South Africa vs England ODI Series

First topic message reminder :

Surprised there is no thread for this yet. Fixtures are:

1st ODI: South Africa v England Bloemfontein on Feb 3, 2016

(13:30 local | 11:30 GMT)

2nd ODI: South Africa v England at Port Elizabeth on Feb 6, 2016

(10:00 local | 08:00 GMT)

3rd ODI: South Africa v England at Centurion on Feb 9, 2016

(13:30 local | 11:30 GMT)

4th ODI: South Africa v England at Johannesburg on Feb 12, 2016

(13:30 local | 11:30 GMT)

5th ODI: South Africa v England at Cape Town on Feb 14, 2016

(10:00 local | 08:00 GMT)

How has the umpire given that not out? Hitting middle halfway up!

Olly wrote:How has the umpire given that not out? Hitting middle halfway up!

This clown Cloate needs to be sent back to club cricket

Jason Roy: now living on borrowed time, desperately needs a big score soon to justify any further selection for now, but...

...other Surrey players likely to come into England One Day reckoning before long include the Curran bros and Zafer Ansari, once he has 10 working fingers again. All three are promising young players already with bat and ball. Another good season this summer and they might nudge their way in. England appear a promising work in progress, but generally weaker with the ball than the bat.

Rather a disappointing end to the SA tour...

I didn't stay up for the SA innings ; but I wasn't surprised they cruised home - if a little shocked by how easily they did it. Clearly England bowled poorly ; and that bowling remains a concern for me. But that will have to wait.

At 16 overs I really expected 200 : always a danger that wickets change things ; but that collapse was truly spectacular ! To be fair , it was a combination of some ill judged shots , some excellent SA bowling and fielding ( we sometimes neglect to give opponents due credit) - and some sheer bad luck.
The key moment was probably Morgan's freakish dismissal : coming immediately after Buttler got out (and I don't think anyone will be too critical of him , though it was a somewhat careless shot, albeit a great catch ) , it meant two new men in together with just twenty-odd balls left : what do you do in that situation ? No time to play yourself in ; so it is really a choice between pushing singles or trying to hit out ; they all did the latter , and , this time , they all got out trying. Happens. Frankly I doubt a more cautious approach , and , say 185 , would have made much difference - though arguably the bowlers may have been less rattled when they started defending it...

guildford suggested a three week rest might be important for Roy ...perhaps it will benefit the whole team.

Losing several matches in sequence isn't ideal for confidence going to the WC . But conditions will be very different , and this shortest form of the game is very up and down anyway. I wouldn't give up on them ; though I fancy the XI might be in for a tweak or two for the first game...

Was a disappointing end to the tour - but overall it was a great success I would say - test series victory, should've won the ODI series (how we didn't win the 4th ODI will forever baffle me), and a poor t20 series loss

In fact the two winter tours have been promising - one win and one lost series in each format I believe across the two tours?