England Crickets Summer Review

England have been throught the highs and lows this summer and in no uncertain terms I'm going to some it up as best I can and whether we have progressed, or taken a step back.

England started with a 3 match series against New Zealand which they won comfortably 2-0. New Zealand to be fair we're no real threat and an innings and 9 run victory in the third test unlined England's superiority in the test match arena aginst the Kiwi's.

In between and test match and one day series was a one off 20/20 international which England won by nine wickets, this was the last time England would be celebrating as New Zealand dominated the one day series winning 3-1. A series in partiular Paul Collingwood won't want to remember as he controvercly ran out Scott Styris when the allrounder was knocked to the floor by Ryan Sidebottom. Collingwood was then banned for four ODI's for his teams slow over rate and then after just a year as the one-day captain he resigned in the wake of Michael Vaughan's resignation as test captain.

Then came South Africa as the intensity heightened for England Cricketers ahead of the ashes series next year.

South Africa held out at Lords as England's bowlers were left frustrated, and South Africa tok advantage of wayward England bowling, and there crazy selection process. Firstly the option to bring in Darren Patinson for the second test backfired like a cannon as England slumped to a heavy defeat. For the next test Stuart Broad was 'rested' even though he played for Nottingham shire in the same week and infact recorded his best ever figures for them, really showing the selectors that he needed a rest. Graham Smith guided his team to there first series victory since there re-instament into test cricket in 1995.

Michael Vaughan then stepped down as England captain siteing that he had come to the end of the road. A teary Vaughan was then dropped from the team for the fourth test as Kevin Pietersen was made captain in all forms of the game. A risky appointment became a good one when South Africa came unstuck as England finished the series with a consolation win at the Oval.

England finished there summer with 5 ODI's against the South African which seemed like an unhill struggle with South Africa third in the world at the time of the series. However England pulled together and with the call ups of Sami Patel and Owais Shah inpartiulary helped England to a 4-0 win in the series. Pietersen again showing that his batting wasn't to be affected as he led England to a huge win. Flintoff's return in the test matches was a little overshadowed by the poor performances that the team were putting in but he shone in the one-day series.

He put himself as the best all-rounder in the world as he hit 186 runs in the series. His comeback to form coninsided with England as he confirmed himself as yet again England most vital player.

So in conclusion was it a good summer. Well apart from the test series against South Africa deffinetly a yes. The one day series win against the same country was the high point of the summer and very pleasing considering where England were this time last year.

Under Pietersen England look a more exciting team, just like Pietersen's playing style. With India being the next challenge we will wait to see whether Pietersen's honeymoon period as captain will extend into the winter months.