England v. Sth Africa - Test Series

[Donny]

Vaughan just passed 50 and England is 1/118.

Trescothick went to a good yorker from Ntini for 31.

[Donny]

England are nearly safe, needing another 21 runs to avoid the follow-on.

Vaughan went on to 156, Flintoff made 40 and Stewart (3 and McGrath (34) chipped in.

Pretorius took 4/107 and ntini, 2/95.

If SA can force the folow-on, they're a chance. Otherwise, this Test will fizzle out to a draw.

[Donny]

Ashley Giles saved England with a gutsy 41. They totalled 408 and avoided the follow-on..

Ntini took 4/114 and Pollock, 2/51.

Batting practice coming up.

[JLC]

Pity no one else could go on and get a hundred and support Vaughan. I think England will do better second time round, surely they cant do any worse. If England manage to salvage a draw they have done extremely well.

jlc

[HAL]

[Donny]

Sth. Africa lost two early wickets - one each to Anderson and Harmison - to be 2/35 after 9 overs.

Smith is 21 n.o. from 23 balls faced.

[Donny]

Well, good for you, Graeme Smith !!

He hit 85 from 70 balls then declared at 4/134. This gives them a lead of 320 with 65 overs left in the Test.

This was an excellent, sporting declaration. SA need a wicket every 6.5 overs and England need 5 r.p.o. Will it be enough of a carrot ?

Looks like a late night coming up.

After the boring draws between SL and NZ recently, this is refreshing.

[JLC]

He could have declared a lot earlier but Sth Africa like England are always ultra conservative. South Africa dominated but only walk away with a draw. Australia would have declared earlier and backed their bowlers im sure. You have to remember England dont score at a quick rate like the Australians so anything over 3 runs an over would have been enough.

I am puzzled as to why Hussain has resigned after the first test match of a series. He should have stepped down before or after the series not during. Hopefully this won't effect Vaughans batting as he has been brilliant.

jlc

[Donny]

In the end, rain determined the result in this Test.

Sth. Africa's declaration was anything but ultra conservative.

I expected Smith and co. to bat the day out but he came out and, to his great credit, blazed 85 from 70 balls, virtually tossing away the chance of a rare double - a big double ton (277) and at least another 100, possibly another double.

Gough was disappointing in his return to Test cricket. Down on pace and lacked penetration but as England have retained the same team for the second Test at Lords, he has another chance. He might still have been short of a gallop.

[Donny]

I just arrived home from 3 days in Brisbane. I hadn't heard any cricket scores and just checked. Was I surprised !!

Not so much that England had been rolled but that Goughy had top scored !!!! England was floundering on 9/118 before Gough (34) and Anderson (21 n.o.) added 55 for the 10th. wicket

Ntini continues his good form and took 5/75. Pollock took 2/28 and Hall's 3/18 from 10 overs was extremely telling, especially in the absence of Kallis.

Smith and Gibbs got the Proteas off to a great start again with 133 in 35 overs before Gibbs was bowled for 49 by Harmison.

Smith has moved on to 111 today and has shared a 63 run partnership with Kirsten (16 n.o.)

[HAL]

Was it? What's your favorite part of England?

[Donny]

England are staring down the barrell of an innings defeat in this Test.

The Smith/Kirsten partnership has steadily progressed to 122 with Smith on 127 and his partner, 54. It was Kirsten's 30th. Test 50. He was just dropped by Butcher from Flintoff at 2nd. slip.

[Donny]

200 partnership comes up. Smith 178 n.o. Kirsten 84 n.o.

1/336 and Smith has more than England scored.

[Donny]

At stumps, SA are in a commanding position and Graeme Smith has a real chance of reaching Brian Lara's world record Test score.

He is 214 n.o. and with his team leading by 239 runs and three days remaining, he could score the 162 runs needed for the record.

As we witnessed with Mark Taylor's 234 n.o., it's not always possible to go for personal records. The team's position must come first.

He and Kirsten were professionalism personified, yesterday, as they relentlessly ground out a 257 run partnership to snuff out any chance of an England comeback. Kirsten scored 108.

As we saw with Smith's 85 from 70 balls, in the first Test, he is quite capable of scoring quickly so it's conceivable he could score the 162 in 2 sessions and declare at tea (or an hour before stumps) with a lead of around 550 and 13 or 14 hours left to take 10 English wickets.

Smith's amazing feat - consecutive double centuries - has only been achieved by the great Don Bradman (3 times !!), Wally hammond (twice) and Vinod Kambli.

[Donny]

Never satisfied
Stat of the Moment
by Andrew Miller - August 1, 2003

Graeme Smith has made his point. Now he is intent on labouring it. Before this series, the question on everyone's lips was "is he up to it?" Now, however, England are being shown just how up for it he really is.

Smith, in case anyone has failed to realise, is a mere 22 years old. But already he is the proud owner of South Africa's individual batting record, a glut of partnership records with Herschelle Gibbs and Gary Kirsten, as well as the small matter of the South African captaincy. But, like Steve Waugh, the man whom Smith is increasingly resembling, the world is not enough.

At the close of the second day at Lord's, Smith had taken his series tally to 576 runs, and there is the prospect of several more tomorrow. But already, that tally is the most runs ever scored after three innings of a five-Test series.

And he has also gone to the top of the all-time list. He has passed Graham Gooch, whose 333-and-all-that came in a three-Test series against India in 1990, and Wally Hammond, who averaged a world-record 563 in his two-Test thumping of New Zealand in 1932-33. Even that stat might have been under attack from Smith, had he not been pushing for a declaration in his second innings of the series. Instead, he halved his average by getting out for just 85 at Edgbaston last week.

Smith has seven complete innings still available to him in this series, and at this rate, the big one is an absurdly realistic possibility. At the same stage of his all-conquering season in 1930, Sir Don Bradman had managed a mere 393 of his record 974 runs. Given all that he has achieved so far, who's to say Smith won't have reached 1000 runs in the series before the end of The Oval Test?



Player Runs Opposition Season

GC Smith 576 SA 2003
GA Gooch 572 Ind 1990
WR Hammond 563 NZ 1932-33
Zaheer Abbas 507 Ind 1978-79
DCS Compton 436 SA 1947
R Dravid 432 Zim 2000-01
DG Bradman 421 Eng 1946-47
A Melville 410 Eng 1947
A Flower 408 SA 2001-02
GS Chappell 405 NZ 1973-74
Zaheer Abbas 401 Ind 1982-83