good to see KP's 'compromise' being rejected.

Steven Croft in the t20 side, nice to see him getting some recognition.

England won toss and will bat.

Bit of an odd game so far. Strauss out for nothing after a delay to the start, but seemed a bit easy out there since that to the point at which Cook slams Steyn into the crowd - via a bit of an edge, admittedly.

Good day for England. Hopefully build on that tomorrow and knock up a good score.

Looking at tickets for the T20 match at Old Trafford. How can the ECB charge the same price for a T20 v SA as they did for a ODI against Australia?? Shocking.

So who do we try next at number 6?

I'll have a go - couldn't do any worse!!!

Fair enough. Report to the players entrance at Headingley on Thursday August 2 about 10am

Taylor would seem to be next cab off the rank.



Mind you, Nick Compton best fills the selection criteria.

QI klaxon. -10 points for Gilder

Because they're a bunch of money-grabbing c***s.



As for Bopara... I think I could stand there for 6 balls until one was straight or caught the edge of my bat. Bloody useless.

Got him! Classic set-up by the Burnley Bolt. Outswinger, outswinger, inswinger, out.

Well yes, that was my conclusion as well. Still, I'll probably go which is why they can charge that as they know people will go. Same with football.

WTF is going on at Lancashire???

Right, what have we learnt so far??



1. SA's bowling attack is better than ours.



2. SA's batting line up is better than ours.



3. A combination of 1 & 2.



Personally, I'm edging towards option 3, though I don't think there is much between the batting, except for our problem number 6 spot.....Our bowling though is looking a bit thin on options and toothless.....I've said it before, but an extra bowler and Prior upto 6 might have to be considered, especially if we lose this match.

This has 'draw' all over it surely?

England will have to bat last on a wearing pitch chasing a decent sized deficit. Thankfully they don't have a class spinner.



SA have had the best of the batting conditions, but England's lack of penetration when the ball doesn't swing is worrying.

Quote Andy Gilder="Andy Gilder"England will have to bat last on a wearing pitch chasing a decent sized deficit. Thankfully they don't have a class spinner.'" I know that, but even England can't collapse enough to lose can they? We thought Mitchell Johnson's bowling was bad www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocEnKXCJgnw

Quote Andy Gilder="Andy Gilder"England will have to bat last on a wearing pitch chasing a decent sized deficit. Thankfully they don't have a class spinner.'" I know that, but even England can't collapse enough to lose can they? We thought Mitchell Johnson's bowling was bad www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocEnKXCJgnw

Yes, I'd say the draw is a pretty warm favourite, but there is only one side that can win it from here.



What is worrying is that this South Africa side are proving again that they are far superior to us, as they have done in the last 2 series in which we have met (Yes, we wangled a draw in our last tour there, but overall we were comfortably the inferior side).

We'll be very lucky to get a draw here. The SA spinners arn't sub-continent standard but they're certainly good enough to give this England batting line up some problems on a 4/5 day old Oval pitch.

England being sadly exposed here.....Their attack is head and shoulders above ours and as for the batsmen.....

England stumbling to a defeat here unless one of the middle order can get a big score.



Eng 57/3

Ok..............maybe we can

Everything's alright. Ravi-Bop will bat all day to save the game.







Ahem