318 for 8

I think we might be 20 to 30 runs below par

No need to apologise , that's very illuminating. I had a friend at school who spent his early education in Scotland after his family moved up there. He was badly bullied, just because he was English. I think the Scottish Nasty Party's raison d'etre is anti-englishness. It really is appalling.

Anyway back to the 6 Nations ! I'm just glad we beat them. I think that's 7 years since they last beat us. On to Italy now and as Eddie Jones has said let's go and give them a "good hiding" !

I watched the Scotland v England and the Ireland v Wales games on TV at the weekend. What a notable difference between the sportsmanship shown by the respective home crowds. Whenever Wales got a penalty and kicked for goal there was silence in the ground from the Irish fans. In the Scotland v England game , when England were taking a penalty / conversion, each kick was met by a chorus of boos. I wonder if Scotland will ever lose the chip they have on each shoulder as far as the English are concerned. I guess it's a problem for them that both our Rugby Union and Football teams have won their respective world cups. Or am I just picking on our kilted friends from the north ? .........hehe

Another good all round performance by England . De Villiers did come good with the bat , but like in the previous game was out to a magnificent catch. As one of my old captains in the Lancashire League used to say " catches win matches"

Good to see Buttler the magnificent doing the business again!

Yep our adopted Lancastrian. He's priceless in this form of the game and will take the IPL by storm !

Amazing to think that England had only scored 350+ twice in their first 650 ODIs and now they've done it 5 times in their last 15!!

It's amazing how they've changed their mindset as far as limited overs are concerned. Having said that Hales , Roy and Root were always going to score faster than Cook , Balance and Bell. Buttler is a phenomenon and the fact that Willey bats at number 10 shows the depth in the batting. The bowling isn't as good and I think yesterday we could have done with Broad for experience. De Kocks innings was even better than Buttler's. I rate him, a very good wicketkeeper / batsman. I still think England would have won despite the rain , but if Stokes hadn't taken that amazing catch to get De Villiers, it could have been close even on Duckworth /Lewis. That's 3 ducks and an 8 for AB in his last 4 innings. He's due a big score soon soon !

we are not afraid of chasing 400 +, just ask Australia

Well at 399 for 9 , now's your chance . Over to you AB !

Amateur sport is all about fun, so if someone is a good player but a total prat then get him out, you'll lose more but have more fun. Professional sport is at least 50% about winning, so if someone's a good player then attempts should be made to tolerate them. If someone's an elite player then big efforts should be made.

You mentioned Higgins and Best as examples, but I expect sport is rife with thousands, even tens of thousands, of objectionable d-heads who their team-mates extremely dislike but who are kept in a team for their performance level. Take Bellamy at Rovers for example, constantly moaned at everyone and apparently gave Pedersen a torrid time with verbals. And when you consider the list of things he's been in court for (although admittedly never convicted), I imagine he was a piece of work. But Hughesy played on his ego and no doubt made allowances and he was beyond phenomenal that season, a level above McCarthy and Santa Cruz even in my opinion.

Just hope all the management/psychological techniques were tried with KP before he was thrown out. The Aussies wouldn't have become the best in the 90s without tolerating pillocks like Warne, McGrath, the Waughs, Healy...actually most of the team.

The way England are playing one day cricket , KP wouldn't get in the side ! The bit about the Aussies made me smile. Hasn't that applied to all Austrailian teams throughout their history ? Good to hear they got walloped by New Zealand yesterday !

.....but when you thought it was safe to bring the fielders in a bit, Morgan arrives at the crease

I know !! Gibbs got a big score in that one from memory . Root out !

England going well in the 1st ODI at 213 -2 off 28 overs . Butler batting with sublime power and Root palying the "anchor " role . I'm hoping for a score of 400 or thereabouts .

Two powerful batting line ups.This could be the day AB forgets his 3 ducks in a row and leads the South African chase !

AB De Villiers likes that form of cricket

Will he force his way into the side after 3 ducks in a row ?

Although each test stands on its own, once a team has won a series , despite all the efforts to be up for a dead rubber, subconsciously there isn't the same intensity to win. South Africa aren't a bad side and their demise has been over exaggerated. I think Amla is the best batter in the world and Morkel is a fine bowler. Add to those two, AB De Villiers and the new boy Rabada , plus De Kock and not forgetting Steyn ( best bowler in the world) and Philander. Also their Cook has looked the best opening batsman on both sides. With players of that calibre I don't think they'll drop too far in the rankings

Taking into account everything, it's been a great series win, on a par with the win in India a couple of years ago.

I agree with Mattyblue, our top order batting needs looking at, too many collapses. We had a similar problem when we won the Ashes last summer but having said that, if we're beating Australia at home and South Africa away , things aren't too bad with the state of English cricket

Now onto the ODIs and T20s , where we've been showing good improvement recently.