2nd T20I: England v South Africa

First topic message reminder :

2nd T20I: England v South Africa at Old Trafford.

Match scheduled to begin at 18:30

This series will once again end up with one team either retaining or becoming the No1 ranked team. After being soundly beaten in the Tests and drawing the Odi's England will be hoping for victory against South Africa to give them a confidence boost before heading off to the World Cup later this month.

Other than a series winning confidence boost this is a big chance for a few players to stake their claim for a starting spot in the World Cup and also for one or two {Broads pace, Boparas batting} to try and regain some sort of form.

England need to bounce back to stay in the series after the shambles at Durham.



Squads

England; SCJ Broad {c}, JM Anderson, JM Bairstow, RS Bopara, TT Bresnan, DR Briggs, JC Buttler, JW Dernbach, ST Finn, AD Hales, C Kieswetter{w}, MJ Lumb, EJG Morgan, SR Patel, GP Swann, LJ Wright

South Africa; AB de Villiers{c,w}, HM Amla, F Behardien, J Botha, JP Duminy, F du Plessis, JH Kallis, RE Levi, JA Morkel, M Morkel, JL Ontong, WD Parnell, RJ Peterson, DW Steyn, LL Tsotsobe

Still an injury concern for Tim Bresnan though.


Good luck to both teams.

Biltong wrote:Looking forward to it, hopefully we can perform again.

Me too, hopefully we can just perform this time.

Good news from Old Trafford, the rain has stopped and the ladies T20 is underway.

Sarah Taylor is a fantastic player. She has played some brilliant shots. The Windies have been disappointing in the field though.

Hales
Wright
Morgan
Bairstow
Kieswetter
Patel
Bresnan
Broad
Swann
Briggs
Finn

Give Briggs a chance

If you go with that side jimbo, I would play Buttler ahead of Patel. Wright can be the sixth bowler and you don't need three spinners.

JDizzle wrote:Sarah Taylor is a fantastic player. She has played some brilliant shots. The Windies have been disappointing in the field though.

Yep. England batted really well - in particular ran hard at the times when boundaries weren't coming as easily. Can't see WI getting close.

Shame Stefanie Taylor (who keeps getting nominated for awards, but whom I've never seen play on TV) is sitting this one out after arriving this morning.

I think the pitch will turn slowly on what I've seen so far. That might be better for Botha and Peterson than for Swann.

jimbohammers wrote:Hales
Wright
Morgan
Bairstow
Kieswetter
Patel
Bresnan
Broad
Swann
Briggs
Finn

Give Briggs a chance

And a bit light in the batting for me. 3 early wickets and then you are into that bottom six. Needs an extra bat i feel.

JDizzle wrote:If you go with that side jimbo, I would play Buttler ahead of Patel. Wright can be the sixth bowler and you don't need three spinners.

Suppose! Or maybe Buttler for Swann? We all know what Swann can do so give a couple of the youngsters to show what they are about...

Were Briggs to get a chance it should surely be in place of Patel. Unless we now see Patel as part of our top six.

No way do we need three spinners. Yes, spin goes well in T20, but our strengths our in the seam department.

Shelsey93 wrote:

JDizzle wrote:Sarah Taylor is a fantastic player. She has played some brilliant shots. The Windies have been disappointing in the field though.

Yep. England batted really well - in particular ran hard at the times when boundaries weren't coming as easily. Can't see WI getting close.

Shame Stefanie Taylor (who keeps getting nominated for awards, but whom I've never seen play on TV) is sitting this one out after arriving this morning.

I think the pitch will turn slowly on what I've seen so far. That might be better for Botha and Peterson than for Swann.

I missed the beginning, so I didn't get to see Edwards and Marsh bat but in the Taylor/Brindle partnership, Taylor was a class above. Just made it look so easy. And their running was impressive, made nothing easy for the Windies. It was clear they were struggling in the field and England never took their foot off the throat and made them work every ball. Cambelle bowled nicely, and so did Daley so it is not all doom and gloom for them.

jimbohammers wrote:

JDizzle wrote:If you go with that side jimbo, I would play Buttler ahead of Patel. Wright can be the sixth bowler and you don't need three spinners.

Suppose! Or maybe Buttler for Swann? We all know what Swann can do so give a couple of the youngsters to show what they are about...

Not for me, not with the T20 WC coming up. We need to be getting our best side out there playing together and getting confidence playing together, so I think Swann has to play. Briggs bowled well though in the UAE, so I would like to see him play ahead of Patel who's fielding has really bugged me this summer.

Hales
Kieswetter
Wright
Morgan
Bairstow
Buttler
Bresnan
Broad
Swann
Finn
Briggs

Can't find room for Dernbach which is a little annoying as I think he is going to be vital in SL. And the only way I can fit him in is for Bres, but that leaves my batting weak and I would have to play Samit for Briggs. Tough.

JDizzle wrote:
I missed the beginning, so I didn't get to see Edwards and Marsh bat but in the Taylor/Brindle partnership, Taylor was a class above. Just made it look so easy. And their running was impressive, made nothing easy for the Windies. It was clear they were struggling in the field and England never took their foot off the throat and made them work every ball. Cambelle bowled nicely, and so did Daley so it is not all doom and gloom for them.

WI are far from the worst women's side.

A current problem with women's international cricket is that the gap in quality between the various sides is much bigger than in men's international cricket - in T20 England are better than Australia, who are a lot better than NZ, India and WI. And then those three teams are clearly better than SA, SL, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Makes it difficult to promote the game on a global stages if so many televised matches are one sided.

I think Bresnan has largely dropped out of contention other than as an injury reserve - his form has been very poor of late. Could still do a good job in SL but would be very surprised to see him in the first choice XI.

True, 18 wins in a row suggests that England are a massive cut above the rest in a format that is notoriously hard to predict and can be won with one individual performance. Playing the game before the men's game is a good idea, and one which I like and it is cracking to see it televised but they need to bring the boundaries in. Seeing sixes is exciting. Yes, running hard and pushing ones into twos is brilliant but people want to see sixes and big hits in T20 cricket.

And Bresnan has a much better T20 record than ODI record throughout his career, so I wouldn't rule him out yet but it isn't looking great for him.

Bopara should be no where near this game today. Awful batting so far this summer and his bowling failed to dig him out a hole as it did in the ODI series. I feel sorry for him because it seems every time we think he's turned a corner we seem to arrive at the same conclusion at the end of it all.

Wright i'm still not convinced about but maybe he's matured a bit and in fairness, has been going around the world to play T20, should do him good in the long run and probably should get a run out today. Briggs deserves a go with Patel dropping out and also I'd like to see Buttler play as well.

Broad says Buttler in training hits the ball further than anyone. At some stage i would like to see it. An average of 7 in ten internationals does not bode well.

Eng women get the breakthrough. West Indies Women 35/1 (6.0}

skyeman wrote:Broad says Buttler in training hits the ball further than anyone. At some stage i would like to see it. An average of 7 in ten internationals does not bode well.

We've seen it plenty of times for Somerset, and usually in pressure situations. But he needs to score some international runs at some stage.

Shelsey93 wrote:

skyeman wrote:Broad says Buttler in training hits the ball further than anyone. At some stage i would like to see it. An average of 7 in ten internationals does not bode well.

We've seen it plenty of times for Somerset, and usually in pressure situations. But he needs to score some international runs at some stage.

We haven't seen it much this season though have we?

What time does play start?

eirebilly wrote:What time does play start?

30 mins.

Ok, cheers mate

Although it is raining at the moment, it is only light though. Looking like it will get worse though...

So chance of no play?

JDizzle wrote:Although it is raining at the moment, it is only light though. Looking like it will get worse though...

Don't say that. I have been looking forward to this and the USO later.

I cant waith for the USO final. God i want Murray to win this year and think that this is probably his best chance.

Murray gonna flog Djoker.

Not sure about that but i really hope he wins

Got to back Murray! Djoko is 4 is where the money is though!

Covers off, England win the toss and bring Wright in Bops. Rain predicted though, so a good toss to win with DL favouring the chasing side!

I agree entirely with the England side.

SA messing about again, though other than du Plessis for Ontong this will probably be their first choice XI

Have not seen the full sides yet?

I'm in good spirits, Bopara out and Wright in. Come on England, let's batter these soft southerners! (In the spirit of the game of course)

England 1 Craig Kieswetter (wk), 2 Alex Hales, 3 Luke Wright, 4 Eoin Morgan, 5 Jonny Bairstow, 6 Jos Buttler, 7 Samit Patel, 8 Graeme Swann, 9 Stuart Broad (capt), 10 Steven Finn, 11 Jade Dernbach

South Africa 1 Richard Levi, 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Jacques Kallis, 4 AB de Villiers (capt & wk), 5 JP Duminy, 6 Justin Ontong, 7 Albie Morkel, 8 Johan Botha, 9 Robin Peterson, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Morne Morkel

Thank heavens they have left out Bops for this one. Buttler gets another chance though.

Cheers skyeman

Kallis, is a classy speaker

Raining already

Be interesting to see how Amla goes here.

Rain delay already

This might turn into a 5 over slogfest!

Now that would be interesting

Apparently the covers are coming off. Hurry up guys my darling wife says she'll put Emmerdale Farm on unless the cricket has started. One minute and counting!!

"I don't understand why England continue with Jos Buttler in T20... He's a great 50-over player, but if you look at his stats in T20, it's quite bad: only three 50s in 53 innings played with an average of 22... This English T20 team is full of talents (batsmen-wise) like Hales, Kieswetter, Morgan, Bairstow, but they're short of a great player like Cook or Bell - someone who can stay between the wickets for long. Someone to count on... Why didn't these 2 join the T20 squad?"

Could'nt agree more.

Bell in the called off Odi showed us he could do it in T20.

Its just not going to happen is it

Start at 7.15 Yeahhhhhh

Noooo it's not.

Covers off again...

Watching Morgan and Colly back in 09 now. That was brilliant

Match abandoned

Must now wait for Andy Murray

... it hasn't been abandoned yet.

Bloody weather.