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South Africa vs. England
Fifth One-Day International at Durban
Friday, December 4

Maybe something is really starting to click for England in the specialised One Day International format of their cricket game. England, after suffering a stern beating in the third of five ODI’s against South Africa, rallied to inflict the same fate upon their hosts in the fourth game. After deciding to bat first, South Africa crumbled apart under the pressure and excellent bowling by key England bowler, James Anderson. While Stuart Broad and Paul Collingwood chipped in with a couple of wickets, it was Lancashire’s Jimmy Anderson with his five wicket haul who destroyed the South African batting line-up. The hosts could only manage a lowly score of 119 all out. Anderson finished his day with fantastic figures of 5-23 off his allotted 10 overs.

In reply, England cruised to their required total, in just 31 overs, steered home by Jonathan Trott’s half century as opener. Captain Andrew Strauss chipped in with 32, and Eoin Morgan contributed with 28 from 40 deliveries. England are still waiting for Kevin Pietersen to hit the form that everyone in the world knows that he is capable of doing. He has only scored 51 runs off the bat in his three matches since returning to action after a long lay off. Thankfully he has come back into the side ahead of the Test Matches, giving him time to get back into his groove. The Test Match arena is an area where his expertise as one of the leading batsmen in the world will come into play.

England’s win means that they now have at least secured the position of not losing the series. The first ODI of the series was washed out by rain, and now England have won two of the subsequent three matches, putting them 2-1 up with just one to play. Despite England’s poor standings  in the world of One Day Internationals, they seem to like playing against South Africa of all teams, having enjoyed a lot of recent success against the Proteas, which is doubly odd as South Africa are seen as one of, if not the best team in the World at the moment.

South Africa look set to rest Dale Steyn, their potentially potent fast bowler, as a precaution for a hamstring injury he picked up. With the Test Matches being a bigger priority than ODI games, South Africa will rightly let him take it easy. The Test Match series of South Africa vs. England starts on December 16th. Meanwhile, the Proteas have named Jacques Kallis in their Test Squad, although the all-rounder has been missing from their ODI team with an injury. Kallis is such an important figure in the South Africa line-up, that they are ready to take a risk on him.

In a turn of fortunes, England look to be getting a little bit stronger as a unit, and now have a huge chance to build some more momentum ahead of the Test series, and get the South Africans looking at themselves and putting themselves and players like JP Duminy under more scrutiny. England will stick with the same team against for the fifth ODI on Friday.

South Africa vs. England – 5th ODI
South Africa to win: 8/13 at SkyBet
England to win: 6/4 at Boylesports

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