Fourth one-day international, Cape Town:6th Febuary. >

[John]

I think I just saw Smith looking relaxed. I thought after the last year I would have to wait a long for that.

[jot1]

My MOTM, Gibbs

[John]

SA are on the verge. I hope people don't go from saying there was a huge crisis in SA cricket to now saying we are worldbeaters and ready for the Aussies.
Lets take a good win in our stride. And say we just weren't as bad as some people thought after losing the Tests. We were playing a good side. The ODI have showed us we got some good players. There is no crisis just as we have got a way to go before challenging the best.

[Occasional Fan]

Awful performance by England, Pietersen excepted (he is English, isn't he?). Well done to South Africa. Rotten sporting weekend for OF, I'm afraid, with England losing two ODIs and a rugby international, Scotland also losing a rugby international and Ireland not looking all that strong against Italy at half time either. I'm running out of ideas for entertainment now!

The fifth game is a day/night game at East London on Wednesday.

[Ernest]

Yes OF, very poor, congrats to the 12 South Africans on the park. the other 10, were poor.

[Moss]

All the South Africans played well, especially Kevin.

Is it too early to say "I told you so" about Jones?

<it's never too early>

Saw England's innings on Sky - no-one looked particularly comfortable. At least there are two days off before the next one. Joy.

Strauss looks like a fish out of water at number 4.

[jot1]

Originally Posted by John

SA are on the verge. I hope people don't go from saying there was a huge crisis in SA cricket to now saying we are worldbeaters and ready for the Aussies.
Lets take a good win in our stride. And say we just weren't as bad as some people thought after losing the Tests. We were playing a good side. The ODI have showed us we got some good players. There is no crisis just as we have got a way to go before challenging the best.

John, why no joy? you sound very pessimistic. This was a convincing win. I'm not saying we are worldbeaters yet, but 2 cinvincing wins and a draw that should have been a win, against nearly the 2nd best side in the world is something to cheer about.

[Moss]

We're actually only the 5th best team in the world at ODI's.

[Trescothick]

The loss was none other than Vaughans fault... He put no confidence into England by going out for a duck.. It was a stupid decision for him to come out third, he has to either come out later OR not at all.. His duck made another wicket fall, Tresco was going ok til Vaughan messed things up. Stop blaming Trescos footwork and look at whos fault it really is.

Vaughan is a quality test batter, bt ODI: NO!

[Zainub]

Michael Vaughan's averged well in his last 10 games or so, fair enough, some of those games were against Zimbabwe, but before that he scored a couple of very good 50s towards the end of the English summer against India and Australia. This was as a matter of fact his first failure as such in this SA-Eng One-Day series, slowly but surely, he's starting to get the hang of one-day cricket.

England lost today because SA bowled well, batted well and fielded well, and England didn't. That's it. I can't possibly put it down to individuals, for either side even, I know Gibbs got a century, but Kallis 71 and Justin Kemp quick fire 50 was equally important, and the bowling for them, the wickets were all shared around, good team effort from them on a whole. Complete opposite for England - everyone was expensive, especially at the death when even Goughie (presumed death bowling expert) was taken for a big runs.

Had they bowled any better in the last 10, or at least 5 overs, and restricted SA to say around 260-270, it could have been a much closer game. With 290+ as the target, England just got under a bit of pressure from the start to score quickley, and because of that they probably got a litttle over adventerous, and as a result the batting just didn't kick of at all, yeah, perhaps for the exception of Piterson... my God, does he uses that bottom hand of his a lot or what ... his swishes (sorry if that is not a word) across the stumps into the leg side reminded me so much of VVS Laxman - not that I mean to compare, just that KP reminded me of him, and how wristy he can be at times.