Posts Tagged ‘Paul Collingwood’

England hold on for a draw in yet another nailbiter

What an exciting game of cricket that was!

Yet again the final English pair thwarted the South African attack to help their team to a draw. One can feel for the South Africans who are bizzarely 0-1 down after the 3rd test of the series in spite of having outplayed England in two of the three matches. It was a brilliant rearguard action today from Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood after the top half had been blown away for just 160, and more importantly with considerable time still left in the game. The two played out 401 deliveries between themselves, with Bell holding strong before holding out with just 2.5 overs left. Those final 17 balls provided for tense and super-exciting cricket – there were at least 2 very close appeals, one occasion when the Umpire Decision Review System was invoked and on another the ball having scooped off no.11 Onion’s bat, somehow managed to fall in a no man’s zone bang in-between seven South African fielders!

This England vs South Africa test series has produced the most amazing cricket. The New Year’s Test at the SCG which Australia won yesterday by becoming only the sixth team in the world to win a test match after giving away a lead of over 200 runs in the first innings will go down in history as one of the best comeback wins evers. 2010 has got off to a super start for Cricket – how one wishes that the world’s biggest cricketing nation had not been wasting its team in a silly triseries in Bangladesh when there is such exciting test cricket happening in the rest of the world.

England take the lead again | Beat South Africa by 7 wickets

Not for nothing do they call cricket a funny game. The same two teams were playing today, the ground was the same, the same team batted first,  (even the day of the week was the same!)  but look at the difference in the magnitude of the two targets that England were given. Today they were given a target of 251 runs off 50 overs; last Sunday they were chasing only 9 more runs but the number of overs they had at their disposal then were 20! Yet when the England team came into chase, it was expected to be an even contest. In which other sport can you imagine such a scenario?

In betwen the two Sundays, rains visited Centurion. On a sluggish rain-affected pitch the South African batsmen struggled to accelerate and England captain Andrew Strauss made the right bowling changes and kept the home team under a tight leash. Luke Wright and Trott were given seven overs apiece and only 49 runs came off these fourteen overs. Anderson was the most expensive bowler but then he accounted for three wickets.

England got off to a slow start and when Strauss was dismissed in the final ball of the eighth over the score board read just 28.  A wicket was down, and the asking rate was climbing. Kevin Pietersen fell not too long after and the balance had firmly tilted to the other side. But the fall of Pietersen was the last cheerful moment for South Africa in the match. Paul Collingwood joined Trott and the duo went about their job wisely, never getting tempted nor letting the asking rate to get out of control. When Trott was eventually dismissed, the match was already a lost cause for the fielding team. Collingwood duly completed his hundred and Eoin Morgan collected a quick 27 runs to take England home to a comprehensive win with 4 overs and 7 wickets to spare.

The Englishmen had taken an unxpected 1-0 lead in the Twenty20 series. They are up again. In the last 8 head to head encounters between the two teams, England now lead 6-1. Yet South Africa were the pre-match favourites today and will again be when the 3rd ODI begins at Capetown. Not for nothing do they call cricket a funny game.