I'm sick of the ECB

[Janczyk]

Why do they constantly keep picking Vaughn - "the most successful captain" maybe but he does nothing for the team. The only significant contribution he's made that I can distinctivly remember was the 166 against Australia 3 years ago and even that was a one off. He is constantly getting no runs and I question his captaincy sometimes with how he chooses to play his bowlers.

Also - in a pressure test match against South Africa that it matters if they win or not, they have at least 4 experienced bowlers that they could pick but no, they go for the roof-tiler who isn't even English and has no experience at international level. Most sports players who develop late aren't as good as those who developed early and this isn't really a surprise that Pattinson isn't that good. He took a wicket, granted but give Caddick a ball and he probably would've took one. Darren was expensive in his first few overs as well.

Oh, and another thing - I hate it the way that the ECB, Vaughn and the English 'fans' think that Flintoff is the team. Yes, he did well in the Ashes 3 years ago and yes he is a good player but he's not the only one. He took a wicket and failed with the bat - Collingwood does that regularly so I don't see how magic Freddie is any different to be fair. I'd give Dalrymplem a go at test level and drop Panesar - especially at Headingly as it doesn't spin much.

Rant over.

[Geraint]

I'm not being biased or anything, but I think that the best bowler England have is Simon Jones.

[Janczyk]

That's an incredibly biased view as the best bowler we have is Ryan Sidebottom [ICC rankings don't lie] but yes, Simon Jones is one of the bowlers that I would've chosen over Pattinson.

[Smiddy]

I think Michael Vaughan's true captaincy skills are being pushed in this test, he's using Pattinson and Broad almost as "part-time" bowlers compared to Flintoff and Anderson, who have contributed near enough half of the bowled overs in the first innings, that's staggering.
You could of used Monty more, yes, but he would of just been filling overs, maybe getting 1 or 2 wickets; we needed more strike bowling, which I believe currently is either Simon Jones or Chris Tremlett (heaven forbid, did I just say that? Wolverine?!), Tremlett, who was in the squad, was chosen over by a run of the mill bowler, whereas Tremlett could of offered us Bounce and more pace. MAKES SENSE.
To be fair I think they should of dropped Ambrose and given the gloves to a batsman, probably Strauss. Then kept Colly and brought in Flintoff, that way we'd have 6 options of decent bowling, 5 of which would of been pace, of a sort.

Vaughan did score a century... a year ago. Since then I think he's got 1, maybe 2 half centuries. Brilliant. Bring in Pietersen as captain!


Edit - just as I said that, Broad came back on and got the wicket of AB, then Panesar got Harris straight after. What I'd tell you

[Janczyk]

AB already got what he wanted though - same with Prince.

[Geraint]

England need to bat for 2 days to get a result.

[Janczyk]

England need to bat for 2 days to get a result.

Tea tomorrow they'll be all out.

[Smiddy]

AB already got what he wanted though - same with Prince.

Oh fully aware of that, I'm criticising the selection panel and suggesting how it could of been improved for this performance

[Geraint]

50-2 at close. Doesn't look too good.

[Smiddy]

Anderson's record of most innings not out will come to end this time round then, unless he pulls off a minor miracle and scores a double century.