Friday, July 25, 2003
England’s cricketers on the ropes again
After a huge bowling improvement in the one-day series when we smashed the South Africans, bowling them out for the lowest score ever in a one-day final, yesterday all our bowlers were useless on an easy-paced pitch in the sun.
South Africa yesterday got 398 for 1, two short of 400 in a day!
The opening pair of Hershelle Gibbs and Graeme Smith put on about 308 for the first wicket before Gibbs was out for 179. At the close Graeme Smith was 178 not out and Gary Kirsten was 26 not out and just finding his feet. The fact that there were only 15 extras shows that they weren’t letting many balls past!
Nasser Hussein tried all his bowlers except Anthony McGrath who is a bit injured:-
Darren Gough, back from a serious knee injury; his first long match as he only played in a one-day match recently; he was reasonably accurate but lacking penetration
James Anderson, very inconsistent, warned once for running on the pitch and his rhythm was terrible
Steve Harmison, fast but not able to be dangerous on the flat pitch
Andy Flintoff, the best of the bunch but unlucky; lbw not given which ‘Hawkeye’ showed as hitting middle stump half-way up
Ashley Giles, no penetration either
Mark Butcher, only two overs but got a catch dropped off his last ball. Probably should have been bowled more
Michael Vaughan, better than average and tricked Herschelle Gibbs into pulling the ball high into the safe hands of Mark Butcher at deep mid-wicket; should have been brought on much earlier
It rained hard earlier today and there was no play so England must play for a draw. I can’t see our batsmen being good enough or having the self-discipline to score 150 each. I’d like to see us get a first innings lead though, even if the South Africans get more than 600 which seems very likely – and they could exceed this comfortably.
