensuring Morkel stayed on strike) then the inswinger cleans him up.

Tsotsobe out first ball, LBW, fairly plumb.

Very good team performance by the England bowlers.

Performance from South Africa as England at the Rose Bowl: a lot of starts, but their best player could only manage 40odd instead of the 150.

So two in two for Jimmy to finish it ! All out 211 and all the bowlers did their part ...good job and they should surely fancy chasing that down...

Liam wrote:Need a good start now. Never easy to chase low scores but if Bell can get us off to a quick start with Cook hanging around to see off Steyn then it should be an England win.

one things for sure chasing a low score is easier than chasing a high score!!

The old saying with the bowling, they miss you hit coming good today with the wkt to wkt bowling. Would like more of it in the World Cup.

South Africa would require a massive effort from the bowlers if they have to make a match out of this one.

Didn't De Villiers come out before the ODI series and say England were a batsman short with Bresnan batting at 7? Which is now pretty hilarious in hindsight, as will Parnell batting at 7 SA are definitely a batsman short.

Bres is a much better batsman than Parnell...

today is samit and he is defo better than parnell.. IMO Peterson is a better batsman than parnell.

It is even now...the game is...bowlers have made it even for Eng batters.......not easy though...

given on a far easier pitch in the last game Eng struggled to get to 200....however here they can breathe easier as they are chasing nearly 1.5 rpo less.....which offsets the pitch difficulty

If SA can pluck 2 wickets in first 15 overs.....they will be favourites.
If Eng see throuhg 15 overs not losing more than a wicket....they will probably cross the line.

*PS* Jade D. comes in.....Jade D. makes a mark
Bresan was aweful......his replacements Finn and Jade D. made marks in both forms....

but his repeat returns shows that he is somebody's favourite like Raina is in India team

Unlike in the last match the England batters needn't worry about the asking rate too much. Would make their top 3 more comfortable going in with a freer mindset.

KP_fan wrote:It is even now...the game is...bowlers have made it even for Eng batters.......not easy though...

given on a far easier pitch in the last game Eng struggled to get to 200....however here they can breathe easier as they arechasing nearl 1.5 rpo less.....which offsets the pitch difficulty

If SA can pluck 2 wickets in first 15 overs.....they will be favourites.
If Eng see throuhg 15 overs not losing more than a wicket....they will probably cross the line

No where near even.

Even with Steyn and Morkel, this is Englands to lose on a good track.

Wow, completely missed the Saffer's batting. What happened?

eirebilly wrote:Wow, completely missed the Saffer's batting. What happened?

England bowled very well.

chrisss wrote:Didn't De Villiers come out before the ODI series and say England were a batsman short with Bresnan batting at 7? Which is now pretty hilarious in hindsight, as will Parnell batting at 7 SA are definitely a batsman short.

winning and already successful teams....... not under pressure to show some clutching straws.....use bilateral series to experiment and try out theories and combinations in real conditions.

skyeman wrote:

eirebilly wrote:Wow, completely missed the Saffer's batting. What happened?

England bowled very well.

How is the pitch? Is the SA under par?

skyeman wrote:

KP_fan wrote:It is even now...the game is...bowlers have made it even for Eng batters.......not easy though...

given on a far easier pitch in the last game Eng struggled to get to 200....however here they can breathe easier as they arechasing nearl 1.5 rpo less.....which offsets the pitch difficulty

If SA can pluck 2 wickets in first 15 overs.....they will be favourites.
If Eng see throuhg 15 overs not losing more than a wicket....they will probably cross the line

No where near even.

Even with Steyn and Morkel, this is Englands to lose on a good track.

actually you are probably right....
it's not even but tilted in England's favour..... because there won't be pressure of high asking rate.
But not a cakewalk given the 4 really fast bowlers that SA arecarrying....
yeah...it's still Eng's game to lose

eirebilly wrote:

skyeman wrote:

eirebilly wrote:Wow, completely missed the Saffer's batting. What happened?

England bowled very well.

How is the pitch? Is the SA under par?

yeah I reckon it's a pretty good pitch, maybe 250-260 is par.

eirebilly wrote:

skyeman wrote:

eirebilly wrote:Wow, completely missed the Saffer's batting. What happened?

England bowled very well.

How is the pitch? Is the SA under par?

Pitch is a bit slow but fairly even paced. The SA bowlers will have to mix it up a bit, because their pace will probably come onto the bat quite nicely.

Dernbach did well with his variations, and Anderson bowled quite a few cutters as well.

A few South Africans threw their wickets away when well set.

Massive chance here for England then.

A win means back to #1?

It does indeed Eirebilly and it should be a stroll. 13/0 already.

Thanks Duty

Bell off already

Plumb, hitting middle and leg out. went way across his stumps, bad start for England.

Bell goes early, walking at Steyn but it ducks in and he's plumb LBW. Just what England didn't want...

My bad...

Bell does his shimmy thing and just gets accross too far.

Trott needs to just drop anchor here.

somebody shoud have reminded Bell ( mayble thecaptain at the other end)....that he had 50 overs and not just 20.

He's gotta be himself and not try to play like who he is not......wasted wicket...when the situation did not require playing across the line

I agree, no need to walk across the stumps there. He got a good start, needed to see of Steyn and attack Tsosobe at the other end.

This is the perfect situation for Trott, no need to rush just play your shots

Cook is looking very nervous...

Cook play's those balls of his hips so well, its a shot that almost guarantee's 2 runs every time.

There isn't many in the game who play the cover drive as well as Trott, hits in on the rise and beats the man beautifully, taylor made situation for Cook and Trott.

Cook is really out of nick. He just needs to hang in there, things will get easier the longer he does. As I type that he strokes one through point for 4.

Ball coming onto the bat nicely at this pace. The pitch is slowish, but evenly paced. SA should either try some spin or get Steyn to bowl some more cutters.

Trott scoring at over a run a ball...

Good start, this is a march to victory and the No.1 spot. And I think Trott's enjoying himself.

This really should be managable, if collapse is avoided

England looking good. They are in the driving seat now.

Early days yet still FerN

another 8 odd overs without losing a wicket and Eng are throuhg....
SA pluck one of these out in the next 5 overs....and it's agame on....
Bell played "senselessly"

The SA bowlers are really going to have to do alot more than what they are now, spin?

Trott has really slowed down here.

The pressure was built and Cook is out

Painful from Cook, got bogged down not after singles. Could see it coming.

It was on the cards wasnt it. Still, England should really cruise this.

No need to worry, plenty of overs to go, plenty of wickets left and not a lot of runs to get.

Bops not out, clearly missed the bat surely.

Not out for sure.

Bopara needs to walk off here.