England vs South Africa 2012

[adi B]

seeing steyn's face breaks my heart but kp has alwyas been one of my favourite players :)

me.2..:two_thumbs_up:

[suraj]

England will win this one now

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Kallis top of SA injury worries Jacques Kallis, South Africa's premier allrounder, is the team management's main concern for the remainder of the England tour with Graeme Smith and Alviro Petersen also carrying knocks. More... Kallis top of SA injury worries Firdose Moonda at Headingley August 5, 2012 Jacques Kallis, South Africa's premier allrounder, is the team management's main concern for the remainder of the England tour. Kallis is one of three players currently carrying an injury but his lower back spasms are more serious than Graeme Smith's left-knee problem or Alviro Petersen's right hamstring strain. Kallis will not bowl or field again in the match but "if he has to bat, we will make sure we get him through that" Mohammad Moosajee, South Africa team manager, said. Kallis was the only member of the squad not to make it to the ground on Sunday but spent the day on the physiotherapist's table after he hurt himself while in the field on day three. "After 17 years of international cricket and with him being an all-round player, the load that he has to handle, there's no doubt his back will sometimes seize up," Moosajee said. "We will monitor him overnight and then see what further action needs to be taken." Kallis has a history of back spasms and Moosajee said the medical staff are well aware of what needs to be done to ensure he regains fitness. "In the past, there have been times where he has responded in a day to treatment but sometimes it takes four or five days for him to respond." This is the second successive tour during which Kallis has been injured. In March, he missed the third Test against New Zealand in Wellington after suffering a stiff neck the night before the match. His injury this time means replacement player Faf du Plessis will stay with the Test squad as cover and not travel to Ireland to captain the South African A side, as planned. Du Plessis fielded for the whole England innings and will likely feature in the next tour match against Derby. Justin Ontong will lead the A side in Du Plessis' absence. Having their second team shadow the national side in Ireland is proving beneficial. Moosajee said that if the national selectors feel there is a need to call anyone up from Ireland because of the ongoing injuries they will, although he is hopeful that both Petersen and Smith will not need to be replaced. Jacques Rudolph opened the batting in Petersen's place but is unlikely to have to do that at Lord's. "Alviro is seven days away from full fitness and he will bat again if he is required to here," Moosajee said. Smith joined Rudolph at the top of the order and did not show any signs of discomfort, although he will be fully assessed once the match is over. "Graeme is managing with a heavily strapped knee. We assume he has damaged cartilage or meniscus and I don't think it is something major, or he would not have been able to walk," Moosajee said. The recent spate of injuries brings to six the number of players who have been wounded on the current England tour. Mark Boucher suffered a lacerated eyeball in the first tour match at Taunton which forced him to retire prematurely from international cricket. Marchant de Lange was next on the aeroplane home after he failed to recover from back spasms which ruled him out of action for up to eight weeks. His replacement, Albie Morkel, has an ankle niggle and was not considered for this match, although he remains with the squad.

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Draw preserves South Africa's advantage South Africa preserve their 1-0 series lead as the second Test with England finishes in a fascinating draw at Headingley. More... England v South Africa: Draw keeps Proteas ahead in series By Jamie Lillywhite BBC Sport at Headingley Second Test, Headingley (day five): South Africa 419 & 258-9 dec drew with England 425 & 130-4 Match scorecard South Africa preserved their 1-0 series lead as the second Test with England finished in a draw after a captivating final day at Headingley. The tourists resumed on 39-0, only 33 runs ahead, and skipper Graeme Smith extended his partnership with Jacques Rudolph to 120. Kevin Pietersen removed Rudolph with his second delivery of part-time off-spin and took a Test-best 3-52, while Stuart Broad (5-69) struck with successive deliveries in a spell of 4-12 from 20 balls before South Africa declared on 258-9. It left England needing 253 in 39 overs and they sent Pietersen in to open, but closed 123 short of victory at 130-4 when a draw was agreed at 19:30 BST with six overs remaining. Test Match Special analysis Geoffrey Boycott Ex-England batsman & TMS summariser "We gave them a little scare but I thought it was too big a task to score those runs. I don't blame England for trying. We haven't seen the real England - where is that bowling that can bowl teams out? How do you leave Swann out with three left-handers and footholes galore? Bresnan is not getting any runs so you have to judge him as a bowler and I think they will go with Finn at Lord's." Pietersen, named as man of the match following his first-innings 149, hit three fours in the opening over and a burgeoning crowd sensed something momentous, but he spooned a catch to mid-on from the opening ball of the third over. Alastair Cook hit a huge six in his 46, and even when he departed in the 18th over with 163 still needed, England sent out Matt Prior at number five. His run-out for seven spelt the end of their attacking aspirations and South Africa now go into the final Test at Lord's on 20 August needing merely to avoid defeat to win the series and depose England at the top of the Test rankings. Any chance of anything other than a draw had seemed remote with only one wicket down at lunch, after a morning session hampered by two stoppages for rain in front of a crowd containing almost as many stewards as spectators. Rudolph calmly completed his half-century from 92 balls, his 11th Test fifty, but after less than five overs the players were off again as another shower drifted in between the sunshine. The impromptu opener guided Anderson through the slips to record the century partnership from 194 balls, his contribution 65. Tim Bresnan was one of the few bowlers to find an edge that carried but Smith was dropped by Anderson on 44, diving to his right at second slip. However, as in the first innings the breakthrough came from an unlikely source - the occasional spin of Pietersen, who had taken only five Test wickets prior to this match. KP - the king of spin? Prior to this Test, Kevin Pietersen had taken five wickets in 87 Tests at an average of 153.20 Having never previously captured more than one wicket in a Test innings, his 3-52 in the second innings means he now has nine Test wickets at 93.77 In all first-class cricket before this Test, Pietersen had taken 65 wickets in 188 games (average 54.69), with best figures of 4-31 He found some movement away from the left-hander to trap Rudolph lbw, a decision upheld after review, and after lunch produced some more prodigious turn, which had England followers again contemplating the omission of regular spinner Graeme Swann. After being convinced Smith had edged a sharply turning off-break to wicketkeeper Prior, Pietersen dismissed his nemesis for 52 to a catch by debutant James Taylor at short leg. AB de Villiers, promoted above the injured Jacques Kallis, quickly asserted himself with two attractive boundaries and a three in an over from Bresnan and defused any anxiety over Pietersen by reverse-sweeping him for four. The Proteas wicketkeeper should have been dismissed on 23, when Anderson fumbled another routine chance at slip off Pietersen. But Pietersen, whose international future is the subject of increasing speculation, claimed a third wicket when Hashim Amla drove a full toss to mid-off where Cook held an outstanding diving catch. Kallis defied his back problems to loft Pietersen down the ground for six and played a series of majestic strokes, though it was Broad who took the match into a new dimension. He had De Villiers adjudged lbw by umpire Steve Davis, a decision that could not be reviewed because the visitors had no referrals remaining - though, had it been, the batsman would have been reprieved as the ball was heading comfortably down the leg side - and got JP Duminy in a tangle with a yorker that also saw him leg before. Broad dismissed Vernon Philander and Kallis in consecutive overs and after tea Dale Steyn was spectacularly caught and bowled by Anderson. After some brief lusty blows from Morne Morkel ended with a catch on the boundary that gave Broad a sixth Test five-wicket haul, Smith surprised everyone by declaring, leaving England with the choice of whether to push for victory or risk a series defeat. For a time, all four results remained a possibility, but England now travel to the home of cricket in the hope of a victory that will maintain their four-year unbeaten record in home Test series.

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SA will not be negative - Smith South Africa captain Graeme Smith insists his side will not be negative in the final match of the Test series against England. More... Graeme Smith says South Africa will not be negative at Lord's By Jamie Lillywhite BBC Sport at Headingley South Africa captain Graeme Smith insists his side will not be negative in the final Test against England. Smith's team need only to draw the game at Lord's, starting on 20 August, to win the series and replace England at the top of the Test rankings. They had the better of the second Test at Headingley, setting England a target of 253 and reducing them to 130-4. "We showed with our declaration what our mindset is and I don't see it changing it Lord's at all," he said. "If anything, we will take a step forward. There were positives for both sides in this match and probably both teams can improve a little bit. Test Match Special analysis Neil Manthorp BBC Test Match Special commentator "I think this is is the most organised South African team since they returned from isolation. If their aim was to reclaim the initiative that Kevin Pietersen so rudely took from them on Saturday, they will feel pretty satisfied." "From our perspective, we played positive cricket with intent. We played to win here. "On a wicket that was difficult on day one, 420 was important and good from our batting line-up. "Kevin Pietersen's knock got England back in the match and on an even keel but I think the weather took its course. "I was hoping the wicket would do a little bit more after lunch. We wanted to be positive and scored at a good rate but probably lost one or two wickets that cost us having a real go just before tea." Asked about his surprise declaration at 258-9 to set England 253 to win from 39 overs, he said: "We decided at tea to give ourselves five overs - no matter what, we were going to bowl and try to win the Test match. "England started really positively, which I was hoping they would do because it would give us chances and we were probably one wicket away from having a real go with 15 overs to go." On England's decision to open with Pietersen in their second innings, Smith added: "He's a good player but England have a lot of positive players. That was the whole point of the declaration - we wanted them to have a go to give us a chance. "I think the session when Kevin played so well took its toll on our bowlers but we know we can improve for Lord's and that's really exciting." Meanwhile, England captain Andrew Strauss admitted his team missed spinner Graeme Swann, who was left out of the team at Headingley after a run of 43 successive Tests. Out of order? Andrew Strauss has opened in 169 of his 176 Test innings; before this Test, he had last batted at number three in March 2008 when he scored 177 against New Zealand in Napier Kevin Pietersen had never opened in Test cricket before, and had only once batted above number four, when he made 45 and 74 not out against Bangladesh in Mirpur in March 2010 "I was pretty happy with the strategy. We felt our best chance was win the toss, bowl first and make use of the wicket," said Strauss. "We probably misjudged the wicket a little bit, and it didn't do as much as we would have liked. If it had done a bit more and we had taken a couple of early wickets then the strategy would have worked, but in the end South Africa played well and we probably missed Graeme in the second half of the game." The skipper felt that the loss of Matt Prior, which left his team 106-4 with a possible 19.2 overs to go in the final session forced a change of tactic in their pursuit of their target. "Once Matt got out we had to close the door a little bit," he said. "It was a viable chase, but we needed a lot of things to go right for us and unfortunately not enough did. "It was a nice way to finish the game and create a bit of interest but with the weather around it was going to be hard for both sides to force a result. "Our bowlers were probably feeling frustrated they weren't getting their just desserts, and a few catches went down which is always disappointing, but Stuart Broad's spell showed that if the bowlers keep doing the right things we will get our rewards."

[Dhoni_fan]

KP for India batting coach? The guy is an absolute genius with the bat no oubt about that amazing talent, with the recent events I think we should be lookin to get him over as one of our batting coaches, I am confident we can outbid whatever the terms are of his ECB plaing contract and he seems the kind of guy that woul relish the chance to take a new team to the top of the game! Just wanted to put this out there, KP as our batting coach, what say guys?

[BERGKAMP]

[Dhoni_fan]

It is 100% serious he has the passion we need, and truh be told we can easil outbid the ECB

[Crookbond]

:facepalm:

[Sidhoni]

[Cricket Tragic]

The OP is known for trolling. 1/10

[Vijay.Sharma]

It is 100% serious he has the passion we need' date=' and truh be told we can easil outbid the ECB[/quote']Keep salivating. He has the passion to play for sure but I am not sure it is to coach. I mean come on the guy still has a good 4 years to apply his talent rather than give it up to teach others

[Dhoni_fan]

Keep salivating. He has the passion to play for sure but I am not sure it is to coach. I mean come on the guy still has a good 4 years to apply his talent rather than give it up to teach others

Agree he can still play but to be honest he is competetive wants to be the best and I am sure those ambitions would exend to coaching and helping our youngsters given what has happened with England I am sure he would take great delight in seeing helping us get back to number 1 at their expense and being part of that hes about being top dog and he would have that opportunity albeit in a coaching role.

[Spiderguy252]

Hell Yeah! I want to see Sir Jadeja play the switch hit!

[Pagalpanti]

Better yet, let him coach our spinners. Took more wickets than Harby did in Eng tour

[Needforspeed]

While we are at it, make Dada and Shastri as his assisstant coaches.:hysterical: KP as a coach!!! This thread should go to the Jokes section.

[Dhoni_fan]

It is sad that a lot of you are being so short sighted as to over look what an opportunity this could be a man with such a competetive drive could be huge for Indian Cricket Kirsten took that competetive spirit and had a great coaching record with us while not realling having proven himself beforehand, P's bating expertise plus ability o play all forms of the game an in different situations alone make him the ideal man to be our next coach. Also it wil make the ECB even more upset than they currently are, that is not the objective of this investment but it is a nice bonus!

[Clarke]

Thinking outside the box goes too far at times.

[BERGKAMP]

It is sad that a lot of you are being so short sighted as to over look what an opportunity this could be a man with such a competetive drive could be huge for Indian Cricket Kirsten took that competetive spirit and had a great coaching record with us while not realling having proven himself beforehand, P's bating expertise plus ability o play all forms of the game an in different situations alone make him the ideal man to be our next coach. Also it wil make the ECB even more upset than they currently are, that is not the objective of this investment but it is a nice bonus!

as good a batter as he is, KP dont give a shite about anyone except himself. coaching would be the worst ever profession he could get into.

[Ultimate_Game]

You can't "coach" intl players. Period. Coaching should be for youth cricket and cricketing academies (NCA, MRF pace academy etc.) At intl level you need more of a mentor than a coach, especially for batting. A bowling coach is much more useful for us as we don't have that expertise inhouse and it would be good for our bowlers to exchange ideas from outside. But for batting this simply doesn't make sense.