South Africa vs England – Rain Hampers England’s Cricketers

England’s first date with South Africa is looming. December 16th sees the two nations go head to head in the First Test at Centurion Park. With a couple of warm up matches ironically for England, being completely washed out, when they did take to the field against a South African Invitational side, it was only a fragmented appearance, in which the visitors did little to flatter themselves. England were hoping to get more out of their warm up matches, especially for the likes of Kevin Pietersen and some of the bowlers to play their way back to full fitness. With the top order of Andrew Strauss, Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen all falling relatively cheaply, it was down to Alastair Cook to regain some control along with England’s best performer on tour so far, Paul Collingwood. They took England to 142-3 on a somewhat sluggish pitch.

Extra warm up matches were deliberately pencilled into the tour this year, in order to help England prepare properly in South Africa. Unfortunately that has all been undone by clement South African weather, which has kept England indoors in the nets and the gym. It has not been the ideal preparation, as England wanted to build upon the back of an unexpected 2-1 One Day International Series victory over the Proteas, with the other two games being rained off too. It was expected that England would struggle in the one day matches, but put up a much stronger performance in Test Matches. Who knows what awaits now, but England have one more attempt at a warm up match on Friday against the same Invitational XI. Pietersen, who remains England’s one big dynamic batting hope, only hit 25 in the last match, as was lucky to be around for that. The warm up games were as much for him as for fringe players to really step up their form.

Fortunately, the one day series has shown something like a bit of mettle from the England camp, along with form. Paul Collingwood is proving to be in some inspired form, while Andrew Strauss will always get run at the top of the order. Unorthodox wicket-keeping batsman Matt Prior is playing his way back into form, and Alistair Cook looks to be finding his early England career rhythm. But it is players like Jonathan Trott and Eoin Morgan with the bat, who continue to strengthen the England attack. The bowling attack however, is still looking just a little bit fragile. James Anderson and Ryan Sidebottom are still having niggles, which puts their Test performances in jeopardy. Because of this, England have called up Durham’s Mark Davies as cover.

South Africa vs. England Test Series
South Africa to win: 4/6 at Blue Square
England to win: 10/3 at ExtraBet
Drawn Series: 15/4 at Boylesports

One interesting bet which has popped up for the Series, is an England Draw No Bet – 5/2 at William Hill.