SA Tour in England

First test starting today. Going to be a tough one for our Proteas playing against the top ranked test side at a venue where we havent won. Boucher unfortunate retirement pretty sad but it open up a spot for JP Duminy and strengthen our batting. Our players will be rusty after their winter sleep and important to start with a bang.

Probable teams are Proteas 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Alviro Petersen, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 AB de Villiers (wk), 6 Jacques Rudolph, 7 JP Duminy, 8 Vernon Philander, 9 Dale Steyn, 10 Morne Morkel, 11 Imran Tahir.

England: 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Ian Bell, 6 Ravi Bopara, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Tim Bresnan, 9 Graeme Swann, 10 Stuart Broad, 11 James Anderson

England got a good total of 385 in the first innings. The first days session all went Englands way after a great ton by Cook. Morkel and Steyn the pick of the bowlers. Our innings about to start and expecting some rusted batsman. Need some hard grafting batters. Dunno if our lot are cabable after their rest and mik and moer cricket they play these days.

In this series you could play a game of spot the Englishmen.

SA seem in total control here.. if they can bat till tea tomorrow then throw the last session on day 4 and the whole of day 5 at the poms batsmen they will have a chance to win this test! Would be great to see # get his double century as well.

What a way to start to this series. Kallizzzz, Smith and Amla pretty dominating with the bat and the bowlers joining in. Now to finish the Poms off on day 5. Damn the Poms have a bunch of Saffer chicken runners in their team, still one standing between us and history.

The Saffers in a very strong position here and especially after knocking off four top order wickets in the last session. They should go on to win today.

Well I hope so, in cricket it aint finished till the last wicket falls or run being scored. We struggled in the past to finsh them properly.

Done and dusted. Now the hard work starts. Thought if we would lost a test, this one should be it. Strong performnaces from our batting and bowling attack. Poms took two wickets all match and we took 20. The biggest positive for our lot is that the England groundsmen will not know which pitch to prepare for the next test.

Second test starting today at Headingley. The way I understand it is that this pitch should be more seam bowling friendly. The toss very important if this is the case and expecting our attack to try and bounce them out while they are down. Expecting Philander to produce this time. Also Rudolphs England county, so he have an important role here. Bopara withdraw for personal reasons and Taylor to step in. England will try and hit back after their disappointment in the first test.

Let's see if we can take this home, not like the last couple of times we have been one nill up in a series with the no.1 test nation and blown it

England won the toss and will bowl first. Leaving Swann out and we'll have a green mamba for sure.
1 Andrew Strauss, 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Ian Bell, 6 James Taylor, 7 Matt Prior, 8 Tim Bresnan, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 James Anderson, Steven Finn.

1 Graeme Smith, 2 Alvrio Petersen, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 AB de Villiers, 6 Jacques Rudolph, 7 JP Duminy, 8 Vernon Philander, 9 Dale Steyn, 10 Morne Morkel, 11 Imran Tahir.

SA 84/0 at lunch. Excellent and important first session for us after a drop catch and a dead ball first slip catch. Cant remember if I ever saw a dead ball catch in test cricket. Cant get luckier then that but the right desition.

England have bowled 127.5 overs and conceded 461 runs since they last took a wicket (Smith at the Oval, 260-2). Must be some kind of record?

Kevin Pietersen takes 3 wickets. Who saw that coming?

Still cant believe the Pkms not chasing that total down yesterday. They had nothing to lose and just closed doors. Lords coming up for the final roll of the dice.

The Lords make or break test just about to start. FigJam dominating the press for the wrong reason and hope it wont bite the CricketBokke in the arse. England in a must win situation to retain the nr1 spot.

Paarl, please tell me your boys aren't going to choke here. They're 4/65 at lunch!

Look like a choke in epidermiese proportions. Cant believe the TMO sticked Kallis. Clearly his hand was off the bat when the ball hit his tumb. Anyway you never win a cricket test in one session. Hope we see them fight back from here.

Me too mate. I'd love nothing more than for your boys to knock the Poms off in their own back yard.

CricketSpringbokke needs 6 more wickets and England 298 runs on the final day.