"What's the odds that next spring he'll insist his contract allows him to fuck off to the IPL rather than donning whites and turning out for England?"

There would be no point, the IPL is no longer the only game in town.

**

Brian, I only know one; I remember Younis Khan being runout by a hapless teammate on 199.

Wasn't it Jason Gallion who was run out twice on 199? Not in a test context though.

Jesus fuck that Graeme Smith is a whiny humourless miserable cunt, isn't he?

What's this EPL thing they've been talking about on 5live, and what are the 9 cities? London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham... who else? What chance Glasgow or Edinburgh?

Steve Waugh partied till it was 199, against the West Indies.

Younis and Waugh both spot on.

5 more to get, one of whom was not out.

It can't have been the best moment to talk to Smith. What did you expect?

Harris wasn't allowed to settle at all, and Smith might decide Clive Lloyd was right about spinners. Kallis looked a reluctant bowler, perhaps not helped by receiving his usual brief to make sure he didn't bowl anything within 6 inches of off-stump.

Considering Graeme Smith has been talking big about the S.A. side, especially the bowling before the match. It's nice to see the old addage "Pride comes before a fall" being played out in such dramatic style.

Smith is an arrogant tosser.

Plaudits to Etienne for post 3 on this thread. I am glad the pessimism from posts 1 or 2 has not been born out (yet).

Andy Flower 199 not out v South Africa

Scored a century in both innings too.

harbinger of hope wrote:

QUOTE:
Considering Graeme Smith has been talking big about the S.A. side, especially the bowling before the match. It's nice to see the old addage "Pride comes before a fall" being played out in such dramatic style.

Smith is an arrogant tosser.

Plaudits to Etienne for post 3 on this thread. I am glad the pessimism from posts 1 or 2 has not been born out (yet).

As one of the original pessimists, I have to hand it to England. I won money on Nadal at Wimbledon and put it straight on South Africa to win the series.....once again proving the old gambling law that you're just not allowed two wins in a row.

Still, early days I suppose.

I'd be grateful if South Africa dragged it out just a bit, so as I can go on Monday

A third bad day overall for the South Africans. Good patient knock for the ton by Prince, especially as he turned down all those singles in the nervous nineties.

Basically they have to bat for five sessions to save this. England to win early on Monday, so E10 might be best advised listening on TMS instead. Or even coming up tomorrow if possible, apparently there are returns at the ticket office.

The pundits have been reminiscing about a previous game here where England strolled towards 600, enforced the follow on 350 ahead and would have, er, lost had the game gone into a sixth day. My favorite test of the last decade, probably.

I don't see that Sri Lanka match as being a loss for England on a sixth day? You've had two innings of over 500 and they were on their 9th wicket... So a lead of not even 200 by the end... Not a gimmee, but not unheard of territory.

Having seen the replay of the final ball of the day I think Pietersen was a bit unlucky not to get Smith. There was a case for thinking that the ball had come back off his leg and hit the back of his glove before being caught.

England bowled really well yesterday with both Anderson and Broad finding plenty of lift and bounce. The progress of these two particularly is a testament to the idea of keeping a settled team.

I thought that too, but England against Murali on a 6th day pitch, after 3 days in the field. I'd back SL too.

That SL game shows that we have a bit more strength in depth in the pace bowling attack now. Plunkett and Mahmood...

So we've now got Flintoff, Hoggard and Harmison next in line with Tremlett as 12th man at present, but I can't actually see Tremlett getting into a test side ahead of those 3.

Harmison in particular seems to be doing very well at the moment, which, IF he can get his form, confidence and head right is a major major boost. But he's such a brittle player confidence wise that who knows...

As mentinoed above, Anderson in particular needs games to find and keep rythym and form, he's been dicked about with so much during his career, that I hope they leave him there for a long time now and I believe we'll see rewards.

That said... Who do you drop for Flintoff if he is coming back? I suppose he can't score many less runs that Collingwood at present, but I'd want to replace a batsman with someone who is in form with that bat really. How about putting Collingwood as wicketkeeper and bringing Flintoff in...

Er, I of course also meant to mention the much in form Simon Jones who is knocking loudly on the door.