Why England lost to South Africa

England lost the series against South Africa 2-0 on their own turf and in this blog I explore why that is the case and where England lost it.

Some people are just willing to accept that South Africa are simply better but that is just a lazy excuse for poor form of key players, incorrect decision making and utter idiocy by the selectors. England came into the first test having won the series against the West Indies 2-0 in the test arena. People were feeling confident since it seemed the horrific problems of the winter had been sorted. However that is definitely not the case as  England we not ruthless enough when in good positions. The problem was that they would get 300 runs for the loss of a few wickets but then collapse to 400 all out like at Lords which was entirely down to the lack of a good number six that would link the middle-order with the tail. Bairstow was poor and that is why Eoin Morgan should be in the team there even though he has a poor record. The difference between the two is that Morgan is a player that has experience and is in his prime after changing his batting technique drastically. On the other hand Bairstow is a player of the future not the present and I have no doubts that he will be a fantastic player just not yet. Moreover the bowling attack failed to convert six down into an all out quickly for example at Lords and in the Second Test. This was even more apparent when there was a 150 run stand for the last wicket. This does not sound like number one material.

South Africa exploited these problems and taught us how to be ruthless. The First Test at the Oval highlighted this as England were 271-3 and then ended up 385 all out and then only managed to get 2 wickets in South Africa's innings after a fantastic opening spell from Anderson. Then a classic sign of a weak team is after knowing that they cannot possibly win they basically forfeit collapsing to 67-4. Eventually all out for 240 which was even more disappointing considering we got to 203-5. The first test was a horrific start and the only positives were the 100 of Cook and the fluent 60 and 49 of Prior.

The Second Test at Headingly would have been a miserable failure if it wasn't for one man whose name is Kevin Pieterson who changed the course of  the match after England were 170-4 and scored a magnificent 149 and took 4 wickets in the Test!! This gave the English a chance to win which they promptly went and threw away by swinging at everything and also committing suicide with a calamitous run-out. However this was a definite improvement which looked to bode well for the final Test which England had to win to remain at the summit of the World Test Rankings. 

But then the ECB once again show their true form of a bunch of stubborn, old men by dropping the star man in the Headingly Test match, Kevin Pieterson for misconduct. England then go into the decisive match where all hopes of retaining the Number one mace lie. England lose by 51 runs but I think this match was definitely win-able as Kevin Pieterson would have got more runs than Taylor in the match and scored at a faster rate giving England more time to chase down the score rather than go out swinging like chickens as they promptly did. The bowling was not ruthless enough in the test as SA were 54-4 and recovered to 309 all out. In the second innings England got back into the game with Steven Finn striking three times in quick succession but again SA got another hundred runs making the task for victory more unlikely. Moreover England began the run chase 5-2 then 43-4 that is a sign of a weak team with no backbone and determination to win.

However I believe the lower middle-order fought hard in both innings to give us a sniff of victory with Bairstow (95 and 54) and Prior (70 odd) and Swann's 41 of 30 balls. The top order was really to blame as they failed to deliver in five of the six innings. SA were more ruthless, consistent and frankly determined than England. The contrast between the captains is illustrates this perfectly Strauss did not get a 50 Smith got 150 in his first innings.

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The ECB are idiotic to drop Pieterson!!

There has been a lot of talk recently about the Kevin Pieterson saga but the only real way to look at this is by going all the way to the start. To do this we have to go back to the ODI series between England and the West Indies. Pieterson asked the selectors if he could have a rest for some of the games in the series which was completely reasonable after he basically played non stop cricket since January where England played Pakistan, then he went to play against Sri Lanka and then to the IPL. This request was made even more reasonable by the fact that the previous week two players had been rested for the final test match against the West Indies. The board refused and then got into a battle of principles with him saying that he was not bigger than the team. This led to Pieterson retiring from all forms of one day cricket. However talks continued between the ECB and Pieterson.

Recently Pieterson has hinted at returning but only if his conditions are met but at the Headingly Test match against South Africa he also hinted at quitting test cricket all together. He also sent texts supposedly criticising the board and Andy Flower to the SA players which was later revealed to be friendly banter but the ECB would have none of it. Then Pieterson knowing that he would be punished severely made himself available for all forms of cricket. The ECB promptly dropped him.

This was utterly ridiculous as he had recently socred 149 runs and took 4 wickets in one test match therefore the decision had nothing to do with cricket. Moreover England have to win the test where Pieterson was dropped to retain their number one status. Pieterson is England's best player and he fills stadiums. The ECB however have proved that they are a bunch of stubborn old men.

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