South Africa have their backs against the wall after Michael Vaughan enforced the follow-on. The sun is shining at Lord's and England's bowlers have their tails up. Ed Hawkins is watching it all and reporting on all the action from the price on the draw to the best cakes to go with his afternoon cup of tea.... 18.31 SA 242-2 CLOSE Turgid stuff here at HQ today. And it is a depressing thought that there is likely to be similar fare on offer tomorrow. England's body language is reminiscent of stalemates past against Sri Lanka and Pakistan when they looked tired and shorn of ideas. It is difficult to suggest what they can do to take the remaining nine South Africa wickets given that the new ball did not bring the clatter of victims that they had hoped.  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 »

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 »

Sri Lanka registered a comprehensive eight wicket victory to take a 1-0 lead in the series. Mahele Jayawardena along with Kapugedera finished the Sri Lankan innings after it got a shaky start. The much threatening partnership of Sangakkara and Jayawardena was broken by Patel as he dismissed the Sri Lankan keeper. Sangakkara chipped the ball back to the bowler and was easily taken by Patel to give India it’s second wicket. The partnership of Kumar Sangakkara and skipper Mahela Jayawardena added to India’s worries as both the batsmen continued to pile the runs and move closer to the target. Munaf Patel got India a much needed early breakthrough as he removed Sanath Jayasuriya. Sanath, who charged down the track, got a top edge as was taken by Irfan Pathan.  read more »

For those of you who are regular readers you will be all too familiar with my musings over the years about the England One Day International side. Finally we seem to be making some progress. Firstly, Alistair Cook is no longer opening the innings, fabulous. He is undoubtedly a fantastically talented Test match cricketer, albeit slightly out of form at present, but he is just not a modern day limited overs batsman. Ian Bell has at last been elevated to the role of opener, one he has enjoyed success in before. His innings against the Australians at the last World Cup demonstrated that he could score quickly, through a vast array of strokes. Notably he has the ability to use his feet and hit over the top, something Cook patently struggles with.  read more »

The Racing Post's Ed Hawkins assesses India's chances without their swashbuckling batsman...

They were burning effigies in Kolkata last week. Nothing unusual there. Irate India cricket fans like nothing more to get the matches out at the merest whiff of injustice. Two weeks ago the flames were fanned by the unfairness of their team's demise in the Sydney Test. This time Sourav Ganguly was the spark.

And there is certainly nothing strange about that. No man has ignited the passion of Kolkata residents like Ganguly. He is human paraffin.

The spark was Ganguly being left out of the India one-day squad to play Australia and Sri Lanka in the CB Series, which begins on Friday. So his supporters took to the streets, torching an effigy of selector Kiran More. There were no places for Rahul Dravid or VVS Laxman either but it was their prince that the locals wanted to demonstrate about.  read more »

When the 2008 edition of the Asia Cup was scheduled it ranked amongst the most meaningless tournaments in an increasingly meaningless schedule of 50-over cricket. By a series of increasingly mind-bending twists of fortune, the Asia Cup has assumed an unprecedented importance for Pakistan cricketKamran Abbasi