It's a crucial day in the context of the series. After last night's fireworks England, spear-headed by a rejuvenated Andrew Flintoff, are looking to use the new ball to run through the Proteas' tail. Ed Hawkins follows all the action live. Send him your questions and comments at hawkeyeview@hotmail.co.uk.

19.14 England 297-6
England are still in this game. FIghting hard. And it is all down to the concentration skills of Paul Collingwood, who is 101 not out. England lead by 214. Remember, the average fourth-innings all-out total at Edgbaston is 196. The highest successful chase in the fourth-innings is 211. SA have a new ball immeditaely tomorrow. Should be fascinating. See you then.  read more »

Ed Hawkins is at HQ for day one of the first Test. Play is underway and there's been an early wicket!

13.40 New Zealand 3-1
I reckoned that it would be worth backing England at [1.91] before play began and that first wicket has given punters the opportunity to lay off at [1.73]. Probably worth holding fire for a bit, though because batting conditions are tough and another wicket could be just around the corner.

13.32 New Zealand 2-1
Aaron Redmond has gone for a duck as James Anderson get ones to leave the right-hander, who is well held at slip by Cook. And congratulations to Anton from Essex who emailed in the lunch break to tell us that he was on England for highest first innings opening partnership. "By my count only three of NZ's last 20 opening partnerships have been 50 or over, eight of them in single figures." Worth remembering for the rest of the series that stat  read more »

Headingley played host to some pulsating cricket on day one of the second test - runs, plenty of wickets and a little bit of controversy. Ed Hawkins takes to the hot seat on day two as England bid to regain the initiative....

18.38 SA 322-4 STUMPS
The umps have got together and offered the batsmen the light which they accept.

Prince (134*) and de Villiers (70*) walk off to the dressing room in the knowledge that they are unlikely to have to bat again today. The pair have frustrated England all day and put on 179 runs together. The tourists lead by 119 runs and will likely set themselves to bat only one innings in this match

England's bowling attack was punished at Lords and is being thoroughly tested here at Headingley. Wickets, only one fell today, have been hard to come by and Vaughan has had to rely on Flintoff who has now bowled 28 overs.  read more »

Graham Thorpe was the best English batsman of his generation, a man whose technique could withstand even the highest quality of bowling. His calm, unflappable temperament was the perfect foil for his ability to work the ball into the gaps. In an era when England were routinely trounced by the Aussies, Thorpe averaged 45 against them, far superior to contemporaries Atherton and Stewart. He is often described as 'England's best batsman of the 1990s'. But that belies the reality. He averaged a shade under 40 in the '90s but a truly exceptional 53 in the 2000s. While some of the explanation for this lies in the easier conditions for batting, the real reason was Thorpe mastered the art of converting.  read more »

Whilst the media circus is frenzying around the appointment of the new England Cricket Captain and his first Test match in charge, the announcement of the limited overs squad to take on South Africa has passed relatively under the radar. Whatever the rights and wrongs of who is and is not in the Test squad, it is hard to argue that the limited overs squad is far wrong, especially after the inclusion of two of the best domestic one day players in England this year, in Samit Patel and Matt Prior. Andrew Flintoffs return essentially allows England to replace a pace bowler with an allrounder and a brilliant one at that. More importantly though, England seem to have decided that they want an aggressive keeper batsman who can open the innings and indeed bat through it if required.  read more »

Mickey Arthur this week denounced the recall of Steve Harmison as a desperate and short term move by England which took no account of the upcoming 2009 Ashes series. He was right. Michael Atherton tore into the selectors both in general and specifically for recalling Harmison in The Times, stating that they were sending out the wrong message about selection. He was right. Harmison would have been a temporary and short sighted pick. He is bowling well at present and would undoubtedly take wickets, but he doesnt play ODIs, he doesnt travel as every Tom, Dick and Harry knows and he takes a good few matches to get into form, largely because he doesnt put in the training which other players do.  read more »

The cricket boards of Australia, England, and New Zealand have always painted Pakistan and Pakistani cricket in the worst possible light © AFP Let's be clear: the chances of the next edition of the Champions Trophy taking place in...Kamran Abbasi

Right...The new season is upon us and the team for South Africa's tour of India will have to be selected. An eye towards Australia's tour of India later in October will also have to be kept.

There are a few stable spots, a few likely changes in the future depending upon the way the SA tour shapes up, and a few unsettled spots lingering.

Let's begin at the top - the opening slots.

India's Goal For The Upcoming Season - To win the next two test series which will propel them upwards towards their goal to be the best test nation.

Both South Africa and Australia present a consolotaion opportunity to win back the rubber which India might have liked to be retaining instead this year.

India does well with good starts as the Perth and Adelaide tests showed. That was also a contributor in England, and was never starker than versus Pakistan late last year and in the initial stages of the tour Down Under.  read more »

The media knives are already out for England's new captain (even on this site!). Step forth the Betfair Contrarian, who reveals that the omens could be good for our adopted countryman going into next year's Ashes series.

Allan Lamb, the last South African to captain England against Australia, was only given the privilege of leading his adopted country three times and lost them all. If you then consider that the last Ashes series ended in a 5-0 whitewash victory for Australia then Betfair's [3.5] on England winning the series appears to include one decimal point too many.  read more »