Kevin Pietersen, captain - yes or no?

[Milky]

Great start skip!

[Corky]

Bringing back Harmison was an inspired move. The South Africans have had trouble facing him and are not leaving as many balls alone. We are in a great position to win the Test, and offer some hope for the future.

[morris1234]

im going to place on record that i HHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE CCRRRRRRRRIIIICCCKKKKEEEETTT!!!!

[Corky]

im going to place on record that i HHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE CCRRRRRRRRIIIICCCKKKKEEEETTT!!!!

Tosser

[wellsy]

For all of you that said Pietersen shouldn't be captain, as it will affect his batting, surely after todays performance you take that back? He shown a touch of class today, got a feeling he will be better than ever.

Forever England,

Up the Blues.

[Flynny]

I see where you are coming from, but it was an extremely unlikely victory against of one the best teams even Australia has produced for a long while. Although Warne and McGrath were definitely on their way out for the game, they still were immensely good bowlers but our own attack countered them brilliantly. Considering we've just been outplayed by what is a reasonably average South Africa side with no real stand-out performers except for Smith, it serves to enhance the achievement of 2005.

Anyway it's a new era now, and I personally can't think of a better man to replace Vaughan. Unlike the doubters, I don't believe Pietersen's own personal game will be affected and he has always struck me as a man bold enough to make and stick by potential match-deciding tactics. I wouldn't read much into this final test though, for me his captaincy starts in the test arena against whoever our next opponents are.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but we didn't win a game in which McGrath played did we?

This team is woefully inconistent but could just peak in time for the Ashes, so I'm not giving up hope yet. As a case in point Anderson has matured brilliantly over the last year. If Bell can start imposing himself and we find a wicketkeeper good enough for No.6, the balance and makeup of this team won't look bad at all.

It'd be interesting if we took Rashid to India in the winter and he bowled well, it'd adjust the complexion of our tail-end and increase our options considerably. I know he's probably not ready yet and may have been overhyped, but he's just took his best first-class figures today, and we usually take two spinners to the asian nations.

[Flynny]

I could write an essay here on Robert Key but I'll keep it fairly brief.

Essentially, he's what we need. He plays proper shots - a real innings builder. He's also adaptable as has been shown by extremely good performances and captaincy in ALL forms of the county game. He captains not only Kent sides in the long form of the game but also one day and 20/20 (where they reached both finals). His batting lacks a certain amount of fluency, certainly.

One of the 5 men named Wisden Cricketers of the year in 2005 and one of (not many) to score a double hundred in a test - although it was against the Windies (I think) - there weren't too many of ours batsmen making the most of some fairly wayward bowling at that time.

He then went through a period of indifferent and inconsistent batting - which left him rightly dropped and that point in time. Sometimes you need to let players ride out their poor form, sometimes you need to give them a break - it often depends how often and hard others are knocking on the door. The selectors were right to drop Key.

He seems to have been almost rushed into the England setup without the time to get some good form and to learn his game. It also seems like he didn't really get a good first-class season under his belt until he'd been initially dropped. Whats certain is that he's twice the cricketer he was before and a stone or so lighter I'd imagine, too.

Unfortunately I don't think they can bring him in during the winter because of the risk of destabilisting Pietersen. I can't help but think it would have been prudent to announce that Pietersen was captaining for the next game and it'd be taken from there, allowing them to give him maybe 3 tests and then take it off him if things didn't work out without creating a hoo-hah.

[beer is gud]

He got a century in his first match as captain, good job I say as our cricketers always seem to under perform, as do our footballers.