South Africa v England Boxing Day

Port Elizabeth hosted the first game of the current series between South Africa and England last week, and with England having taken the result by seven wickets, the momentum is very much on their side. Next up is a trip to Durban, where the Kingsmead ground will host a Boxing Day test for the eighth time since 1996.Michael Vaughan's men were never really out of control in the opening match, and whilst it was far from the complete performance, the sheer number of quality players in the team demands that at least someone is almost guaranteed to perform.In a year when the likes of Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison, Ashley Giles and Matthew Hoggard have done most of the headline taking with the ball, it was the fifth prong of the bowling attack who rose to the challenge in P.E. Simon Jones turned the match around with some direct, straight and fast bowling on the afternoon of Day 4 and put England into a position from which they could scarcely lose.With the bat it was Andrew Strauss who led the way with two tremendous knocks of 126 And 94 not out. His eighth successive test was also his eighth on the winning side, a record for England in any era.Kingsmead is known as being a fast and bouncy pitch, and this should in no way detract from England's position of power. Steve Harmison was disappointing in the first game, but the more shrewd fans will realise that he only took three wickets in the first two games of the series against the West Indies ion the summer, but then went on to snare fourteen in the remaining two. This surface should suit the Durham man very well.England are 8/5 to win the match, but it must be mentioned that the hosts have a fine record at this venue. Only once in twelve matches since apartheid was lifted have they suffered defeat here, and they have won five and drawn two of the seven Boxing Day tests. Over the last three seasons they have beaten West Indies, Pakistan and Australia, and so perhaps the 3/1 is a good price.They also have been able to recall some key players. Nicky Boje will add a spin option, whilst Herschelle Gibbs brings some much needed experience to bolster the batting line-up. Duncan Fletcher will not be too happy to see that Charl Langeveldt has been drafted into the squad too. The swing bowler took seven wickets for South Africa A against England in the warm up game two weeks ago.However, we cannot bring ourselves to back against a team who has won eight in a row and who appear to be keen to improve.Without Gibbs, it was Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis who were the proven danger men for the Proteas. Dismissing both for ducks in the first innings was a major bonus for England, and for as long as they were around in the second innings there was the potential for the match to go the other way.Smith has done it before against England, but we put Kallis ahead of him and see the 7/2 about him top scoring for South Africa as being a decent price.He averages 54.04 overall for test matches, a superb figure, but this goes up to 79.71 when looking at the games he has played during 2004 only. For the last two years in the fixture corresponding to this, Kallis has scored centuries and he averages over 50 at the ground. We would not be too surprised to see Herschelle Gibbs chip in with a good score, but considering he missed the Tour to India as well as the first test, we would require more evidence of his form.