Andy Bull, in his blog The Spin in the Guardian, rates England's players in the recently concluded series against South Africa. Alastair Cook, Graeme Swann and Ian Bell are among the star performers while Kevin Pietersen and Ryan Sidebottom take a step backwards.

Kevin Pietersen

It is easy to forget that Pietersen's 81 at Centurion had everyone waxing lyrical. Maybe he was knocked out of his stride by the idiotic run-out that cut that innings short, but the talk of his slump in form which had dogged him ever since his first innings on the tour seemed to become a self-fulfilling prophecy

Lawrence Booth, in his blog Top Spin in the Daily Mail, sums up the England side after their 1-1 draw in South Africa - a decent side with the priceless ability to punch above their weight and the occasional tendency to fall flat on the canvas after neglecting to tie up their shoelaces.

	There are a few technical flaws to work on, Kev © Getty Images

Andy Flower and Andrew Strauss should be embarrassed about England's display at the Wanderers, writes Geoffrey Boycott in the Daily Telegraph. There's no shame in getting beaten: it's how you lose that matters.

I get the feeling that Flower and his staff believe Pietersen is untouchable. He shouldn't be, because the only thing that matters is whether you can get runs and wickets. If you can't, you should make way for somebody else.

I have always been a great admirer of Kevin, and I still think he is one of the most talented batsmen in the world. The fact is, though, that he has struggled since he came back from his three-month injury break. His whole approach has been wildly off the mark. He has only faced about 350 balls in the series, because he starts playing irresponsibly and extravagantly from the first ball.

	Jonathan Trott's scratchy form is a worry © Getty Images

The heavy defeat at the Wanderers highlighted flaws in England's approach, but one of the biggest concerns through the series is the declining form of two players - Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen, writes Duncan Fletcher in the Guardian. Fletcher points out flaws in Pietersen's technique and Trott's mental approach.

Firstly, he has been getting too low in his stance at the crease. He is bending his knees too much. In any game played with a moving ball, it is crucial to keep the head and the eyes still. In cricket a batsman needs to keep his gaze as parallel to the ground as possible. Because Pietersen is dropping so low, he has to rise up again as the ball is coming at him. His eyes are travelling in the opposite direction to the trajectory of the delivery, moving up as the ball is coming down. This is affecting his ability to properly judge line and length.

In the same paper, Vic Marks says the performances of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel highlighted the gulf between the two sides.

In the Independent, James Lawton says Collingwood's gritty performances was the biggest positive England could take from the series, but unfortunately, it had to be dwarfed by Pietersen's diminishing reputation as a hero.

Despite sharing the series with a lionhearted performance, it was still a patchy home summer for South Africa, writes Rob Houwing in Sport 24.

In the Daily Mail, Nasser Hussain feels Andrew Strauss should go to Bangladesh and allow Alastair Cook to concentrate on his batting. He also feels that Trott should move down the order and allow Ian Bell to take the No.3 slot.

In the Times, Mike Atherton writes that there was a kind of minor heroism in the solid figure of Paul Collingwood, however, who top-scored in the second innings, as he had in the first. Collingwood apart, England’s batting was woeful, as it was under par for most of the series.

	Plenty to do ponder? Yes and no, thinks David Gower © Getty Images

David Gower, writing in the Sunday Times, believes England captain Andrew Strauss should definitely lead the side to Bangladesh after their South Africa tour ends. Bangladesh should not be treated as a glorified club team, and Gower does not think a hiatus helps the team dynamic.

Once you get the job, my view is that you stick at it. Those of us who have been sacked know that the England captaincy can be a precarious position. When you have achieved a position of some strength, as Strauss has with an Ashes win and a decent showing here in South Africa, you should be keen to improve things further. Apart from anything else, there are issues that still need to be resolved in this team.

Martin Johnson, in the same paper, says
the joke is on the third umpire Daryl Harper but that nobody is finding too much to laugh about during the fourth Test in Johannesburg.

	The current England side embodies Paul Collingwood © Getty Images

In the Independent, Angus Fraser says that Paul Collingwood being England's player of the series highlights how events in South Africa have unfolded and where the team needs to improve if they wish to reach the top of the world Test rankings.

Collingwood has many admirable qualities, several of which are too often taken for granted or forgotten, but when his Test career comes to an end he will not be remembered as a match-winner. Collingwood's predicament is no fault of his own; often it is just the way the game works. There are other players who are hugely unreliable and put in the occasional performance but it results in a win. Great teams possess both types of player.

After a forgettable second day's play in Johannesburg for England, the Times' Mike Atherton says the tourists' attack looked haggled. England, increasingly, feel aggrieved that the review system, far from being a neutral, automated process, has taken on a South African bias in this match.

Given England’s selection, there was much focus on Sidebottom, who, although accurate enough, failed to suggest that the selectors were right to prefer him to Graham Onions after a month on the sidelines. Red-faced and pouting, he gave the permanent impression of a kettle simmering, forever about to reach boiling point.

	Kevin Pietersen's dismissal left England reeling on the first morning at the Wanderers © Getty Images

Ian Bell's evisceration by a superb ball from Dale Steyn was deflating enough but England's worst, and widening nightmare, is the continued deterioration of both Kevin Pietersen's confidence and timing. The key was Steyn's ability to undermine English confidence almost every time he ran in, writes James Lawton in the Independent.

The sadness of seeing a player who owns the possibility of greatness slipping away from the height of his powers, at a time when he should be moving towards the zenith of his talent, is acute in any circumstances. There was, however, a still sharper poignancy here when you remembered that this is a ground where Pietersen first returned to his homeland in the colours of England and not so much endured the derision of his former compatriots but turned it against them with brilliant strokeplay and apparently the lightest of hearts.

England might be very pleased with themselves, up 1-0 in the Test series in South Africa, but it is reasonable to question whether the selectors have been vindicated, says Duncan Fletcher in the Guardian.

England have been unable to bowl out South Africa in two Tests. And if those games were played out again, South Africa would have won them far more often than not...Durban aside, these were not convincing results. England's seamers have been out‑bowled and that has put the batsmen under enormous pressure. So you have to conclude that while the batsmen have done their job, the bowlers have not.

Kevin Pietersen had a hunted look when he left the field in Cape Town after being dismissed for the second time. The present circumstances call for a serious statement of intent, and James Lawton in the Independent believes the timing could not be better for Pietersen to re-establish some of his old aura .

In his blog on the Wisden Cricketer website, John Stern believes there's plenty of evidence to indicate that England are doing more than okay without Andrew Flintoff.

Graeme Smith's side are on the verge of being the first pot-isolation South Africa team not to win at least one Test in an entire home summer. Rob Houwing fears the widespread recriminations in Sport24.co.za.

Ashwell Prince is fighting to save his career at the moment, after being one of South Africa's most prolific batsmen over the past three years. Zaahier Adams in iol.co.za finds it strange that South Africa would risk an untested opener in Prince when an experienced one in AB De Villiers, who has done the job at Test and franchise level before, was available.

With regard to Makhaya Ntini, Mike Atherton in the Times queries why there has only been one black African cricketer of note in the past 15 years.

Three of Tsolekile’s peer group in Langa went on to play for the South Africa football team. Football is an African game here, in a way that cricket and rugby union cannot match. And with the football World Cup coming, and investment aimed almost solely at making sure the tournament is a success [— 12 billion rands (about £992 million) is being spent on building or redeveloping football stadiums ]— cricket is likely to fall even farther behind.

England coach Andy Flower will be closing in on a year in the job, from the time he took temporary charge during their tour of West Indies. However, Mike Selvey in his blog on the Guardian website believes the much-admired Flower has his work cut out if he is to last five years in the role.

Somewhere, something has to give if the ECB is to get full value from Flower over an extended period. And the answer has to be delegation. At present he might consider himself too new to trust anyone else to take on his role. But over a period of time, as he gets even more confident, he might be able to let go and recharge secure in the knowledge that things will tick over fine.

On the same website, Rob Bagchi believes memories of the rebel tours of South Africa 20 years ago should not be allowed to fade.

A rough passage also awaits Kevin Pietersen over the next few days in South Africa, and Mike Atherton in the Times says the nature of his response will reveal the direction his game will take in the coming years.

How far does quiet anonymity suit his game? It was a game that, previously, was based on self-glorification, the “look at me aren’t I brilliant?” attitude that culminated in the kind of wondrous strokeplay that, this observer at least, had rarely seen. Pietersen is not Ian Bell, nor should he try to be. Somehow over the next five days, the Brylcreem Boy has got to find his inner skunk.

Just 13 months into Test cricket, England's star spinner Graeme Swann has risen to No.5 in the Test rankings, a fact which is yet to sink in, by his own admittance. In an interview to Donald McRae in the Guardian, Swann reflects on an action-packed year, his early days as a brash young man and looks ahead to his wedding.

"The one other time I won two man of the match awards was in my first year of school rugby when I was the only guy to have played the game before. I was a doughty scrum-half – a cheeky little shit – and I'd start the fights and let the front row sort it."

Mat Prior's wicketkeeping has improved in a big way over the last year and a good reason for that is that he has found an able ally in the wicketkeeping coach Bruce French, writes Michael Atherton in the Times. While Prior’s form with the gloves has been excellent, his returns with the bat have lacked consistency. Balancing the two has been a bit of a struggle though.

Prior reckons that he got too bulky last winter and that it affected his speed of movement. He has made a conscious effort to slim down in South Africa, changing his training routine from a weights-based programme to resistance training, including more core work. He has a lighter and more toned frame and is more agile.

	England have been bailed out twice by their final pair. They can't afford it a third time © AFP

Simon Wilde in the Sunday Times believes the excitement at England leaving Cape Town with their series lead intact needs to be tempered. Though he is relieved that England's bowlers can bat, it's the shaky performance every third game from the top order that is a cause for worry.

In the same paper, David Gower expresses his concerns over Kevin Pietersen's 'rough patch' in South Africa. Gower believes a tough twelve months has possibly seen him fail to perform with the audaciousness of his previous visit five years ago.

For a man who seemed to be made of bravura and machismo, it appeared out of character but maybe it shows that he undertands the benefits of being shown a bit of appreciation. Even the best like to be patted on the back now and again. He is renowned for being a good pro and a hard worker. When that on its own is not enough to bring the right results then it is never a bad thing for a captain or manager to show a little well-judged understanding.

England's selectors must keep Andrew Flintoff away from national honours if the team are to build on the progress made in South Africa. These are the thoughts of Derek Pringle, who also mentions in the Sunday Telegraph that Flintoff's reputation has been held together by slim pickings and sutures ever since the successful 2005 Ashes campaign.

Not that captains should avoid accommodating "difficult" personalities. Not that Flintoff, the wealthiest of England's recent players, is awkward in the way Geoff Boycott or Andy Caddick was.

Yet, whenever talk in the England camp turns to big Freddie and his future, the phrase you hear most, almost as if it is insurmountable, is that "he must buy into the new dressing-room philosophy".

The seventh rebel tour to South Africa, led by Mike Gatting in the year Nelson Mandela walked free, was the most damnable of all. Paul Weaver remembers the scenes from 1990 in the Guardian.

Graeme Smith will in time be known as one of South Africa's best ever captains, believes Barry Richards, but come Thursday he has to overcome his own and his side's frustration at the feeling that the gods are against them. With the likelihood of time being cut short, Smith will have to be less cautious than normal if South Africa are to level this series, writes Richards in the Daily Telegraph.

Smith's side is on the verge of being very good, and is still the only one to have beaten Australia in Australia in the last 15 years. His hundred at Cape Town, together with his captaincy, won him the man-of-the-match award and took him up to No 4 in the ICC rankings of Test batsmen. And all this is quite apart from the fact that nobody is ready to take over the captaincy from him.

England's ability to snatch draws from the jaws of certain defeat has led Mike Selvey to appreciate their "cockroach-like resilience". Writing in the Guardian, he compares the Cape Town escape with the Cardiff and Centurion classics.

There was something altogether more triumphalist in the Newlands escape, more akin to Cardiff than Centurion, where survival was a matter of relief that they had not been severely embarrassed. In Cape Town, South Africa controlled the match, and were favourites to win. At Centurion, England had 96 overs to bat out for the draw, were doing so comfortably, and then slumped. Cardiff was a game they should have lost and did not; Centurion was one they should have drawn and came within a whisker of fouling up. This time, Graeme Smith had an additional 45 overs in which to bowl England out, 40 more than Ricky Ponting had at Sophia Gardens. That his bowlers have twice failed to deliver the coup de grace will be a cause for concern.

He however cautions the visitors from getting carried away by the escape and wants them to focus on the inconsistency of their batsmen, particularly Kevin Pietersen.

Analysts have studied his game microscopically and come to the conclusion that he is unsettled by the short ball, and then discomfited by a pace bowler pitching full and straight. In the first innings at Newlands, Steyn's searing bouncer was followed by a full delivery on off-stump that Pietersen knocked straight back to the bowler. Second time around, Steyn did not even bother with the bouncer, of which the mere threat was a sufficient distraction, and Pietersen played all round a straight delivery to be lbw.

South Africa have dominated two Tests in this series without managing to deliver results in either, and now need to win in Johannesburg to salvage it. Paul Harris' series average has ballooned past 40, prompting Rob Houwing to wonder in sport24.co.za whether South Africa should beef up their pace attack for the final Test.

After yet another over-my-dead-body final day batting effort from Paul Collingwood, Michael Atherton - a man who has played some great match-saving innings himself - analyses in the Times just what makes Collingwood so special.

Mindset is vital. A batsman knows he is setting out on a defensive course, but he must remain positive and be prepared to hit the bad ball. A positive attitude will, in turn, help his feet to move quickly and help him to be committed in defence. But he needs also to eliminate risk; to work out which shots against which bowlers are dangerous in the conditions. Be disciplined, then, as Collingwood was yesterday in his refusal to play any cross-bat shots on a pitch he knew to be slow and low.

Also read Simon Hughes' account of the enthralling battle between Collingwood and Dale Steyn once the new ball was taken in the Daily Telegraph.

Just weeks after being embarrassingly bowled leaving a Paul Harris delivery, Ian Bell has produced a scrapping innings that showed off his temperament and grit. After his nearly five-hour vigil in the second innings helped save the Cape Town Test, no one can question whether he's mentally strong enough for the international level, writes Steve James in the Daily Telegraph.

Only the exceptionally mean-minded will surely even question now. This was his moment of truth and he answered it emphatically. He may not have actually been there at the end, but he saved his team from defeat. There were no easy, pretty runs on offer here.

Vic Marks writes in the Guardian that in the toughest of situations, Bell has played his finest innings, which should earn him some respite from the arm-chair critics.

When Bell came to the crease in the morning the pitch was still true, but the situation was already taut. He dealt with the crisis points adroitly.

There were no great alarms in the first few minutes when every batsman is vulnerable. He did not leave deliveries from Harris. Against the second new ball, another crisis moment, he was fortuitous in that he found himself at Morne Morkel's end. Normally this is not the place to be, but Steyn bowled a spell of superb quality mostly at Collingwood (29 deliveries out of 36). Still he played Morkel skilfully.

The third crisis was when Collingwood departed, soon to be followed by Matt Prior. Even without the Collingwood comfort blanket he remained calm, outwardly, at least, almost to the end.

The ball-tampering allegations seemed to have blown over after South Africa did not lodge an official complaint before the deadline, but AB de Villiers has added more fuel to the fire. Here's what the papers had to say ...

In the Times, Michael Atherton says South Africa have "behaved cravenly".

Ball tampering is a serious allegation in cricket, and if you make it, as South Africa effectively did on the third evening by publicly raising their “concerns” about the state of the ball to Roshan Mahanama, the match referee, you had better be damn sure of your facts ... After letting all and sundry know that they felt England were up to no good on the third evening, South Africa ran for cover yesterday. A spokesman alerted us to a forthcoming announcement from the ICC, which arrived, in all its magnificent obfuscation, in the afternoon. The ICC, having received no formal complaint, considers the matter closed. From South Africa there was nothing.

Ed Smith, another Times columnist, offers a different view. He writes, "It is high time that ball tampering, given that everyone does it, is downgraded from its present absurd status as a crime worthy of deep shame and opprobrium."

Nasser Hussain's opinion, in the Daily Mail, is much stronger and he isn't pleased with James Anderson's behaviour.

I cannot believe, having seen incriminating pictures of Jimmy Anderson for the first time on Wednesday, that match referee Roshan Mahanama has not dragged him into his office, sat him down and asked him to explain himself. I presume Mahanama has seen the television coverage that we saw on Wednesday. And if he has not then he should have made it his business to. And those pictures showed Anderson coming very close to what you would consider to be ball-tampering.

However, David Lloyd writes in the Daily Mail that "the whole subject of ball-tampering is exaggerated in our game."

Umpires, whatever people think, are not stupid and I used to be one. The correct way to deal with something like this is what I understand exactly happened. The umpires had a word with Andrew Strauss just to remind him that they should inspect the ball at all times and that if a piece of leather protrudes then they have to deal with it, not the bowler. In effect Anderson had his wrist slapped by the umpires and that is the end of the matter. As it should be. It has gone on forever and it is no more serious that that.

With South Africa taking no action, only Michael Vaughan and local TV seem particularly exercised by Tuesday's incident, writes Paul Weaver in the Guardian.

At some point very soon, either after this game or once the series is over, Andy Flower needs to sit down with Kevin Pietersen and work out what the future holds, writes Nasser Hussain in the Daily Mail.

Watching him closely out here in South Africa, I’ve sensed he’s been a bit sidetracked. It’s not been anything obvious — just his body language and the way he’s been in the field. He looks a bit lost mentally, as if he doesn’t quite know where he’s going next. This may be down to a couple of reasons. Obviously he missed most of the Ashes hype last summer after having achilles surgery, so he may be feeling a little detached from it all. But I also think he may not quite have got the Peter Moores fiasco out of his system.

For Pietersen this has been no fairytale return to his native land. He is not inspiring much awe any more and there is the whisper that the South Africans sense a vulnerability against extreme pace in general and Dale Steyn in particular, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian.

There is no question that Test cricket has some important housekeeping to do. Yet, in this week of all weeks, there is surely no case for redesign. The old house, after all, has rarely looked in better nick, writes James Lawton in the Independent.

Test cricket, as we have seen in the last summer of the Ashes, and in the match that is still unfolding in Cape Town and the one won so dramatically by Australia against Pakistan, does not need a new shape or new rules. It just needs the faith that is required to give it the space and the time to prove what some have known all along ... Really, what kind of rival plot line could a Twenty20 collision ever seriously present to the kind of drama still unfolding at the exquisite Newlands ground?

England were not guilty of ball-tampering at Newlands on Tuesday but I do think Stuart Broad was foolish to step on the ball, an act which led to suspicion here, writes Nasser Hussain in the Daily Mail.

I do not think it was malicious or calculated even if some people are adamant he has done it before in this series. And, after what happened with Broad and the umpires over a review at Centurion, you would have thought he would want to stay away from any possibility of trouble.

But we have to remember that the ball was spinning when he stepped on it and if Broad thinks he has the ability to stick his spikes into the scuffed side of the ball in that situation then he is in the wrong game. He should be a footballer!

Miracles happen, increasingly so in modern cricket with pitches that might have been prepared by Dorian Gray so young and unblemished do they remain throughout a Test, but with two days of the third Test remaining all the indications are that England and South Africa will decamp to the Wanderers next week all square and ready to shoot it out for the series, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.

In the Times, Mike Atherton says: "The scene is set for a charge on the fourth morning and a declaration in the afternoon, after which England must steel themselves against South Africa’s pace attack. They will need to show resolve against a team whose competitive spirit and fighting instincts have been impressively displayed these past three days and who will have noticed the frayed English tempers as the fielders and bowlers wilted in the heat."

The Umpire Review Decision System was introduced with the aim of correcting umpiring howlers and it did just that on day three at Newlands. Paul Weaver has more in the Guardian.

It happened at the start of South Africa's second innings. With the last ball of the third over, bowled by Jimmy Anderson, Ashwell Prince wafted at a ball going down the leg-side and was given out by Mr Harper. A horrified Prince asked for a referral and the bashful Mr Harper [he keeps his bashfulness to hand because it is required at regular intervals] reversed the decision. Perhaps the official thought, wrongly, that Prince was walking, for he left his crease briefly. But it classified as an official howler.

Most South Africans love a braai but there was something beyond mere appetite driving South Africa’s captain, Graeme Smith, after he scored a momentous 162 and it smelt like revenge, writes Derek Pringle in the Telegraph.

The second day of the Cape Town Test was far from dull because the seamers really made the batsmen work hard for their runs and a lot of credit should go to the way the South Africans bowled, writes Michael Atherton in the Times. Makhaya Ntini’s omission helped, but the suspicion remains that this improvement was more to do with South Africa’s sharply honed competitive instincts rising to the fore again in the wake of the embarrassment of Kingsmead.

As well as South Africa fought, England may feel that they had too much of a hand in their own downfall with the bat. The pitch was a little two-paced and South Africa maintained an impressive discipline throughout, but too many batsmen got themselves in and then got themselves out, either through anxiety, overconfidence or a mixture of both.

Neither Alastair Cook nor Ian Bell could produce the decisive innings on the second day but at least they kept England in the game, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian. However both would have been disappointed by their dismissals.

This is proving to be tight and bewitching series. The one way in which England have shown more initiative than their opponents, is when playing the opposition's spinner. They have attacked Harris more purposefully and more successfully than the South Africans have Graeme Swann.

In the Telegraph, Simon Briggs writes that Graeme Smith has responded well to the immense pressure he's under to put the fight back in to South Africa.

Two evenly poised days in Cape Town represent a victory in themselves for the South Africans. The speed, and manner, of their Durban capitulation went against all the qualities – toughness, pride, determination – that this team hold dear. It must have been an awkward task to turn the dressing room around after such a below-par display, even if the omission of Makhaya Ntini solved one of the most glaring problems.

Ian Bell, England's 'pretty boy' has been hampered by familiar failings, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent.

Bell did a whole heap of pretty things. The cover drive with which he got off the mark was matched by a second a few minutes later. But he was not all showy, he was prepared, it seemed, to tough it out. This was Bell's big chance to persuade his critics that they have misjudged him: he has never scored England's only hundred in an innings, indeed he has never scored the first.

I would rather be in Andrew Strauss's position than Smith's at the close of the first day. With six South African wickets down, England just about shaded it, writes Nasser Hussain in the Daily Mail.

The only thing I would say is that I am not sure Andrew Strauss got his field settings exactly right when Swann was bowling to Kallis. The England captain could have toyed with him a bit more rather than sticking to the in and out field which allowed Kallis to accumulate without any undue risk. There is little point trying to be more patient than Kallis because he is never going to lose it and play a reckless shot.

Mike Selvey does not share that opinion. Writing in the Guardian, he says, "South Africa shaded it here today ... This does not promise to be a high-scoring match and should the South African bowlers fire, as they are due to do, it will require similar diligence from the England batsmen if they are to stay in touch."

In the Times, Mike Atherton says England simply have to make their first innings count.

For that to happen, England’s top six may care to look at Jacques Kallis who, amid the wreckage of South African batsmanship, has stood tall. Test match batsmen pride themselves on their ability to score runs in all situations, but first-innings runs, which often dictate the course of a game, are especially prized. Three times now he has prospered in the first innings of this series, a hundred in Pretoria followed by a half-century in Durban and now a hundred on his home turf.

Jacques Kallis never seems to deal in the trivial when the monumental will do and just when his team appeared to be ceding control on the opening day of the third Test, he restores their chances with an unbeaten hundred that keeps South Africa in the contest, for now, says Derek Pringle in the Telegraph.

When James Anderson dismissed Graeme Smith, the South Africa captain, straight after lunch, it gave him his 150th Test wicket and elevated him into distinguished company. Only 18 other England bowlers had reached such a figure before and Anderson, at 27, has plenty of power to add, writes Simon Wilde in the Times.

David Gower, writing in the Sunday Times, says England, under Andrew Strauss, should ensure they don't let a position of advantage, which they have reached this series, slip like South Africa had earlier in the year. He compares Strauss to Michael Vaughan and says there are similarities in approaches between the two, though Strauss is yet to encounter the nail-biting pressure situations that Vaughan tackled so well.

Overall, the England captaincy appears to be in good hands. From the outside the captain is like an iceberg, in that we don’t see the bulk of his work in the dressing room and at close quarters with his players. We do see him at press conferences and in television interviews, where he handles himself with aplomb. The trick from his end is to avoid any of the traps set by the inquisitors, but even they are less cunning than they once were.

In the Independent on Sunday, Stephen Brenkley looks at what's changed for England since the Moores-Pietersen meltdown just a year ago.

Strauss, it can be seen in hindsight, should have been captain two years earlier. But had that happened he might have been drubbed in Australia (as was Andrew Flintoff) and fizzled out. Yet the selectors should not be patting themselves on the back. He was always an obvious choice. It is what selectors are paid for. Flower was more of a risk because he was an appointment from within.

Steve James, in the Sunday Telegraph, says England are well equipped to reverse the trend at their worst venue in South Africa. And so does Nasser Hussain, in his daily dossier in the Mail on Sunday.

In the Observer, Vic Marks says England have blossomed under Andy Flower's careful cultivation and that the coach and captain Andrew Strauss make a brilliant combination.

Mike Atherton, writing in the Times, says Andy Flower's tenure as coach has thus far been a triumph for the side, which was in turmoil following the Pietersen-Moores saga. On the eve of the Cape Town Test, Atherton suggests South Africa have to be more attacking, which is their usual style of play and a means that will help them conquer Graeme Swann.

Flower’s strengths are simple ones: he does not overcomplicate the game; he has the strength of mind to ignore the often shrill voices that accompany the team; he has formed a quite superb working relationship with Andrew Strauss; and he is not what Roy Keane used to call a “bluffer”.

Angus Fraser, in the Independent, agrees that hitting Swann out of the attack is the way to go for South Africa, for the ploy would mean that England's seamers would have to bowl longer spells, thereby reducing their potency.

What makes this situation even more perplexing is that South Africa have Duncan Fletcher, the former England coach, in their ranks. One of Fletcher's greatest assets with England was his ability to coach batsmen to overcome spin bowling. His work helped England complete memorable series victories over Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Australia.

Duncan Fletcher, in the Guardian, says the heavy workload England's four-man attack has to bear might be their main weakness going into the Cape Town Test. Performances, like in Durban, are difficult to sustain, and the preparation England have undergone in the build-up to the Test will be key to how they perform, he says.

Nassier Hussain thinks England are pretty well equipped to reverse their win-less trend at Newlands. Read his daily dossier in the Daily Mail.

Mike Atherton, writing in the Times, speaks of the change he's witnessed in Graeme Swann from the time he was picked in the squad for South Africa ten years ago to his recent success. Maturity and change in attitude, he says, are two of the several factors contributing to his impressive performance. He adds that if Swann is to be considered truly world-class, he has to distinguish himself in the sub-continent.

What were the doubts that caused the England selectors, who had clearly seen something in the cygnet when they picked him for the tour to South Africa ten years ago, to balk at playing him in the final XI until 2008? There were two issues, neither related, both of which Swann has put firmly to bed.

The first was temperament, which a decade ago was just the wrong side of cocky and which has been slightly modified through maturity. The other was the nagging doubts of those in authority then that an “orthodox” finger spinner could succeed in a game increasingly dominated by wrist spinners, or off spinners who offered something different by way of a “doosra”.

	South Africa need to be more attacking against Graeme Swann © Getty Images

Simon Wilde, writing in the Times, says England have found an excellent bowling combination in the architects of their win in Durban, Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad, for a fast bowler and a spinner bowling in tandem pose a classic test of a batsman’s technique and mental staying power.

It can be a wearing examination and Morne Morkel’s dismissal early on the final day in Durban showed that it had taken its toll on him. The night before Morkel had been getting well forward to Graeme Swann but when play resumed he appeared to quickly forgot his routines. In the second over of the day he was trapped leg-before going back to the off spinner moments after having faced Stuart Broad.

Mike Atherton, speaking to Carrie Dunn in the Times, analyses England's emphatic win in Durban and says that for South Africa to fight back, they need to come harder at Swann, who grabbed his second five-wicket haul of the series.

He's ebullient and confident, in private as well as on the field, and dealing with him will be something South Africa have to look at before the next Test. They'll be thinking, "He's got a five-fer, he took nine wickets in the match, so if we're going to get back in the series we're going to have to think of a way to cope with him." I think they'll have to play more aggressively against him.

In the Daily Telegraph, Simon Hughes chronicles the way England went about winning the first Test and adds that despite the significance of an innings victory, the team led by Andrew Strauss is not one that will rest on its laurels.

Writing in the Guardian, former England coach Duncan Fletcher says the key to England's comprehensive victory was some intelligent bowling from their four-pronged attack.

Nasser Hussain calls England's effort "as complete a performance by England as I have seen for a very long time" in his daily dossier in the Daily Mail.

One down and two more to go and the nature of South Africa's defeat only adds to the anticipation of what will happen at Cape Town, the home team's fortress. Suddenly, the South Africans are forced to play a brand of cricket they're not used to, the kind which Ricky Ponting's Australians demonstrated at the MCG, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian. Moreover, they will have to try and attack Graeme Swann, a tactic which is fraught with risks.

Generally Ponting's first priority is to give his bowlers enough time to win the game (though this may change in a tight Ashes series), the South African way is to ensure that the opposition do not have a chance of winning and only then to press for victory. Now Smith's team may have to swerve.

Such an emphatic defeat often prompts calls for sweeping changes. This rarely happens in modern, squad-orientated international cricket, where security of tenure is so treasured. But in the South African side there are several players suddenly under severe scrutiny in a country where the supporters routinely expect victory. Ashwell Prince, JP Duminy, Paul Harris and Makhaya Ntini are all under pressure.

South Africa committed some glaring, the most basic mistakes on the fourth day in Durban, and their display of non-resistance, especially after tea, revealed a serious mental block, says Simon Briggs in the Daily Telegraph.

But at least Australia tried to play the ball. For the South Africans, their display of non-resistance suggested a serious mental block. For players of this quality to make such basic mistakes, the whole dressing room must have entered a state of blue funk.

Nasser Hussain, in his daily dossier in the Daily Mail, lauds Ian Bell for his pressure-relieving century which set up the possibility of an England win. But Mike Norrish, in the Daily Telegraph, says Bell's had it easy when scoring hundreds, for they've usually come on comfortable tracks with at least one other England batsman having reached three-figures in the same innings.

Graeme Swann rattled South Africa with a three-wicket burst in Durban, and his success this year - he is the second-highest wicket-taker - is in some measure a consequence of some bold captaincy from Andrew Strauss, who has displayed more confidence in the art of spin than many of his predecessors, writes Patrick Kidd in the Times.

Like all great showmen, Swann grabs the attention early on. No easing into a comfortable routine. This is the man whose Test career began little more than a year ago with two wickets in his first over: big scalps, too, in Gautam Gambhir and Rahul Dravid.

Swann particularly likes left-handers. Thirty-seven of his 60 Test victims have been left-handers and 24 of those were bowled, stumped or leg-before, the dismissals a spin bowler values most.

Lawrence Booth in his blog on the Wisden Cricketer website believes such has been Swann’s impact this year that he could probably ask to open the batting and bowling and Strauss would agree, without quite knowing why.

Vic Marks, in the Guardian, dubs Swann as a first-over specialist, given his tendency to answer his captain's call almost immediately after being brought on early.

Nasser Hussain, in his daily dossier in the Daily Mail, lauds Alastair Cook for his century in Durban, attributing the knock to his mental strength, but adds that players and experts alike must not burden him with the talk of captaincy.

The Future England Captain thing was something that Mike Atherton was stuck with from a young age and I'm not sure that being in charge of the team in Bangladesh should be top of Cook's list of priorities right now.

He is still a young man, at 25, and his concentration has to be solely on batting for England and building on this display of patience and application.

Christopher Martin-Jenkins, in the Times, looks back on England's tour of South Africa in 1956-57 and compares it with the one underway. He points out some of the similarities and also some glaring differences, many of which lay off the field than on.

But the biggest changes have come in the pace of the tour off the field. Part of the charm of the MCC film is cine taken by Trevor Bailey and others of the extracurricular fun. We see them, between matches, big-sea fishing, visiting the Victoria Falls, relaxing on the beach and hacking round a golf course. Colin Cowdrey plays the fool before the camera. Jim Laker, who had a deflating tour after his triumphant Ashes series the previous summer, spoons his way out of a bunker, fag in mouth, phlegmatic as ever.

Graeme Swann is very much likely to end 2009 as the second-highest wicket-taker. What has clicked for him this year? His variations, his perseverance, the proliferation of left-handers in international cricket and most interestingly, UDRS, writes Simon Hughes in the Daily Telegraph.

His most important ally, however, is off the field. It is not a human either. It is Hawk-Eye. The increasing acceptance of the ball-tracking system is inducing umpires to give more batsmen out lbw. In fact, this decade is the first in the history of Test cricket when more batsmen have been dismissed lbw than bowled. Hawk-Eye first appeared on TV screens in 2001.

The main beneficiaries have been spinners. At the beginning of the decade, batsmen "kicked" spinners' best deliveries away with impunity, confident that no umpire would have the temerity to give them out if their bat and pad were close together. Hawk-Eye has consistently shown many of these balls to be hitting the wicket and therefore lbw candidates.

Vic Marks, in the Observer, agrees with Hughes, saying that the review system has benefited spinners more than anyone else and that decisions that would never have gone in their favour some years prior are now doing so.

Makhaya Ntini began the series amid accolades for playing his 100th Test but his performance with the ball in the first Test and his three overs for 25 on the second day in Durban indicate his bowling prowess is on the decline, writes Simon Wilde in the Sunday Times.

He bowled well enough in the early stages of England’s first innings of the first Test — just about. His opening burst was lively enough, livelier than we had been led to believe it might be, but his later spells lacked the energy of old and it was obvious that Smith was having to nurse him.

Ntini is also the subject of Nasser Hussain's attention in his daily dossier in the Daily Mail. He says South Africa will have to think long and hard before they leave Friedel de Wet out of the third Test.

England made better use of the UDRS on the second day in Durban than they did in Centurion but the system still has its loopholes, writes Geoffrey Dean in the Times. He says tail-enders, especially, can abuse the system when a team still has referrals remaining.

David Gower, writing in the Sunday Times, says Ian Bell has to score well in Durban to get pressure off his back amid questions over his place in the side. He compares Bell's situation to his own in 1990, when, under Graham Gooch, he battled a similar phase and emerged successful.

Being dismissed leg-before by Atul Wassan for eight in the first innings was not going to do it for me. Luckily, we were asked to follow on and when Gooch and Mike Atherton had bedded in via their own respective styles, I found myself flat on my back with my eyes closed, listening to the game from inside the dressing room in the final session of the fourth day.

When Gooch got out I was up and walking out to the wicket to find it was still a lovely summer evening and that with a mind uncluttered by anything in particular, just letting all my natural instincts get to work was all that was needed. I rather enjoyed the time at the crease that evening and remember feeling miffed that the moment for stumps to be drawn had arrived all too quickly.

In the same newspaper, Simon Wilde says England must display more faith in Graham Onions whose reliability and consistency has reaped rewards.

The qualities of Onions can be easily overlooked. He is not demonstrative and he doesn’t bowl balls that fly high into the wicketkeeper’s gloves. But he gives 100%, has a dependable action and a dependable personality, as everybody saw when he blocked out the nail-biting final over from Makhaya Ntini to save the Centurion Test.

When Onions dismissed Shane Watson and Mike Hussey with the first two balls of the second day of the Edgbaston Test, it showed he can put the ball on the spot from the very start. Unlike some bowlers, he doesn’t need to feel his way into things, as we saw yesterday when his first seven overs yielded four runs. He may be a close friend and teammate of Harmison’s, but they don’t drink from the same water.

In the Sunday Telegraph, Barry Richards lauds Jacques Kallis for his determined 75 and terms him as the best player in Test cricket over the past decade.

Mike Atherton, writing in the Times, says Andrew Strauss could be confronted with a tricky choice at the toss for the second Test in Durban. Though recent results show that the track is the best for fast bowlers in the country, prompting the captains to bowl first, the contests between the two teams at the venue have revealed a contrasting trend.

The bowlers will be looking forward with greater expectation to the conditions in Durban. A combination of recent rains, high humidity and a pitch — the fabled “green mamba” — that offers more bounce than anywhere in South Africa has encouraged a majority of captains since South Africa were readmitted into international cricket to put in the opposition. The pitch on Christmas Eve looked green, with plentiful cracks underneath the grass, although events in Centurion showed the folly of making your mind up too soon. Things might have changed by today.

In the Independent, Stephen Brenkley says England are likely to stick to the same outfit that played out a draw in Centurion but wonders if the combination can ever prove a winning one, as most of England's wins in recent years have come with the use of five frontline bowlers.

England will probably be minded to stick with the team with which they began on the grounds that it did not lose and therefore deserves another shot. It was impossible to see where 20 wickets were coming from then and it has not become any clearer now.

The case for a four-man attack is obvious: it allows you to play six batsmen. But all England's main successes of the past few years have come with five authentic bowlers – the Ashes 2005 and 2009, victory in South Africa in 2005. Only against Pakistan at home in 2006 did four bowlers do the trick when the batsmen all did their stuff.

Michael Vaughan turns the focus to Ian Bell in the Daily Telegraph. He says Bell faces plenty of pressure as he prepares for the second Test, and though he is likely to be picked there will be a lot weighing on his mind, including his Test future.

In his daily dossier in the Daily Mail, Nasser Hussain argues in favour of selecting Luke Wright for the Durban Test as a bowling option that would help England take 20 wickets to win the game.

Barry Richards believes that the discussions over Dale Steyn’s fitness and availablilty for the Durban Test are all part of mind-games in the lead-up to the match. Writing in the Telegraph, Richards adds that the hosts have the ascendancy going into Boxing Day and can further their cause by picking Steyn ahead of Makhaya Ntini.

When the South Africans say Steyn is doubtful for Kingsmead, it might be part of these mind games that are going on now. It is difficult for players really to analyse an opponent until they know he is definitely going to play.

South Africa have to make a decision about Makhaya Ntini. He has been such a wonderful servant, and needs to be respected for the 100 Tests he has played, but he has lost a little of his nip. My information is that he will play the second Test because he is so good against left-handers Strauss and Cook with the new ball. After that, though, I don't think the selectors would mind if he saved them the trouble of whispering in his ear.

Duncan Fletcher hopes that Alastair Cook can deliver the goods in Durban. Writing in the Guardian, the former England coach believes that Cook will do well to focus on his game instead of worrying too much about his role as the team's vice-captain.

As captain, even as vice-captain, you need to have broader horizons, to be thinking about your team-mates. Cook should be concentrating entirely on his own game, not thinking too widely. The vice-captaincy has just added another external pressure on to him. There is no sense in training a player up to be a captain anyway. Leaders are born, not made, and if a player has the right mindset he will naturally acquire the knowledge he needs as his experience grows.

Gone are the days when families used to accompany players on tours and join the Christmas festivities. Sometimes, things got a little out of hand. Tours were full of little anecdotes, reminisces Mike Selvey in the Guardian.

Gone forever is what became the traditional Christmas morning drinks party hosted by the press. No more, either, the fancy dress Christmas dinner. David Lloyd, Bumble, was telling me yesterday how, when he was team coach, they had a themed party where every player had to come as another team member. The lad who arrived carrying a cricket stump with a white hand towel wrapped around each end won the contest when he announced that he was Andrew Caddick and this was a necessarily giant cotton bud. Meanwhile, Wayne Morton, the team physio, had been charged with providing a present for each member. Dominic Cork, Bumble recalls, was given a can of Boddington's, because, said Morton, "you are indeed a bitter man".

Pick Ian Bell for Durban or not? In the Times, Michael Atherton says England's dilemma is similar to what happened a few months ago after they were trampled over by an innings at Headingley in the Ashes. There, the decision to drop the No.6 batsman for The Oval worked wonders. He adds that if England are looking for balance, they can pick Liam Plunkett because his batting has improved considerably over the past couple of years.

It would be easier to understand England playing the same side now than the original selection. Selectors do not like changing the team after only one match, because it suggests an error has been made and it is the kind of error that can quickly cause players to lose faith in those passing judgment upon them, something that can affect the morale of the dressing room badly. It is why those initial decisions need to be taken with such care and why it is important to get them right.

In his column for the Guardian, former England coach Duncan Fletcher says Andrew Strauss erred by misreading the Centurion pitch and played into South Africa's hands by opting to bowl. He emphasises the valuable contribution by Graeme Swann, adding that he should have been introduced into the attack earlier on the first day.