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.

liverbnz wrote:VTR on fire here!

De Villiers out to Tredwell - get in there!

Still, big Samit is yet to come to the party. Not only is buffet his favourite meal, that adequately describes his bowling. Faf du Plesses, the best French-sounding cricketer ever to play the game will be dining out on these left-arm helpings for sure.

I'd be tempted to get Anderson back into the attack now, just to try and knock over a couple more.

scratch that, Bopara has just bowled Du Plessis, and England are right on top now!

Bopara strikes !

England getting on top here...run rate is fine but we are getting closer to a longish South African tail...

I think we can class Bopara as an all-rounder now for ODIs, he's bowled brilliantly today and he's just got a wicket. England on top!

I suppose it's always better to have another option. If Bairstow played and SA decided to hit someone out of the attack, where would Cook turn?

liverbnz wrote:I suppose it's always better to have another option. If Bairstow played and SA decided to hit someone out of the attack, where would Cook turn?

Trott perhaps? In an emergency, maybe Ian Bell?

Tredwell for test captain!

a team almost the entire 11 on merit....and they are looking so much more competitive

I'd like to see Bairstow playing too ...but in fairness to Patel he has done some pretty handy hitting late in ODI innings himself this year.
Also some flexibility for Cook - may well see Patel have a bowl later in the innings.

Now where is this next wicket coming from : hmmm...Dernbach ? Nah , never going to get one of these two out.

good work alfie!

beautiful slower ball from Dernbach, too good for Elgar! music to England's ears

Sumptuous ball from Derbach. Love watching batsmen misjudging a slower ball.

Blimey , this is easy...

That was a seriously nice bit of bowling though...well done Dernbach

really was a cracking delivery from Dernbach. He's bowled very nicely today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWlKzm9BSNs&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Reminded me of this. Never get tired of watching this dismissal.

Oh dear Cookie. 5 down and no slip!

And there you go!

that's useless from Cook though, why no slip?

doesn't matter much, as the next is nicked through to Kieswetter and Dernbach has three.

Now Sir Ian has joined in !

No sooner has he declared "the horse has bolted" than another edge gives Dernbach his third and SA are six down...

England maybe should consider going for the throat now ...Finn and Anderson have overs left...

Finn and Anderson will be bowling in a couple of overs anyway as it'll be PP time. Might as well give Tredwell one more I guess.

and indeed, here's Steven Finn.

Derbach bowling his best in some time for England, but still not convinced by him. What does Woakes have to do?

7th wicket partnership building here. Worrying for England as Duminy is a great player and South Africans called Peterson (or variants thereof) are usually handy with the bat.

Anyone else think Finn should come around the wicket to left handers. Over the wicket he always seems to push it very wide, whereas as he showed in the test series, when he goes round the wicket he causes all sorts of problems, getting the ball to straighten and nip away from the left hander.

skyeman wrote:Derbach bowling his best in some time for England, but still not convinced by him. What does Woakes have to do?

Certainly can't complain about Dernbach today ! However I also thought today was an opportunity for Woakes to play instead of Bresnan, a better fit as he can of course bat...but that would have meant leaving out Tredwell , and I don't think they fancy going with just Patel for spin on these pitches.
I'm sure Woakes will get a look in soon..

SA have to plod along for a while with 6 down until the last 3 or 4 overs to maybe get to 240 -245.

Get Duminy soon and only around 230. But Steyn and Morkel can give it a serious biff.

a very calm powerplay that, SA pair batting very sensibly and knocking the singles around, England still bowling good lines and not giving much away.

SA need these 2 to carry on for some more overs before trying to open up. 240 should be challenging on this track I feel, particularly as Dale Steyn is back. Anything under that though, England should be able to chase it down without a great deal of discomfort.

Whatever total SA get to they can defend it. Steyn and Morkel with a new ball each - dangerous to say the least!

Bopara"s bowling has been way better than his batting recently.

PP over and Ravi the wrecker is back on...can he get a break ?

No . Good over except for the last ball ...

SA could still get up to 240 odd here ...England rather need to get back in the wickets ...

...and Tredwell obliges with the help of his mate Bell

Very handy , Duminy gone...

gone! Duminy tries to force the pace off Tredwell, gets nowhere near the pitch of the ball and skies it straight to Bell at long-off. The shot of a man who thinks SA are well below par at the moment?

Duminy gone, great for England, but wrong for his team to go for it too early.

Very good, tight ten from Bops.

Ravi finishes a really excellent spell with a maiden, somewhat surprisingly England's only of the series to date. 1-31, good work!

Not only was that a poor shot from Duminy, it was pretty poor thinking as well. What the hell was he thinking? Or was he thinking at all?

msp, I wonder if Duminy felt they were below par and needed something to get themselves up to 250-260.

good spell from Tredwell too, 2-48 and important wickets they were too

South Africa should at least try and get up to 230. Petersen smashes Anderson for 4 to get SA pass 200.

Anderson demolishes Steyn's stumps, 203-8

Steyn's bowled by Anderson with a swinging ball.

Nice one Jimmy

Much too good for Steyn...eight out now ...

Steyn gone to a peach from Anderson, beaten for pace.

Duminy going for it to soon, has the effect, sometimes it works, but often not.

Mad for Chelsea wrote:msp, I wonder if Duminy felt they were below par and needed something to get themselves up to 250-260.

good spell from Tredwell too, 2-48 and important wickets they were too

Even in that case, he could have gone for it perhaps around the 45th over or something. Because if he was taking risk and get out, this was pretty much on the card, as he was the last of the recognized batters. He needn't have panicked of getting stranded as well, as Petersen was giving him good support. Reminds me of his flash outside off in the first over with the 2nd new ball in the last test after he was well set.

5 SA's bowled, wkt to wkt getting the rewards.

Make that 6.

Jimmy knocks over Morkel, that's the 6th bowled of the innings, just too quick through Morkel there. SA 211-9 and in real danger of not batting out their overs here.

msp83 wrote:

Mad for Chelsea wrote:msp, I wonder if Duminy felt they were below par and needed something to get themselves up to 250-260.

good spell from Tredwell too, 2-48 and important wickets they were too

Even in that case, he could have gone for it perhaps around the 45th over or something. Because if he was taking risk and get out, this was pretty much on the card, as he was the last of the recognized batters. He needn't have panicked of getting stranded as well, as Petersen was giving him good support. Reminds me of his flash outside off in the first over with the 2nd new ball in the last test after he was well set.

oh I agree it was a poor shot, I was just trying to understand what his thought process may have been.

out LBW first ball, though he'll review of course.

height the only doubt surely? yep trimming the bails, umpire's call and Anderson ends with four wickets, great performance from England today

Very good from Eng. All the bowlers played well.

Should be comfortable to go 1-1.