Happens to all umpires Notts, it annoying but nothing can be done to alter what's happened.
Gives Vaughan a chance to shine early.

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Ern

De Villiers has just tried to claim a catch off Strauss that he clearly grounded. An appalling attempt to cheat the England opener. I assume he'll be reported to the match referee as this was blatant.

a) Because you were talking about the English tail and there's a pot and kettle situation looking at your team.

b) I think we have generally better batting, especially with Broad at 8 and me seeing Boucher as no better (certainly not when Flintoff has batting form, which granted isn't right now) than Flintoff at 7. So the point was I think, McKenzie and a flat Lord's pitch aside, you guys have batting worries greater than ours.

NE - De Villiers should be suspended for that, anyone (English fully included) trying to claim a catch they knew for certain wasn't genuine should face a ban.

The De villiers thing did not look good at all

Morkel bowling really well and as I type gets rid of Strauss now. Bell has the chance to show his new found resiliance again.

you have missed the point completely. I was talking about the impact the changes the ENGLAND team made. I was making some constructive criticism and just giving my views on the change. You seem to think that I was having a go at England.

and the flat pitch did not contribute to Englnds 1st innings? Typical, England scored 600 because their batsmen are great but SA scored big because the pitch was flat.

With your top 3 out, 1 more wicket and it will be Ambrose at the wicket followed by Freddie. This is what I was trying to point out earlier. SA have a good chance here.


I havent seen the incident but if it is what you guys are claiming then I would like to see de Villiers dropped by SA for the next game. There is no place in the game for this sort of behaviour. Life ban, eh, Australia would have no players to pick . I think a life ban is ridiculous but I agree that some stiff punishment should prevent this from happening again.

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434, world record for the shortest period. Whos choking now?

Very much so. Steyn and Morkel have bowled well, the latter looks very handy.

I don't think batting will be easy today or tomorrow, the forecast isn't wonderful for either day. You could well see higher scores in the third and fourth innings.

I agree. Personally, I have not seen Pattinson bowl but after doing some checks on him, I found that he has only played 12 1st class games . IMO, whether he performs or not, this decision is ridiculous. There is no way that he should be playing ahead of Tremlett, Harmison, Hoggard, etc.

Also, I dont buy into the explanations given for his selection. People keep claiming that its because the test is at Headingly. Well, Morkel has by far been the stand out bowler for SA today, so, I would imagine that Harmison and Tremlett would have the ability to do well too. DaveGillespie has also shown that he is not the leading bowler in the county championship this season.

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434, world record for the shortest period. Whos choking now?

Well we are in trouble again,good toss to win and it is all on Bell and KP to dig us out of the mire again.

One good thing is Ntini looks dreadful still.Morkel again looks the pick and Steyn has improved a lot since Lords.

They still need to bowl England out for less than 250 to make it a good decision to bowl though.

And as it panned out it was disastrous, not for losing Cook, but for opening a hole in the batting where they then nipped out Vaughan and Strauss. Goes to show what one mistake can do in the wider context.

We still can't really complain, mistakes get made and England had the option of trialing the referalls system, but declined.

But yes it's annoying.

Steyn certainly seems to have picked up Vaughan as his bunny. At first view it was a ball I didn't even think he had to play, but on replay it showed the ball pitching inline with off stump and that's presumably why Vaughan decided he had to play it, but the problem was, the ball swung just enough to catch Vaughans edge as he played the original line. ie it didn't go straight on but swung instead.

Steyn is doing to Vaughan exactly what Sidebottom does to left handers, angling that ball in just enough to get it to pitch on off stump and then straighten to take off stump or swing it away enough for the edge depending on how much it swings.

De Villiers tried to claim a shocking catch against Strauss earlier on, on replay it clearly showed it grounded before being taken and de Villiers didn't hesistate in appealing. Tut, tut.

Ntini has proved to be pretty ineffective again, he's not troubling anyone really.

Pietersen and Bell are counter-attacking now, well Pietersen is!

For me the de Villiers incident was as disgusting as the Afridi dance on the pitch and any player trying to do what he did deserves a ban in my eyes.

Big innings this for Ambrose.