New England in rude health, bar a few excess pounds
Kanishkaa Balachandran
25-Feb-2013
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Steve James, in the Sunday Telegraph, is awestruck by England's one-day renaissance, thanks in no small way to Kevin Pietersen's captaincy, Samit Patel and the rejuvenated Matt Prior.
Goodness, that is still hard to believe. This is one-day cricket after all. This is just not supposed to happen. England are wonderfully woeful at one-day cricket: that has long been written in the stars.
In the same paper, Scyld Berry identifies the key areas in which Pietersen has excelled as captain, such as keeping wickets intact in the Powerplays and not overloading his players with training sessions. The Sunday Times' Simon Wilde is impressed by England's run and ponders whether they have hit upon a XI that's likely to last.
Over in the Natal Witness, Peter Roebuck writes that South Africa's failings in the one-day series indicate a lack of ambition.
Rightly, the team celebrated (after winning the Test series) and its praises were sung. After a few days rest, though, it was important to get back to work. Instead, the players went walkabout. As much could be seen for the defeat at the Oval.
Suddenly, batsmen were swishing away outside off-stick or lifting catches to cover. Far from kicking their prostrate opponents, they assisted in their resurgence. Obviously the new captain also inspired England, but he must have expected stiffer resistance.
In his blog on the Times website, Archie Henderson raises a question: Was [Shaun] Pollock allowed to retire, or was he pushed, like Lance Klusener?
Kanishkaa Balachandran is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo