It has been a very long time since I have seen an England one-day team play with this current level of confidence.
There have been moments of short-lived success scattered through the past couple of decades, but generally England's record has been thoroughly disappointing.
Am I the only one who now feels that we just might be on the threshold of enjoying something really special?
Graeme Smith faces a colossal challenge to rescue South Africa's tour which, three weeks ago, appeared to rather overdo the celebration of its in the Test series.
There was even talk of them going home for a week.
Little wonder, then that at Trent Bridge his players seemed aloof and disinterested - certainly the batsmen did not appear to have any stomach for a fight - and they were thoroughly deserving of their ...
Kevin Pietersen must be thinking that being captain of England is the easiest job in the world.
His batting is flourishing with the extra responsibility - just the 190 runs from two innings - and every plan he hatches in the field is paying off.
It won't last forever of course, as sport isn't like that but bearing in mind what an inexperienced captain he is, he is indeed fortunate that everything is falling into place so easily in his difficult early matches.
You make your own luck, of course...
| 19:11 UK time, Friday, 22 August 2008
Men, according to the American writer John Gray, , but next year they will be inhabiting the same cricketing planet closer than ever before when the ICC World Twenty20 takes place in England.
Including both sexes in the competition is an interesting move by the game's world governing body and one which, if it succeeds, should certainly raise the profile of the women's game.
But with crowds used to seeing six-hitting specialists like Chris Gayle, Andrew Symonds, Kevin Pietersen, Yuvraj Singh and Jacob Oram send balls into orbit, just what will female cricketers bring to the ?
To answer that question, I asked one of the best players in the women's game, .
After the disappointing Test series and the , England head into a five match one-day series against South Africa, starting at Headingley on Friday.
It is less than 12 months ago that England embarked on a World Twenty20 tournament in South Africa with a squad supplemented by one-day specialists like Darren Maddy, Chris Schofield and .
Wicketkeeper-batsman Matt Prior damaged a finger in the course of the tournament and was then replaced by Phil Mustard who was given an extended run behind the stumps before giving way to Tim Ambrose
All of that in less than a year so no wonder England's one day form has been so erratic...
There has been a fair amount of comment since the news was announced that was not going to be part of the Test Match Special team and I thought it was a good opportunity to explain the thinking behind this decision.
Firstly I would again like to thank Mike for his outstanding contribution to the programme. The decision was not an easy one, but we felt that the time was right to introduce some more recent Test cricketers into the commentary mix.
Over the 51 years of the programme TMS has always evolved and occasionally a new voice has arrived. It is important for the commentary team to have a blend of experiences, backgrounds and voices.
The mix is the crucial part of the success of the programme and we felt that a couple of more current names would bring listeners a different viewpoint.
Welcome to Ask Bearders, where Test Match Special statistician answers your questions on all things cricket.
Below are Bill's responses to some of your questions posed at the end of his last column and if you have a question for Bill, leave it at the end of this blog entry. Please do include your country of residence - Bill loves to hear where all his correspondents are posting from.
Bill isn't able to answer all of your questions, however. ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sport staff will choose a selection of them and send them to Bearders for him to answer.
By Simon Mann at Lord's
Grant Flower, the oldest man on the pitch, transformed into a comfortable canter for a buoyant Essex team as Kent paid for their careless batting.
Flower was not the obvious match-winner coming into the game but he has played more one-day internationals than anyone on either side and he used that experience to wrestle the match away from Kent.
It seems rather strange that we have now finished as early as the second week in August.
But don't worry, we have to keep you entertained over the next few weeks.
This Saturday we will bring you commentary on the final of the . It promises to be an exciting match between two of the in-form sides this season in and .
Welcome to Ask Bearders, where Test Match Special statistician answers your questions on all things cricket.
Below are Bill's responses to some of your questions posed at the end of his last column and if you have a question for Bill, leave it at the end of this blog entry. Please do include your country of residence - Bill loves to hear where all his correspondents are posting from.
Bill isn't able to answer all of your questions, however. ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sport staff will choose a selection of them and send them to Bearders for him to answer.
with only an occasional hiccup or two, lifting morale in a dressing room that was in real need of a boost.
As we all expected, South Africa have proved a much greater challenge than and in order to gauge where England stand in the scheme of things, we should all pay close attention to the forthcoming series between Australia and South Africa.
England remain frustratingly unpredictable and inconsistent. Bear in mind that they should have lost the Manchester Test to New Zealand - and yet they could have forced an overwhelming victory over South Africa at .
These are my ratings for the England players who were involved in the Test series against South Africa.
Although recent experience suggests that their batsmen might make hard work of it, England .
However, it sums up the level of cricket that England have been playing for too long now that South Africa were able to recover from a situation that at lunch looked hopeless.
It was also the case under 's leadership that England, in my opinion, are far too quick to give established batsmen a single when a lower-order batsman is also at the crease.
| 17:45 UK time, Saturday, 9 August 2008
It's been a really frustrating day at The Oval with due to the poor weather on Saturday.
However, a visit from celebrity chef helped to keep us entertained with a very enjoyable "View from the Boundary". The Ready Steady Cook presenter is a huge cricket fan and told us how he is related to former West Indies wicketkeeper .
Although Ainsley was modest about his own cricketing achievements, Graham Gooch joined us to reveal that he had faced the bowling of Harriott in a charity match and was impressed with his speed.
After just two days as England's Test captain, things couldn't be going any better for Kevin Pietersen.
In becoming only in his first Test in charge, he answered a number of questions about his ability to bat with his usual freedom.
And although, understandably, he showed some nerves while in the 90s - not usually a problem for KP - he was rewarded with a wonderfully emotional reception from the Oval crowd.
Kevin Pietersen could not have asked for a better response from his bowlers in . They all responded in conditions that favoured swing bowlers, but on a surface that should have yielded more than 194 runs.
After a rather scruffy morning session which was curtailed by a shower of rain, Pietersen was able to maintain attacking fields during the afternoon in which James Anderson and took five wickets between them. Even Monty Panesar did precisely what Pietersen asked of him - twice!
Bringing the spinner on for the last over before tea - as many captains do - Monty had the obdurate AB de Villiers lbw with his third ball. And then, when the last pair had hung around long enough to be thoroughly annoying, Pietersen turned to his spinner again, and he bowled Makhaya Ntini with his fifth ball.
In announcing this - and its batting order in particular - Kevin Pietersen has already made his own statement.
Only two matches ago at Headingley, Michael Vaughan said - regardless of the balance of the team.
Now Pietersen has very obviously promoted his all-rounder, with the ringing endorsement that he has great faith in him.
For all the debate about the appointment of as England captain, we can be sure of one thing: that his outgoing manner and style of leadership will be very different from the more reserved and thoughtful Michael Vaughan.
That is no bad thing at all - in fact, merely a change of style can have an immediate positive effect which the team certainly needs, and the other players will certainly rally round in support.
Let's face it, it is hardly in their interests not to be seen to be backing the new captain who will have his own ideas, and a honeymoon period in which to make changes...
Bang on time, he stepped out of the lifts at the Lord's media centre, flashed his Colgate smile and even rolled his eyes as the cameras clicked away manically. If he blinked once when the flashes went off, we never saw it.
National selector Geoff Miller, in his flat Derbyshire vowels, revealed , and nobody listened - least of all Kevin Pietersen himself.
The photographers were camped in a little huddle down to his left and he faced them first, raised his eyebrows, and - remarkably - mouthed the words "Cheers, mate" to one.
Premier League football clubs do a lot of . This, on the other hand, almost had the air of a coronation about it.
Of all the resignation press conferences I have attended, . Visibly moved throughout, he choked when thanking for the support he has received from them during his five years as England's captain. Towards the end, we were all willing him through it.
Not one journalist in the room had expected to be there today. The managing director of England Cricket, , spoke of his surprise at Vaughan's decision although Vaughan revealed that he had been considering it since .
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It is a time-consuming and pressurised job, but it was the lack of runs that did for Vaughan in the end. Fiercely proud and professional, he simply could not stand the any longer.
Saturday's play at Edgbaston featured that you will see in Test cricket.
To score an unbeaten 154 batting last on this wearing surface was a superb achievement - not least because Graeme Smith was close to withdrawing from the Test with a bad back!
Curiously, he survived what was only a polite enquiry on 85 for caught behind off Monty Panesar which replays showed had flicked his glove. It was not an easy decision for Umpire Aleem Dar because the glove and pad were so close together and the fact that Panesar did not give one of his pogo stick appeals probably swayed his mind.
Paul Collingwood gave us all a shining example of what makes him one of the most popular members of the England dressing-room when, in what might have been his last test innings, he .
Rather than hide in his shell as in the first innings, he batted purposefully and positively. Boundaries flowed, and his footwork started to return after England faced the real possibility of losing the match today.
Michael Vaughan produced a fluent failure when he drove a low catch to mid off for 17. He will not be dropped, of that I am certain, not least because there is no one to take over especially now that must surely have ruled himself out of the reckoning today.
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