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Pieterson In Need Of Support

England’s one-day cricket is fast turning into the Kevin Pieterson show, but unfortunately our bowlers are not performing at the same intensity as the big-hitting middle-order man.

Three-one down in the series with just two matches to go means that England have surrendered the high ground and the South Africans are recovering lost pride after losing the Test series.

The limited overs competition started brightly for England but the lights have been going out since Geraint Jones’ brilliant piece of stumping meant that we scraped a tie in the second match.Since then, with the remarkable exception of Pieterson, our play has looked jaded and and bowling has lost its edge.

The captain has decided to go into matches with just four front line bowlers and when you do that all four have to hit their straps straight away. This has not been happening and consequently, instead of having to fiddle 10 overs from the part-time bowlers, England have had to mix and match for up to 30. South Africa, with scores of 290 and 311, have made us pay dearly.

Chasing those kind of scores can be demoralising and it remains to be seen whether the boys can lift themselves for two last efforts to square the series. If I was a betting man I’d go against that happening.

At least England fans have something to look forward to next summer in the one-day internationals and possibly Tests. With a Flintoff-Pieterson axis at five and six, the pair might create mayhem between them.

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