England lose 3rd Test - Cricket
England lost the third test at Edgbaston yesterday to South Africa by 5 wickets. This is the first time England have lost a test series at home to South Africa since 1965 and must again raise doubts over the captaincy of Michael Vaughan.
Selection issues were to blame for the second test defeat, but one cannot get away from the fact that England were second best to South Africa for a majority of this test in all departments especially batting where Vaughan has to stand up and take his share of the blame.
South Africa were set a target of 281 after Paul Collingwood made a welcome return to form with a top score of 135, and at one stage in their second innings South Africa looked in trouble at 94-4.
However, skipper Graeme Smith steadied the boat and was 154 not out at the end and in the process passing 1,000 test runs for 2008, he was ably supported by Mark Boucher who also was unbeaten on 45.
The England side for the fourth test starting Thursday at the Oval is to be announced later today and lets hope with this series lost the selectors can find the courage to experiment and make changes.
