Yeah right... these * assignments * are always due when everyone is kicking England's ass. The day they play well or unfortunatley win a match you leave everything and start praising them like gods. Have some consistency in your posts at K.K. Dont runaway like a typical britisher and stick by your loosers.
I swear I’d stay to reply properly (and open a few threads in Nassers honour) if I had the time, but I don’t, so I won’t. If I post sommat detailed, I know I’ll have to keep coming back to defend my team and I really aint got the time to do that right now.
Win, lose or draw, Monday evening I’m all yours 
england have proved to be unreliable oncve again, thney start winning series’s then they lose when it comes to ** quality ** opposition england can’t compete its as simple as that, knowing that smithy is a leg sided player vaughnie didn’t guard the leg side very well earlier on in the match maybe if he had they wouldn’t have let him score so many runs.
and regarding the issue of sadi_sobi opening threads in nasser hussain’s honour yes why not open a thread entitled ** nasser hussain’s guide 2 dropping catches ** 
i think he did south africa a favour by dropping smithy on the score of 8 today
Watchout PAK !!!!!!!!!
it'll be painful to see if SA wins the toss in 1 or 2 tests which will lead them to bat first and looking at what they r doing to ENG (even though it wasn't best day ENG had in the field) and keeping in mind that wickets in PAK are a lot Batsmen friendly than in ENG :( :( :( :( :( !!!!!!!
I hope Pak wins this series but to do this it'll need a lot of work in all three departments of the game
I think Greame Smith is having the best time of his life playing against these Engish bowlers. Way to go Smith! :k: kick English ass even more!
Oh man, honestly the way he is going, our Pakistani bowlers will be butchered, be it shoaib, Sami, Saqi, or even Ws. He is playing Bradmanisque type of inning.
I am surprised he isn't praised much, had Tendulkar or Vaughan accomplished the feat, they would have been all over the news.
Making of a great batsman.
A treat to watch Smith slapping these english boys. And the commentators 
its so hard for them to say good things about Smith and SA
South Africa 513/2. Smith who now has crossed 250 is not out at 259 inching towards his tripple century. He is getting good support from Dippennar who is not out at 46.
Some pictures from day 3
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Smith resumes his innings confidently on day 3
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Dippenaar providing support to his captain.
SMith great innings come to an end as he played on to James Anderson. Smith made 259.
Pictures from day 3.
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Fortune is not in England's favour as first Ashley Giles, then Mark Butcher miss golden opportunities to catch Dippenaar
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Alec Stewart is a casualty when an Ashley Giles bouncer hits him on the head and Anthony McGrath steps in as wicket-keeper
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Smith is soon celebrating his 250 and South Africa stand ominously on 491-2
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Smith is finally dismissed for 259 after playing on to James Anderson, his score eclipsing Don Bradman's 254
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Smith receives a standing ovation as he heads for the pavillion after posting the second highest Test total ever at Lord's
**
South Africa declared their innings at 682-6 with a first innings lead of 509 runs. Dipenaar was unlucky not to finish his century. He got out after making 92.
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*Dippenaar a little unlucky to get out at 92.
*
England have started their second innings and are 19/0 with Trescothic at 8* and Vaughan at 10*.
England facing defeat in the second test. At close they were 129-2 with captain Vaughan and his opening partner Tescothic gone. Nasser Hussain was 36* and Butcher was 33*. Ntini and Hall took one wicket each.
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Entertaining knock by Boucher.
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Dissapointed Vaughan walking back to the pavillion.
**
current scorecard and pictures at the end of day 3 at lords…
ENGLAND STAY POSITIVE!!!
All-rounder Andrew Flintoff has insisted England can still save the second Test against South Africa, despite conceding a 509-run first innings lead.
England reached the close of the third day on 129-2, after South Africa had notched up their highest ever total of 682-6.
The home side will start the third day without their openers - captain Michael Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick - who were both dismissed cheaply.
But Flintoff backed Mark Butcher and Nasser Hussain - who finished the day with a 69-run partnership - to build on their impressive start on Sunday.
“There is still a feeling in the camp that we can save it,” said Flintoff.
"Hopefully Nasser and Mark can carry on the great work they did tonight.
“I remember a Test at Port Elizabeth a few years ago when Nasser batted a long time and we came out with a draw that didn’t seem likely.”
Hussain produced an impressive display, finishing unbeaten on 36, amid increased speculation he could quit the Test arena.
But Flintoff, England’s most impressive bowler today after South Africa finally declared on their record Test total of 682 for six, stressed: "Nasser has been great.
"He’s supported the boys and mucked in around the dressing room as we knew he would do.
“I would like him to carry on because if you look at his record over the years it’s been fantastic - if he went it would be a different side, but there would be a hole left.”
South Africa wicket-keeper Mark Boucher, meanwhile, praised the performance of his side’s top-order batsmen, most notably skipper Graeme Smith, who hit 259.
Boucher said: "It was a good day for us. Our batters did really well, especially the top five.
"They laid the foundations for people like myself and Shaun Pollock to express ourselves and try and pick up the run-rate a bit.
“Then any wickets you take on the third day of a Test if you have a lead of 500 is a bit of a bonus so we were very happy especially to get out Michael Vaughan who can bat for long periods of time.”
BEST TEST TOTALS BY COUNTRY
- Sri Lanka: 952-6 v Ind
- England: 903-7 v Aus
- West Indies: 790-3 v Pak
- Australia: 758-8 v WI
- Pakistan: 708 v Eng :k:
- South Africa: 682-6 v Eng
- India: 676-7 v SL
- New Zealand: 671-4 v SL
- Zimbabwe: 563-9 v WI
- Bangladesh: 400 v Ind :hehe:
Dippenaar is lucky to even get to 92. Ashley Giles dropped a very easy catch at first slip when Dippenaar was on 15 or so. But well played Greame Smith :k:
Damn! Load more records being broken.
Graeme Smoth is now only the second batsman in the history of the game to score 250+ runs in 2 consecutive innings - only the greatest player of them all, Donald Bradman had also done so previously.
Graeme Smith now also has the second highest individual score ever at Lords - and the highest ever by an overseas player - beating Donald Bradman’s score of 254 - only Gooch’s 333 was better at Lords.
And yet another record involving the great Bradman, Smith has now already hit over 600 runs in this series and he’s only played 3 of a possible 10 innings. He has a possibly 7 innings yet to play in this series and is now already under 400 runs away from beating Bradman’s record of the most amount of runs in a series.
To be honest this really doesn’t do Bradman justice - he probably made his 900 odd runs in a series in less Tests and he was much greater a batsman than Smith is - it doesn’t seem right that Smith seems to be equalling and breaking his records - Smith will never be the player Bradman was.
Anyway apart from just Smith’s records:
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South Africa now beat their previous highest Innings total (622 for 9 declared against Australia back in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s) in Test Cricket having scored 682.
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Score is now also the second highest ever total at Lords - behind Australia’s 720 is the 1930’s.
As for the game itself - England have all but lost it - they started of their second innings a massive 500 runs behind - they would have to bat a whole 2 days plus to avoid defeat and have already lost two wickets - it would take a truly momumental innings to avoid defeat and I really doubt they’ll manage to save the game - they are just too far behind and there is still so much time in which to play.
But the scary thing for England is that Jaques Kallis is yet to return to the South African side - I mean what the hell are England gonna do when he returns?
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Talha: *
To be honest this really doesn't do Bradman justice - he probably made his 900 odd runs in a series in less Tests and he was much greater a batsman than Smith is - it doesn't seem right that Smith seems to be equalling and breaking his records - Smith will never be the player Bradman was.
[/QUOTE]
And how many test matches has Smith played compared to Bradman.
11 only, back in those days, all they had were 5 matches series, so Bradman had plenty of opportunites to score 1000+ runs in a 5 match series.
**Never satisfied **
Stat of the Moment
by Andrew Miller - August 2, 2003
Graeme Smith has made his point. Now he is intent on labouring it. Before this series, the question on everyone’s lips was “is he up to it?” Now, however, England are being shown just how up for it he really is.
Smith, in case anyone has failed to realise, is a mere 22 years old. But already he is the proud owner of South Africa’s individual batting record, a glut of partnership records with Herschelle Gibbs and Gary Kirsten, as well as the small matter of the South African captaincy. But, Smith’s achievement in scoring 250s in consecutive Tests has propelled him into territory reserved for the giants of the game, Sir Don Bradman and Sir Garry Sobers.
The grandest ovation of the day was reserved for the moment when **Smith surpassed Bradman’s legendary 254, for 60 years the highest score in a Test at Lord’s. Only Graham Gooch’s 333 stands above him. By the time his innings was brought to an end on 259, Smith had taken his series tally to 621, the most runs ever scored after three innings of any Test series.
**
Only three men had previously managed even 500 runs at such an early stage – Gooch, whose 333-and-all-that came in a three-Test series against India in 1990; Wally Hammond, who averaged a world-record 563 in his two-Test thumping of New Zealand in 1932-33; and Zaheer Abbas, who took India to the cleaners :k: in 1978-79 with 507 runs.
**In fact, no-one has ever made more than 600 runs in three consecutive innings, at any stage of a series. The previous best was Sobers, who totalled 599 against Pakistan in 1957-58. He started with his world-record 365 not out, and followed up with innings of 125 and 109 not out. And like Smith, and Bradman in 1930, Sobers was a mere whippersnapper at the time, at just 21 years old. **
Smith has six complete innings still available to him in this series, and at this rate, the big one is an absurdly realistic possibility. At the same stage of his all-conquering season in 1930, Bradman had managed a mere 393 of his record 974 runs. Given all that he has achieved so far, who’s to say Smith won’t have reached 1000 runs in the series before the end of The Oval Test?
Player Runs Opposition Season
GC Smith 621 Eng 2003
GA Gooch 572 Ind 1990
WR Hammond 563 NZ 1932-33
Zaheer Abbas 507 Ind 1978-79
DCS Compton 436 SA 1947
R Dravid 432 Zim 2000-01
DG Bradman 421 Eng 1946-47
A Melville 410 Eng 1947
A Flower 408 SA 2001-02
GS Chappell 405 NZ 1973-74
Zaheer Abbas 401 Ind 1982-83
© Wisden CricInfo Ltd
They did actually have some shorter series’ back in the 1930’s too but Smith has played his best lately to achieve such records.
The worrying thing is that he has got a possible 7 innings to go in this series - Don’s record looks like being broken.
There have been lots of comparisons being made between Graeme Smith and Matthew Hayden and they are actually very much similar players. Matthew’s game is a bit smoother but apart from that they are similar - they are both aggressive and quite punching players - they both also end up scratching and searching for the ball a fair bit when they’re out of form. Plus they’re both big guys - both over 6 feet tall and are both actually quite similar all round.
That’s gonna be one of the great battles to come over the year I think - Smith VS Hayden.
It’s all over! South Africa won the 2nd Test by an innings and 92 runs - Nasser and Butcher started off Day 4 carefully but both lost their wickets after playing poor shots before the lunch. Alec Stewart went for a duck - So much of an experienced player, huh?
What made me stick to the game was a splendid, terrific innings by Andy Flintoff, who have now become the highest runs by a 7th player at Lords. He scored 142 runs, stumped miles out of the crease by Mark Boucher, a sad end to a terrific flashy-slashy inning - You should have watched the face Shaun Polluck when Andy Flintoff smashed 20 runs in an over with back-to-back-to-back boundaries and a huge SIXER! Whoah
There is a huge problem at the moment - the whole country is now buzzing with the selection dramas - Everyone seems to be asking the question of who the final say comes down to? Is it the selectors or the Captain? There are massive problems in the England camp at the moment - I knew that this change from the One-Day side to the Test side just ain’t gonna work! I personally think the final decision comes down to the selectors - the Captain should have an input but te decisions as to plays and who doesn’t are down to the selectors - I mean that’s what they’re there for!
As for the Captaincy itself is not Michael’s fault - I know its kind of ironic me sticking up for him but he really didn’t have any time to get prepared for this match as Captain - Nasser really did drop him right in it by resigning like that - not one of his better decisions - I don’t think Michael is a bad captain - he’s just not ready yet and he has to wait until he has a little better knowledge of the game - especially on the
International scene.
A well deserved victory by South Africa but a great knock by Flintoff.
**
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FLINTOFF EVEN BROKE HIS BAT DURING THE INNINGS.
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FLINTOFF AFTER HIS HUNDRED
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AND FINALLY THE DEPARTURE. END OF A FINE EFFORT ALL INVAIN.
**