South Africa v England, 7th ODI, Centurion, Sunday 13th Feb.

[Occasional Fan]

Originally Posted by John

Only blue eyed boys get that sort of chance.

I think, John, it might be "blue eyed boys and captains". Michael Vaughan is not the world's greatest ODI batsman, and I don't think anyone will argue with that. But he has another job, and I do believe he is the only man England has who can shoulder the burden of captaincy in an Ashes year. I know that there are arguments for having two different teams - one for ODIs and one for tests - but at the moment England has only one international set up, and to me that says that there is only room for one skipper. If we lose a few ODIs under Vaughan's captaincy, well, who cares really? (No disrespect to South Africa or to anyone else who knocks spots off England in one day competitions - and I include the World Cup in that: alongside tests in general and The Ashes in particular, ODIs really aren't that important.)

[tigerlillythe7th]

I agree...unless the ODI is against Australia and we thrash them, in which case that ODI is extremely important

[Occasional Fan]

Well, of course, TL7!

[Occasional Fan]

Or is he going to run out of partners?

[Kirsty Harris]

Great innings by Gilo!! When will everyone else realise that he is a cricketing genius!!!

He and Pieterson have at leat enabled England to get a total of sorts on the board!

[tigerlillythe7th]

Would love to see Pietersen get another century but the tail are going to have to bat really well to make sure that we don't get rolled over before the 50 overs are up. Good effort by Giles - he can be a useful lower order batsmen - seem to remember him doing a similar recovery effort with Vaughan at Lords against the Indians...

[Occasional Fan]

Excellent! Another hundred to Pietersen!

[tigerlillythe7th]

And Pietersen has got his century - 30 runs off the last 10 balls - I am so glad he's playing for us & not them!!

[jot1]

Very lacklustre, mediocre, dissappointing batting by the England opening batsman. Seems they came out not intending to make a match of it at all. Of course the excuse is too many matches so fatigue is the culprit. Pietersen has something to prove to S A, so he must play hard. Interesting statistic, Pietersen has scored more in this series than Vaughan, Strauss and Trecothick together. Maybe we should just let Pietersen and Gibbs bat against each other, forget all the other batters, and winner takes the series.

[Kirsty Harris]

And he actually got a cheer from the crowd! Blimey, it's a miracle!!