ODI Series - Eng./Zimb./Sth. Africa

[Donny]

Smith doubtful for Old Trafford game
Wisden Cricinfo staff - July 2, 2003

Graeme Smith is doubtful for the NatWest Triangular Series clash against England at Old Trafford on Thursday after injuring his shoulder during South Africa's 46-run victory against Zimbabwe at Canterbury.

Smith fell twice while attempting to catch Travis Friend in the outfield and though scans and X-rays revealed no serious damage, he faces a race against time to be fit for the day-night game.

"It's not the best preparation for the next match, but Shane (Jabbar) [the physio] and I have been working extremely hard and will continue this evening," he said. "I had a couple of injections today which seem to have helped as well as I'm not feeling nearly as much pain."

A final decision regarding Smith's participation will be taken on Thursday morning. South Africa are currently bottom of the table, though they have played one game less than the other two teams. A continuous light drizzle prevented them from practising on Tuesday.

[HAL]

What happened to it?

[Donny]

In last night's game, England were held to 7/223 by some good bowling from Pollock (1/21 from 10) and Ntini (3/38 from . Trescothic hit 60 and McGrath, 52.

Sth. Africa cruised to victory after early wickets. Kallis continued his great form with 82 n.o. and Rudolph scored 71 n.o. as the won by 7 wickets with 15 balls to spare.

[HAL]

I do not understand that allusion.

[Donny]

SA won the toss and sent Zimbabwe in to bat. They restricted them to 8/174 with only Streak (54) passing 26.

Pollock was best with 0/23 from his 10 overs.

[HAL]

What else do they do?

[Donny]

SA cruised to the win, losing only Smith for 58. Gibbs came good with 93 n.o. from 97 balls as they won in a canter.

Preview of tonight's match from Cricinfo:

England v Zimbabwe, Bristol, Sunday, July 6, 0945GMT

In some ways, the match between England and Zimbabwe in Bristol has become a semi-final for the NatWest Series. With their win over Zimbabwe in Cardiff, South Africa have made substantial claims for one of the final places, while the outcome of the match in Bristol might well have serious implications for the losers.

Just as England were expected to beat Zimbabwe in their two previous meetings in the tournament, they should hope to prevail this time. However, despite those earlier expectations of victory, they find themselves still searching for a win against the side which seems to make a habit of saving its best performances for occasions when England are the opposition. In those other meetings, Zimbabwe won reasonably comfortably at Trent Bridge in the opening match while the weather washed away any prospect of a result at Headingley.

So now this has become something of a must-win match for England. They could lose and then beat South Africa under the Edgbaston lights on Tuesday and rely on South Africa beating Zimbabwe again in the final qualifying match and still reach the final. On the other hand, a win in Bristol would make life very much easier.

Whether they achieve that or not depends largely on whether they can get a significant contribution from their middle order. Robert Key has been released to play for Kent in the National League, indicating that the selectors do not think he is the answer to England's problems. Quite whether it's the personnel or the batting order that is resulting in too many collapses remains to be seen but, for their own peace of mind, the management will be hoping to find a solution at the earliest possible opportunity.

There should be no lack of atmosphere in Bristol with all bar the last few seats sold to guarantee a capacity 13,500 crowd. The boundaries have been brought in to accommodate the extra seating to satisfy demand to witness Bristol's sixth one-day international.

Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak is unhappy about having to travel from Cardiff to Bristol for back-to-back matches and has the support of ICC general manager - corporate affairs, Brendan McClements. He said: ""The ICC's guideline on back-to-back games is that they should be avoided." However, he went on to say: "In relation to the games this weekend, clearly the England & Wales Cricket Board and the Zimbabwe Cricket Union have agreed that scheduling such matches in this case was unavoidable."

In view of what has gone before in this series, perhaps the Zimbabwe captain could regard the scheduling as something of a handicap - just to level things up a bit.

England (probable) 1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Vikram Solanki, 3 Michael Vaughan (capt), 4 Andrew Flintoff, 5 Jim Troughton, 6 Anthony McGrath, 7 Chris Read (wkt), 8 Ashley Giles, 9 Richard Johnson, 10 Darren Gough, 11 James Anderson.

Zimbabwe (probable) 1 Dion Ebrahim, 2 Doug Marillier, 3 Travis Friend, 4 Grant Flower, 5 Tatenda Taibu (wkt), 6 Stuart Matsikenyeri, 7 Heath Streak (capt), 8 Sean Ervine, 9 Andy Blignaut, 10 Raymond Price, 11 Doug Hondo.

[Donny]

England won the toss and sent Zimbabwe in to bat. After 9 overs, they are on 3/33. Gough has 2/15.

[Donny]

The Zimmers are going down in flames. 7/51 after 17. Gough has 4/22 from 8 overs and Jihnson, 2/10 from 4.

[JLC]

Zimbabwe showed a little bit of fight with the ball but Flintoff polished them off. Zimbabwe are in a rebuilding phase and England should and did spank them.

England will need to lift for the final on Saturday against South Africa. I think they can win as Vaughan is due for a big score with the bat.

jlc

[Donny]

Zimbabwe made 92. Flintoff polished off the tail with 3/13.


Heath Streak did his best to cause an upset and had England at 4/25 but Flintoff (47 n.o.) and Vaughan (11 n.o.) saw their team home and into the final.

Streak took 4/21 from 9 overs to take the bowling honours from Darren Gough (4/26 from 9)

[Donny]

SA are 4/87 after 18 overs. Smith made 45 and Gough is bowling well and Johnson has two wickets.

[couragous cloke]

GO THE POMS!! cant wait for the final! im stayin up! jimmy anderson, U ROCK!

[Donny]

England 199 for 6 (Vaughan 83, Flintoff 54) beat South Africa 198 for 9 (Anderson 4 for 3 by 4 wickets


England scored several psychological points ahead of Saturday's NatWest Series final with a convincing victory over South Africa under the lights at Edgbaston with 11 overs to spare. England bowled well and fielded brilliantly, and apart from an early-innings wobble, batted with conviction too. The Man of the Match Andrew Flintoff hammered 54 in just 40 balls, while Michael Vaughan returned to form with a vengeance, cracking 83 - surprisingly, his highest score in ODIs - with 15 dreamy fours.

There was also a fine comeback from James Anderson. His first over of the match disappeared for 19, including four clunking fours from Graeme Smith, but Anderson hit back later with three wickets in nine balls and finished with 4 for 38. And England's catching was superb, with an acrobatic one-handed grab from Flintoff the highlight.

The batting was a different story at first. After Marcus Trescothick collected two fours in Shaun Pollock's first over - one fine back-foot crunch, one rather more involuntary edge - Vikram Solanki skyed Makhaya Ntini vertically on the leg side. The score was still 11 when Trescothick edged Pollock to Andrew Hall at first slip. Then, just after Anthony McGrath creamed a glorious four through the covers off Ntini, he was beaten by Jacques Kallis's first ball, which straightened a touch (30 for 3).

But Flintoff came in, and smashed his first ball for four. Vaughan followed suit, as Kallis (6-0-43-1) proved expensive after his dream start. Vaughan timed the ball well from the start, with a sumptuous cover-drive off Paul Adams arguably his best shot of the night. Flintoff was in typically pugnacious form, smashing Kallis for a big six over midwicket, and clattering Andre Nel to the long-off boundary to spark an exchange of views. Flintoff reached his half-century from only 36 balls in the 25th over, but then swatted Ntini to long leg the ball after bringing up the hundred partnership (130 for 4).

Rikki Clarke, with only 27 ODI runs under his belt before the match, clouted Nel for 14 in an over, including a pulled six which narrowly eluded Ntini on the midwicket boundary. It set him on his way: Clarke's violent sweep off Adams brought up the 50 partnership with Vaughan in only 52 balls, by which time the match was as good as over. With five needed Vaughan padded up to Hall and departed lbw, then Clarke swung at Adams and missed with one required. The winning run turned out to be a wide from Hall, and England won with a whacking 66 balls to spare.

South Africa lost Nicky Boje when he went over on his ankle while fielding a quick single in the covers. He was whisked off to hospital for X-rays amid fears that he might have suffered severe ligament damage, or even a break. The unlucky Boje had only just come on as substitute for Martin van Jaarsveld, who had a groin injury.

Earlier South Africa rocketed out of the traps after winning the toss, passing 55 by the end of the 10th over, wobbled worryingly in mid-innings, then recovered to reach 198.

The England fielding was top-class. Herschelle Gibbs drove Darren Gough firm-footedly to the leaping Clarke in the covers (28 for 1), then Smith, after sprinting to 45 from only 38 balls, latched on to a short one in Flintoff's first over. He pulled it powerfully and expected his 10th four, only to see McGrath at square leg stick out a hand and pull off a juggling act that ended with the ball stuck between his thighs (65 for 2).

Only two runs later the dangerous Kallis followed. He thick-edged a drive at Richard Johnson, Flintoff dived to his right at third slip … and the ball stuck in his right hand as he completed a semi-cartwheel (67 for 3). It halved Kallis's average for this NatWest Series to a mere 164.50.

After Hall departed lbw for 3 (74 for 4), Trescothick got in on the catching act. Mark Boucher had lasted long enough to crack a square boundary to bring up his 2000 runs in ODIs, but shortly after that he edged Anderson, and Trescothick plunged to his right to grasp a good low chance (99 for 5).

Anderson struck again in his next over, when Jacques Rudolph played a half-cock drive and was caught by McGrath - more conventionally this time - in the covers for 13 (104 for 6). And Anderson got full revenge for that costly first over with the wicket of Shaun Pollock third ball, courtesy of yet another sharp catch by Flintoff at second slip.

At 104 for 7 in the 25th over another early night for England beckoned, but van Jaarsveld and Adams dug in, for a sensible stand that eventually realised 71. England lost the initiative - and Johnson too, with what appeared to be a recurrence of his troublesome groin injury. McGrath, pressed into service as an emergency bowler, eventually broke the nurdling-nudging stand, when van Jaarsveld played across a straight one after grafting to his highest ODI score of 45 in 69 balls (175 for .

Nel didn't last long - another catch for Flintoff at slip (177 for 9) - but Adams and Ntini saw out the 50 overs. Adams flayed Gough to long-on for four, and Ntini joined in by clipping a textbook shot to the midwicket boundary.

The total was more than seemed likely at halfway, and when England wobbled a packed house at Edgbaston briefly feared the worst. But Vaughan oozed class, Flintoff wielded his mighty club, Clarke showed what all the fuss was about … and England took that oh-so-important psychological advantage into the final at Lord's.

[Donny]

Is Ntini one of the hottest bowlers around at the moment ?

Zimbabwe won the toss and batted. Ntini crashed through the top order to have the Bangers on their knees at 3/18.

After 23 overs, they are 6/79. Ntini has 4/31 from 8 overs and Nel, 2/14 from 6.