Oh for a decent second spinning option in place of Yardy.

Decent bowling effort today, just a pity about the batsmen.

Game on now. Still fancy South Africa Green rather then South Africa Blue

Oh, er hang on. This could go anyway now. Really could.

Never in doubt!

Stunning!. I'll get the humble pie out for Sunday Lunch.

Unbelievable Jeff!

We've got plenty of far better options, shame we don't pick any of them!

Yeah, but why would we need good spinning options in the sub-continent? Especially maybe a leg-spinner? Best just take the one top spinner and rely on bits and pieces players to fill in...

Choke

Well done England ... we're back in it.

If only we had a young leg-spinner who could bat as well as most of the proper batsmen too....

The injured Doug Bollinger has been replaced in the Aussie squad by Michael Hussey.

Call me cynical, but Bollinger hasn't actually played any cricket in which to pick up a serious injury and Hussey isn't actually a like for like replacement, is he??....

Pietersen flying home tomorrow according to the twittersphere.

Presumable Eoin Morgan will be sent for?

And that surprises you?

Yep. Confirmed today

England replace a South African with an Irishman.

Still stunned that we beat SA with that score!

I'm not sure what Bollinger's injury is, and players do sustain injuries in training, but replacing a specialist fast bowler with a batsman who bowls back-up spin is just taking a liberty. They've effectively decided they want to alter the balance of their squad to give better options having already had a few games to assess the prevailing conditions.

Perhaps England should have replaced Pietersen with Rashid!

If Broad's injury is bad enough to rule him out, I'd hope for Rashid. Incidentally, I was only-half joking when I wrote [url=http://cricket-balls.blogspot.com/2011/03/open-and-shut-case.htmlthis[/url

Only insofar as it came against England and not in a semi-final

Ross Taylor has ruined the figures of some pretty good bowlers. Destructive stuff, but only as he was given two lives on 0 by Granite Hands Akmal.

Broad is now out of the rest of the tournament according to the breaking news scrolling scross the bottom of the BBC News 24 screen. I've lost track of who is actually in the squad already or who is merely on standby. I'd have thought Chris Tremlett would be in line to replace Broad, as he did during the Ashes.

Incidentally, it shouldn't be necessary to "repeatedly" slam Luke Wrights arm; in "Escape to Victory" Michael Caine promised Kevin O'Callaghan "a good clean break, son", which was duly administered with a single blow. (Although admittedly Wright may have stronger arms than O'Callaghan and perhaps Flower & Strauss aren't so adept at administering a relatively painless and repairable injury.)

Yardy & Tredwell (plus Wright) in the same fifteen man squad for a six week tournament looks like an overabundance of "bits-and-pieces" players none of whom is a likely matchwinner with either suit. Rashid is a better all-rounder than any of them IMO.

Continuting the "Escape to Victory " theme, let us not forget Mike Summerbee's confidence that "we can still win this game" when trailing by three goals at half time.

Indeed, and has been confirmed


Even if it went first time with a good, clean break, I'd keep slamming it on Wright's arm, just to make sure he never gets called up again. What is he for?

....One of the greatest films ever made, but wasn't it Russell Osman who uttered the famous 'But, we can win this....' line??.....