England will need to up their game to tame in-form South Africa
After twice taking on and comfortably beating what is a transitional New Zealand side, England will undoubtedly go into tomorrow’s first Test against South Africa confident of continuing their encouraging run.
But one thing’s for certain, they’re going to have to step up their game because these South Africans will provide a much sterner test.
Under Graeme Smith, they have played consistently well these last couple of years and provide a potent threat with both bat and ball.
The retirement of Shaun Pollock hasn’t seem to have affected them at all with Dale Steyn, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini and Morne Morkel currently making up one of the best fast bowling attacks in world cricket.
But this Test has also come at a good time for England’s batsmen, who seem to have recovered from a temporary loss of form. Ian Bell smashed a much-needed 200 for Warwickshire a fortnight ago, while Paul Collingwood has also been among the runs for Durham.
That coupled with the expected return to fitness of captain Michael Vaughan, completes a pretty formidable England batting attack.
Controversy
But like any visiting side who arrive at Lord’s, you can expect the South Africans to raise their game and give their hosts a rough ride.
Unfortunately, the weather forecast is patchy and rain could come into play, but if it holds off sufficiently to allow at least four days play, I expect England to sneak a 1-0 lead going into Headingley next week.
In the shorter form, controversy has hit the Twenty20 Cup with Durham’s quarter-final with Yorkshire postponed on Monday due to Yorkshire fielding an ineligible player.
This is an administrative shambles and talk of the deciding group stage match with Nottinghamshire being replayed is utter rubbish. This is Yorkshire’s mistake and they should forfeit the match, simple as that.
I find it extraordinary that this has been allowed to go on so long without being spotted, but with so much money involved in Twenty20 now, you can be assured teams will be more careful from now on.