Sport 22-12-2004 England Cricketers Make History who: England cricket team what: Wins record eighth consecutive Test match where: Port Elizabeth, South Africa when: Yesterday snippet: "It took Andrew Strauss and Graham Thorpe only 37 minutes yesterday to score the 49 runs this England team required for a place in the history books," says Angus Fraser in The Independent as Michael Vaughan`s boys became the only England side to win eight Test matches in succession. "The England cricket side, once as hackneyed a subject for joking as mothers-in-law, have got serious," says Simon Barnes, chief sports writer at The Times. "They play serious cricket and they win serious cricket matches. And they are beginning to win games because the opposition are frightened of them." Moreover, this is seemingly not a team that has already reached its peak. New talent is still bursting through and this latest Test is most notable for "the remarkable rise of Andrew Strauss from county stalwart to one of the world`s leading opening batsmen in little more than six months," says The Guardian`s Mike Selvey. "Unbeaten on 51 overnight, he so dominated the remainder of an unbroken fourth-wicket partnership of 95 with Graham Thorpe that the square cut from Makhaya Ntini that finished the match left him unbeaten on 94, to add to his 126 of the first innings." "Given that England`s sinews and attitudes are hardening by the day, it is difficult to see how their winning streak will not be extended in Durban, where the second Test begins on Boxing Day," predicts The Telegraph`s Derek Pringle. [... more]

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