Cricket

I have some sympathy for Harmison, but I figure his head has been destroyed to the point where he will never be a big game player ever again.

Hoggard expanded his range in the last couple of years, though. He bowled very accurately with a bit of cut on unforgiving surfaces and reaped rewards. He's at his best when it swings, sure, but there's no denying his great skill. True, he looked bad against NZ in that one Test but I'm certain that was a blip rather than a permanent loss of bite.

The thing with Harmison is that much as he's stayed fit and taken a few wickets (no five-fer tho) this season, he quite simply doesn't deserve to return after the manifest weak-headedness and run-candy-to-top-level-batsman waywardness we've witnessed over the last three years.

Ambrose at 6 worries me in this match.

Ambrose in at all, an Aussie-born Sussex and Warwickshire player, is of great agony to me. He isn't even that great a batsman. We'll need the runs from our top five and number eight.

Particularly with Flintoff still finding his way when it comes to batting.

But at least Broad will be in at eight.

The world's most irritating sports official fucks up again...

There is that...

Vaughan gone too.

Not sure he should be in the side for the next Ashes.

He certainly needs to get some runs in his next few innings. Changing captain this late wouldn't be very helpful though.

KP for skipper!!

Hmmm....

Has Louis abandoned ILC?

And KP does not need the go boost of skipperdom.

England need the go boost of having such a positive individual as KP their captain.

GO BOOST!!!

Okay what happened there? My desktop scorecard says that he was out, but then apparently not.

Dear oh dear - I'm not a man for ranting, but that is an utter disgrace. Strauss edges Morkel to AB de Villiers at second slip, the fielder dives forward and rolls over celebrating the catch. The entire South African cordon leap around claiming the wicket, but Strauss stands his ground - and rightly so, because De Villiers not only dropped the ball but then pushed it along the turf before turning his palm upwards and pretending he'd taken it cleanly.

Cheating twunts.

AB De Villiers dropped a low catch, it popped back into his hands, and he claimed it. Fucking cheat. Fortunately the umpires sent it upstairs.

XPOST

And now he is out!

So what are we using the "I love Cricket" board for now?

I'm still banned from ILC :D

Whoops, KP wallops himself out.

BRING BACK PRIOR

OR FOSTER

ARGH

"Cheating twunts."

indeed, England had several catches like that and on every occasion if the fielder wasn't sure he didn't appeal.

Weirdly I'm looking forward to the SA innings, 2 pace bowlers who they didn't think they'd be facing including a complete unknown + Jimmy Anderson and Broad.

It will either be amazing or backfire terribly, either way England have to get them out for under 300.

uuurgh backfiring terribly seems to be the order of the evening.

Oh dear. Maybe they thought Pattinson would be like Neil Mallender.

yes, SA only have to score nothing and stay in and don't they know it.

Smith looks in ominously good form. BTW, are there any South African ILXors?

Mitch Lastnamewithheld was from SA, but I'm not sure if he posts anymore.

I guess they'd be round these parts gloating if there were any.

Kallis gone, 2 quick wickets tomorrow and it's game on.

Bet the sun comes out and, it turns into a batting track tho.

I desperately want to wring the umpires' necks. Especially that miserable fundie Christian cunt Bowden. SA should be 5 down.

Also I doubt we'd have collapsed but for that toilet decision Cook copped.

Having watched the highlights, Flintoff will bowl them out tomorrow.

Amla out. Apparently it wasn't lbw. Can't wait to see Pattison on the highlights tonight.

Harmison = match winner, but he needs to be in exile for a while...I can see him playing next summer.

Would be good to see him firing against the Aussies, perhaps roughing up Hayden a bit.

I was def thinking of him roughing up Ponting.

Harmison should def not be taken on a winter tour. Home tests only, and maybe only the next Ashes.

Tom Courtenay, talking in the lunchbreak, has revealed that Omar Sharif is apparently a big Hull City fan.

Can we just give up and go home now?

Harmison is back. Broad will be dropped supposedly if Sidey is fit.
I would rather have Jones back. It's just been too easy for Harmison to get back in the side without much effort and a change of attitude.

41 first class wickets at 21, appaarently bowling around the 90mph mark. He couldn't have done much more in my book.

I fucking hate Steve Harmison. He's a complete moron and he'll always get cheap wickets in county cricket, put him against the South Africans and watch him wilt. Stuart Broad will be twenty times the cricketer he is.

Doesn't Jones need more time?

Unfortunately, 'will' isn't good enough Eng need the 'now', and Harmison is as good a bet. England are in flux, the nucleus of a v good team is present, but some we're in short supply of form.

What was the idea behind Pattison's selection? Moving on from Fletcher is fine n' all, but you can't go all workmanlike and do it for the sake of it.

Harmison simply doesn't deserve to play for England. That is all. I don't care if he's bowling at 90 mph. He has forfeited all rights he has to play for the England team as far as I'm concerned.

As for who should play instead, well, I'm a Worcestershire fan so I'd better shut up for fear of bias accusations. All I'll say is that we have two English bowlers on our books who have done magnificently this season, with better figures than even Harmison.

LJ is a bit harsh, I like harmy, but i dont think he has the right attitude, plus he will just get homesick and bowl like shite in the winter tour as always. He shouldnt be brought back until next summer IF he continues good form. Has he taken 5 wkts in an innings this season?

The one major bias I do have is a bias against stupid cricketers, which is why Panesar isn't a favourite of mine. He, however, at least has (something like) the right attitude.

Monty rules so shut it

Monty is one of the most brainless cricketers I've ever seen. His interviews betray a mind utterly empty of anything except "bowl it in the right areas". I've met him and when away from the cameras he punctuates with "fuck" and "fucking". His boon is that he is a bowling-machine, a single-minded sportsman with one talent, that for plonking it in the right place with spin. But he is not by any means the sort of vibrant spinner that I so thrill to watch. Sri Lanka just trounced India thanks to two men, one old one new, who purvey the beautiful art in an intelligent and profoundly innovative manner.