Wind your neck in mate.

He's done more than his fair share today and deserves better than that kind of comment

Great display by Bell and Collingwood to help England to the draw. Great confidence booster for the side, hopefully we can kick on and win the test series.

After beating the Aussies, a win against the Saffers can only help England move on a step, unlike in 05.

Definitely.

Well after being pretty confident at tea, that got a bit nerve wracking (especially when Onions pushed that one in the last over).

Still, brilliant result and even a drawn series is a pretty good return.

That was bloody close! OMG. Nearly fainted when that ball went smashing in.

Games like today and just the series in general following on from the Ashes make you laugh when people question test crickets future! It's the number 1 form of the game by a street and always will be imo.

I like watching the T20 and One Day stuff but I look forward to nothing more then a good test series. It's be a shame when next weeks test is done and dusted and that'll be the end of Englands real top class test matches until the Summer.

They can be quite boring at times. Yesterday when SA were just building to the declaration and when England were just blocking for blocking sake early on, but when a few wickets fall and you get tailenders in it gets good. This series has been good though imo.

People in the know have been saying that for years. It's mainly due to the advent of more intense test cricket in the last 15-20 years that thankfully the majority of cricket fans realise the game would be a much poorer place without it. The Modi's and the Stanfords can have their moments, but good quality 5 day cricket keeps the fans intrigued and wanting more.

An example? Well, several. Pietersen's 158 at the Oval? Iron Mike Atherton's 185* at Jo'Burg? Dev Malcolm's 9-57 at the Oval? We'll talk about moments like that for years to come, whereas any ODI 100 or 5-for will be soon forgotten about. Remember that.

That was an unbelievable climax. I was only listening on the radio but the tension was almost unbearable. Fantastic performance to bat for five hours with only two wickets lost including a nighchman. Typical rearguard action by Collingwood and even better atypical one from Bell, who at long last proved he can dig his team out of a hole as well as merely capitalising on the good work of others. England might not be the best team in Test cricket yet, but they look very much a team now, a rock solid unit who all pull in the same direction, give everything for each other and can bat all the way down to 11 when it matters most. Only one defeat in eight consecutive Tests against the Aussies & SA now. Let's hope they can finish the job in style at Jo'burg in the final Test. These sort of Test matches knock ODIs & T20 into a cocked hat.

Amazing result.

Listening at work, so intense.

Bell, well, there's a monkey thrown off a back if ever I saw one. Maybe it's exactly what his test career needed. He's always had talent, now maybe just maybe [one swallow he's starting to apply that talent, judge the situation better, that's been his problem, judging what the situation requires, maybe now he's showing signs of 'getting it' notj ust having one way of playing, if he had the situational analysis of Colly, with Bells talent, worldy.

Finish this tour off, win in Bangladesh, that'd be three series wins in a row, with an English summer to come, I know it's getting carried away a bit, but that'd be fantastic momentum to take into an Australia tour.

Exactly.....Just give ANYBODY a dvd of the 2005 Ashes series and try telling me there is a better sporting spectacle in the last 25 years than that??

I actually saw that 3 dvd box set in a pound shop in Wigan a few weeks back. I was tempted to buy it again even though i bought it back in 05 just because it was such an unbelievable bargain



That series will never be beaten for drama and what it meant to the nation but this series isn't a million miles off in game quality alone. They have just been so full of drama and so close. The 2 teams look so well matched it's fantastic for the game.

A tremendous effort and a fantastic result under incredible circumstances.

How Bell can be deemed 'a numpty' is beyond me

He faced 35 overs of todays play on his own!!! A terrific innings of steel and determination, probably his most worthwhile and significant innings of his England career



Colly was also fantastic again. He thrives on situations like that, he has done it time and time again. A run every 4 balls and only 4 boundaries in 188 deliveries is just what was required and although he only scored 40, it has to go down as one of his best innings too.

Who would've thought (no matter how it has come about) that England would be 1 up with one to play??? Certainly not me.

The only negative about the whole thing is I was not there to see it

If Bell's a "numpty", what does that make KP's contribution to England's performances in this series?

KP has been a disgrace since he lost the captaincy hasn't he. He just looks totally uninterested and looks to have lost his passion for the game.

It would take alot for his place in the team to be questioned but he's heading in the right direction(although still a good way off imo).

Bell, Cook and Colly scoring runs must have put him under some pressure.

Disgrace is a bit strong to be honest.

I'm certainly not a huge fan of the whole Pietersen persona, but since losing the captaincy, an important factor in his dip in form is almost certainly his injury, resulting operation and now lack of vital match practice, which is more down to the ridiculous tour schedules that are common in modern cricket.

In the good old days, before central contracts and back to back Test matches, KP would have had valuable recuperation time, playing in low-key county games and warm up tour matches....Now its all big match after big match, whether it be 20/20, One-Day internationals, or the current Test series.

KP could do a lot worse than withdrawing from the forthcoming IPL's and spending some time with his county in the spring, in an attempt to get himself back into the groove.

He was on easy street with those 3 struggling before this series and that has thankfully now changed. He will have to get runs at some point to keep his place but like i said before he has time to do that yet.

On the batting unit as a whole we need to see them all try and find more consistancy. We have too many players who just seem to give their wicket away after doing the hard graft of getting their innings going.

If the batters had done their jobs in the first innings of the last test and not give 5 of their 6 top order wickets away as gifts we could well have had this series wrapped up now.

Couldn't agree more. I posted this on the barmy army forum the other day.....

[iHis lack of form is worrying but I think he is the type of person that is mentally strong enough to come through all that has happened in his cricketing life in the past couple of years and get back to his best.

Dropping him is simply not an option. He is without any doubt whatsoever England's best batsman by a country mile and everyone has poor spells with the bat (Ricky Ponting is a case in point right now). England must stick with him.

Something I would like to see though, which I doubt will happen, is for him to turn his back on a small fortune in the IPL this year. I would like to think he realises he needs to occupy the crease, score some runs and find some form for England, who better to do that against than Bangladesh [/i

The unfortunate thing for Pietersen is an awful lot of England supporters still possess the 80's/90's thinking of various management teams, and want players dropped after a handful of iffy displays. Happily, modern-day England head honchos don't display such hair-trigger attitudes. The likes of Hick, Ramprakash and several others must look on with envy at the current set-up.

I do agree to an extent about KP taking time out of the IPL, but it's his decision. Besides which, don't be too surprised if he reels off a 150+ score in the final test.

I don't see a problem with KP, he is stuggling for form but his average in this series was still good until the last Test. He is still coming back from his injury which often takes time and imo he is still England's best player by some distance. He does get himself out at times with his style of batting but that same style also tears the opposition apart so I would rather he did not change too much.

Of course it is. It would just be refreshing though if he valued the England team and his own personal contribution to that team higher than his bank balance. I doubt it though.

Peter Siddle has done today exactly what I would like KP to do. He has realised he is struggling for form and/or wickets and has ruled himself out of the IPL in favour of putting in some hard yakka for his country

May have gone abit far using the term disgrace but he has been very average over the past couple of years by his standards and for a guy of such unbelievable talent thats not good enough. I suppose his form in the ashes before his op was understandable as he looked in agony and now he's trying to re-find his feet in the hardest possible format of the game without any real warm up's.

Overall though he's showed poor form before that injury and just doesn't look a happy bloke right now. I'd also like to think he'd turn down the IPL money but he just doesn't seem the sort. He is a guy that seems to play for himself and for the rewards that come with that and i get the feeling a hundred in an IPL game would mean just as much to him as a test hundred for England would because he's get just as much exposure from it.

IPL or no IPL though i hope he finds some form for England soon enough because even though he may be an arrogant guy who seems to play for himself theres nothing quite like watching him in top form. He is so entertaining and can take games away from opposition teams in the blink of an eye. He's got an opportunity in the next 3 test series after this to really up his averages(something i'm sure he prides himself on) and refind his best form in the lead up to the Ashes.

We'll need an on form Pietersen for that without doubt.

Gale to captain The Lions.

Rashid & Wainwright in too.

Interesting choices, particularly the skipper.

I get the feeling they picked this Lions squad and then had a panic over who should captain it.

Wainwright showed himself to be a handy one-day bowler for Yorkshire last year while Rashid was away on England duty, but could find his county place in the longer form in jeopardy if Rafiq continues to develop.