Cricket

Last test match starting from today between England and SA.

Kevin Pietersen lost the toss in his first act as Test skipper, with South Africa opting to bat first in the final Test with England at The Oval. Pietersen will hope his bowlers can exploit the overcast conditions. England announced two changes on Wednesday, Stuart Broad and Steve Harmison replacing ex-skipper Michael Vaughan and seamer Ryan Sidebottom. South Africa were unchanged from their five-wicket win at Edgbaston, which gave them an unassailable 2-0 lead.

Full teams:

England: Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen (capt), Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Tim Ambrose (wk), Stuart Broad, Steve Harmison, James Anderson, Monty Panesar.

South Africa: Neil McKenzie, Graeme Smith (capt), Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, Ashwell Prince, AB de Villiers, Mark Boucher, Morne Morkel, Paul Harris, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini.

We have taken a wicket now. Cook caught McKenzie off Flintoff. If Cook had held a catch off the first ball of the match it would have been a good start to Pietersens captaincy!! Currently SA are 64/1 and they have gone for an early lunch as it has started raining!!

This test is going to be a draw.
Its raining now what a pity

What's wrong with Cook today? Has dropped his second catch today! He's normally a very good fielder!

Current score is SA on 87-1.

I like Broad, think he extends our battin line up but his bowlin especially to Amla has been very poor today. Harmison is bowlin the way he was in the West Indies in 2004 and the Ashes in 2005. He's back to his best.

KP has done alright as skipper, very enthusiastic. Cook's let him down with those two dropped catches.

Excellent bowling by Harmison to take two wickets in two consecutive balls. Then Anderson removed Kallis, lbw.
England got three wickets in eight balls. Excellent stuff!!

So current score now is 113-4.

We've bowled as good as we have for a long time. I think it goes to show how vital a 5 man bowlin attack is...somethin we haven't had in a while. Great captaincy move by KP in my opinion.

Excellent bowling so far!! KP doing a great job captaining as well. Surprised Panesar hasn't bowled at all today, but I'm sure KP has something up his sleeve for him.

Looking good!!!

Monty with a wicket just before tea. They end 158-7. KP couldn't of wished for a better start.

Broad takes the 7th and 8th wickets. This guy is going to be such a great player!!

Score is 173-9.

SA all out for 194. Terrible score by them!!

Now let's hope England can capitalise!

Current score 

Eng 99 for 2

SA on 91-2!! Looks like they'll win this one as well, unless we take some serious wickets now.

Rain's stopped play..again!! Looks like it isn't going to start again!

wash out, 4th day tomorrow.

Better get prepared for the ODI's where we're unlikely to win a game never mind the series.

South Africa latest  218 / 7.

Looking like we might beat them in Pieterson's first test as captain.

South Africa latest  218 / 7.

Looking like we might beat them in Pieterson's first test as captain.

Looks that way, but I think SA were not too bothered about this match considering they had already won the series.

Just under 200 tomorrow, should do it, but you know what the England side is like. Disappointed in the way we didn't wrap Morkel, Harris (in particular) Nel and Ntini up. We let them get a stronger lead than they really should of. Ah well, KP may start with a win as test captain.

For those that are interested, England won by 6 wickets!! A certain Mr Flintoff finished it in style with a six!

The pro 20-20 starts on Wednesday.
any predictions?

I'm going with South Africa to win by 3 wickets or 13 runs which ever way it pans out.

England to win. Ian Bell to get 50

Dump the 20 - 20 ,

Take cricket back to what it's supposed to be ......

Test Matches .........

Dump the 20 - 20 ,

Take cricket back to what it's supposed to be ......

Test Matches .........

sod off, twenty/20 is class. It's the best style of one day cricket. I really enjoy twenty/20 it gets the crowd involved.

Don't get me wrong though, nothin beats test cricket, but twenty/20 is the next best thing.