Saturday, November 13, 2010

England take much satisfaction from draw against S Aust

England XI 8/288 dec & 1/240 dec (52 ov, A Cook 111*, A Strauss 102) drew with South Australia 221 & 2/48 (20.5 ov): Tour match Day 3/3 at Adelaide Oval.

Another rain -interrupted day provided enough time for England to bat South Australia out of the match.

Alistair Cook 111*/162b (1x6, 18x4) recovered and Andrew Strauss 102/121b (4x6, 13x4) consolidated their form. Even though this was achieved at the expense of a toothless South Australian attack the time in the middle would have been good practice for both batters.

It was a pity that rain and bad light intervened to prevent more play. Had the match run its full course the Redbacks would have struggled to fend off defeat against a keen attack supported by excellent fielding, notably Jonathan Trott's catch at midwicket to dismiss Michael Klinger.

I thought the appeal against the light, which the umpires (who IMO had been a tad slow to restart play after rain) upheld, was unreasonable. The floodlights were, as they had been for much of yesterday, on, Paul Collingwood was bowling at one end, and grade cricket continued on two grounds a short walk from the Oval. South Australia's appeal was effectively a concession that it had lost the match. I'll refrain from venturing an opinion as to whether any player was concerned about preserving their reputation.

Scorecard

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