Eng. v. SA. - 4th. Test

Donny · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 11:58 am

At stumps, England are 3/197.

Trescothick (59) and butcher (77) added 142 for the second wicket before Kallis (2/2 Cool

snared them both.

Donny · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 12:10 pm

At stumps, England are 3/197.

Trescothick (59) and butcher (77) added 142 for the second wicket before Kallis (2/2 Cool

snared them both.

Donny · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 9:43 pm

Smith out first ball today. Kallis has 3.

Now England are on 4/225.

Donny · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 10:24 pm

England 5/243 with Hussain on 36.

HAL · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 10:28 pm

What's your favorite part of England?

Donny · Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2003 1:25 am

England all out 307. Hussain made 42 and Flintoff, 55.

Kallis took 3/38 and Ntini, 3/62.

After 12 overs, SA are 2/38 with Smith gone for 14 and Kallis 18 n.o.

SA are 73 ahead.

Donny · Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2003 1:25 pm

S.A. are 5/164 and 199 ahead of England.

Kirsten completed an excellent double with 60 and Kallis made 41. Their partnership of 97 could well be the factor which determines the result in this Test.

Kirtley took 2/28.

HAL · Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2003 1:29 pm

I heard they have a good partnership of 97 could well be the factor which determines the result in this Test.

Donny · Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2003 9:37 pm

McKenzie (37) and Boucher (32) have taken the score to 5/216 and their partnership to 56.

S.A. now lead by 251.

Donny · Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2003 11:23 pm

Flintoff dismissed both McKenzie (3 Cool

and Boucher (39) but they had scored freely and then Hall raced to 46. Zondeki (7) was supporting well before Bicknell bowled him 2 overs before lunch.

S.A. go to lunch on 8/293 having scored 129 runs in the session. Has the wicket suddenly become batsman friendly ?

From what I saw the answer is no. Balls are still spitting off the pitch, keeping low or deviating so the S.A. batsmen were very good or the English attack is poor. Bit of both but mostly the latter.

For a start, Vaughan has to somehow rotate 5 medium pacers, 4 of them with less than 10 Tests between them. They just didn't have the nous to finish the job in the first innings when S.A, were twice deeply in it - 4/21 and 7/142 - and again this morning.

Donny · Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2003 1:13 am

S.A. ended up on 365 which gave them a 400 lead.

Hall was magnificent ! He was left on 99 n.o. but what an innings. This would have been a pearler in a one dayer but to get 99 from 87 balls in a Test AND on a dicey wicket was superb batting.

Kirtley took 3/71 with Flintoff, Bicknell and Ali each getting 2.

Needing 401 to win, England lost Trescothick (4) early to a great catch by Gibbs. Ntini was the appreciative bowler. They are now 1/22 after 7 overs.

Donny · Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2003 11:36 am

At stumps, England are 5/165 with Butcher on 57 and Flintoff, 45. They were tumbling downhill, at 5/95, but Butcher and Flintoff showed some fight with an unfinished 70 run partnership.

Kallis took the two big wickets - Vaughan (21) and Hussain (6) - and Ntini dismissed Trescothick (4) and Stewart (7). Hall completed a great day with Smith's (7) wicket.

Butcher continues to show his class as the others fell around him. He hasn't looked back after his surprise selection against the Aussies during their last tour when he was having trouble getting a game for his county.

England are a long way from their target and it'll take a ton, at least, from Butcher and a big knock from Flintoff for them to be any kind of show during the last day.

HAL · Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2003 11:39 am

What's your favorite part of England?

Donny · Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2003 10:05 pm

England's resistance didn't last long at all with Butcher (61) going in the first over and Flintoff (50) following shortly after. Both were caught by Hall from the bowling of Kallis.

Kallis was awesome. He took out Butcher in his first over, Flintoff in his second, Bicknell in his third and Ali in his 6th. to finish with 6/54.

Hall took the last wicket, fittingly caught by Kirsten - as was Ali. These 3 players had Tests to remember.

Kirsten scored a standout century in the first innings, 60 in the second and took two catches, Kallis hit 6 & 41 and took 9/92 and Hall, after a duck in the first innings, scored a wonderful 99 n.o., took 4/141 and 3 catches.

Kirsten was named Man of the Match.

Donny · Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2003 11:14 pm

Outbatted, outbowled ... and out-thought
August 25, 2003

It didn't take long - less than an hour of a gentle workout for South Africa to polish off England's resistance on the fifth morning at Headingley. They did what England signally failed to do yesterday, admittedly in less helpful conditions: Mark Butcher was despatched in the first over, Andrew Flintoff didn't last much longer, and the tail was docked with all the precision of the local Yorkshire vets that James Herriot made famous. In contrast England's clumsy attempts to remove South Africa's tail would have had the Canine Defence League on the phone in no time.

There was time today for Jacques Kallis to show England's five-man pace attack how to bowl on this Headingley pitch. Kallis is a somewhat reluctant bowler these days, but he bowled at the stumps, on a good length (with the occasional short one to keep the batsmen honest) and finished with match figures of 9 for 92. Compare that with Martin Bicknell (4 for 125), James Kirtley (5 for 145), Kabir Ali (5 for 136) and James Anderson (2 for 119). Only Flintoff put the ball consistently in the right place, and ill-luck contributed to ordinary match figures of 4 for 118. Horses for course? This lot were selling-platers.

The turning points of the match mainly hinged on England mistakes. Flintoff's marginal overstep that led to a wicket off a no-ball - Gary Kirsten added 102 more runs after that in the first innings. If Kirsten had gone then it would have been 70 for 5 at lunch on the first day, and without the wise counsel of the player one newspaper called "the dome-headed veteran", it's hard to believe that Monde Zondeki would have hung around long enough to make his 59. Upshot: South Africa, who should have been bowled out for about 142, made 200 more than that.

Next was England's dubious decision to go off on the second evening, at a time when they were creaming the ball around. The walkoff gave the South African think-tank a chance to sit their bowlers down and address their faults. It stopped the batsmen in full flow. And, with blue sky looming over "Will's Mother's", as they say up north, it was just about guaranteed that England would be back out there soon. They were, Marcus Trescothick departed immediately, Butcher soon followed, and South Africa never looked back.

Then there was the black comedy of the fourth morning. Quick wickets for England would have set up an intriguing finale - a target of between 220 and 250 could led to a classic. Instead one feared that Billy Bowden would suffer RSI after signalling a succession of fours with that arm-waving arrangement straight out of the Last Night of the Proms. Yesterday South Africa helped themselves to 201 runs at five an over on a helpful pitch ... and the eventual winning margin was 191.

Overall England were outbatted and outbowled at Headingley - and more damagingly they were out-thought. It doesn't bode well for The Oval. England need a strike bowler, a spinner, and a middle-order batsman likely to manage more than a flashy fifty (and if Nasser Hussain is unfit, now his poppadum fingers have tuned into twiglet toes, make that two). It's time for the selectors to swallow their misplaced pride and recall Graham Thorpe. Ashley Giles will presumably return, although Jason Brown might worry South Africa's left-handers more. But the strike bowler? It could be a long meeting ...