England named team of the year by the BBC as their new challenge gets underway

ENGLAND were named team of the year at the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year awards last night for their epic Ashes triumph last summer.

The players, watching a satellite feed of the ceremony from their hotel in Sandton near Johannesburg, roared when they were handed the accolade for beating Australia, then the world's top ranked Test nation.

Captain Andrew Strauss said: "It's a truly great honour for us and the lads are chuffed to bits. It has been a long and arduous 12 months with lots of ups and downs, and we have stuck together through some pretty tough times. That, ultimately, is what got us over the line in the Ashes."

But this morning attention turns to the Test series against South Africa which starts in Centurion on Wednesday.

Two days before the first Test they are already 2-0 up – in the injury stakes.

While South Africa's wounded warriors Jacques Kallis and Dale Steyn continue to struggle, England's stricken seamers Jimmy Anderson (right) and Ryan Sidebottom both arrived back at high altitude yesterday with real match time under their belts.

Coach Andy Flower's men head to the nearby University of Pretoria today for an in-the-middle training session where both Anderson and Sidebottom will be given the final all-clear to start a series which has captured the imagination here after England's shock 2-1 win in the one-day series, South Africa's first defeat on home soil since 2002.

With his baffling knee injury easing, Anderson bowled 15 overs on Saturday and took a wicket against the South African invitation eleven in East London while Sidebottom took a highly encouraging 5-42. Strauss said: "I'm not overly concerned. There is an element of risk with Jimmy, but it's a small one. Even when his knee has been hurting quite a lot, it still hasn't prevented him from bowling.

"I don't think you can be totally sure how Jimmy feels until we see how his knee settles down this week. On Saturday he bowled three spells and he didn't seem like he had any ill-effects. That is encouraging, and all the way through this tour that knee has gradually been getting better.

"We've obviously got to be confident he can up that workload even more for the Test match. We'll have to judge it pretty carefully. But at the moment, we're quite confident."

Strauss added: "Jimmy, Ryan and Graeme Swann are all bowling well but we've got to put in a bit of work in the next two days at altitude before the Test starts.

"We will have to wait to see what the conditions are like at Centurion. If it looks like there will be help for the bowlers we'll probably go in with four bowlers. We shall see.

"This first Test in crucial in a four-Test series. We've got to win this first one."

South Africa's key all-rounder Kallis, who suffered a broken rib in October, was only able to have a "gentle net" at the hosts' pre-series camp in Potchefstroom yesterday after two days in a oxygen chamber while their quickest bowler Steyn was bowling at "80 percent".

South African coach Mickey Arthur said: "There are still concerns about Dale's hamstring and Jacques’ problem. The conservative option would be to play Ryan McLaren as our all-rounder. We don't want to be in a position where the guys are uncertain on the morning of the game."

The inexperienced McLaren is no like-for-like replacement for Kallis though and with England’s top-order batsmen Alastair Cook, Strauss, Kevin Pietersen, Jonathan Trott and Paul Collingwood all in form heading into the Tests, the locals fear England may have the edge on batting depth.

Former England coach Duncan Fletcher spent most of yesterday in the nets with Morne Morkel, clearly trying to improve the paceman’s durability as a late order batsman. As he wrestles over the length of his tail, Arthur admitted he could even give a debut to Alviro Petersen. Arthur said: "We have pretty much covered all bases and ultimately it will be up to us to make the right decision. First prize is a fit Jacques Kallis.

"By Wednesday we will have a very good indication of where he is. It has felt a lot better, but we won't know until we put it through proper training, bowling for spells and batting, and only then will we be able to make a decision. He spent two days in the oxygen camber and we just hope that speeds up the recovery."

South Africa need to win the series 2-0 to retake their position at the top of the world Test rankings from India but they haven’t played Test cricket for four months with Arthur lamenting: "It's about time, I'm really looking forward to getting back into Test match mode. It's where we are really challenged as a team. Fighting and attritional qualities comes through. Test cricket is still the ultimate in our dressing room."

Without Kallis though, the locals are seriously worried about a Test series they expected to win when England and their four locally-born tourists first landed for the wham-bang early stages of this tour. With the Ashes and the one-day series neatly tucked under the belts, England – ranked fifth in the world as opposed to South Africa in second – are 33-10 with the bookmakers while the hosts are 13-10 favourites.

But the way it’s rained in South Africa so far this summer – England have spent nearly half their tour watching the summer downpours – you’d have to consider the 14-10 on a draw with the sides heading to Durban on Boxing Day all square.

Anderson ready to inject pace... hopefully

THE good news for England came off the pitch at Buffalo Park in East London yesterday, where the rain came down with England 142-3 in their warm-up for the Test series.

While Essex’s Alastair Cook produced a solid 66 not out against a South African invitation side before for the first Test in soggy Centurion next Wednesday, James Anderson was the talk of a town with not much to talk about when he turned up without strapping on his injured knee.

Seamer Anderson, who took a best-ever 5-23 despite his injury in the decisive One-Day International against South Africa in Port Elizabeth nine days ago, faces further injections in the troublesome joint and could play in the second warm-up later this week.

Having caught up with the squad after staying in Durban for further examination of his knee, Anderson only batted in nets yesterday and coach Andy Flower said: “Jimmy had more injections on Saturday to try to settle things down. He’s reacted well. He’ll play later this week and hopefully he’ll be ready for the Test.

“We are concerned about it. He's one of our main bowlers, he's our strike bowler. He needs a little more time without any bowling and we are giving him that. Two days of middle of practice in the second game should be sufficient for Jimmy."

But it won’t be sufficient for struggling Yorkshire leg-spinner Adil Rashid. The major disappointment of a triumphant one-day series, Rashid has been sent 1,000 miles inland to join the Performance Squad in Pretoria. Flower said: “We have got Graeme Swann with us, so I think it was a good opportunity for Adil to play a four-day game up there on a good pitch and allow Swann four days of cricket here."

But it was Kent’s Joe Denly who impressed for the youngsters. He completed a double hundred on day two against Nashua Titans.

Resuming on 188, Denly added a further 29 to see him past his landmark in a game which does not carry first-class status, while Ajmal Shahzad hit a swift 33 in a stand of 71 for the eighth wicket.

The EPP racked up 425-9 declared, before Shazhad and Sajid Mahmood then shared seven wickets as the hosts were bowled out for 235. Rashid didn't feature among the wicket-takers.

Record-breaking Collingwood's clout of Africa

PAUL COLLINGWOOD take a bow. Two wickets and an undefeated century as he broke Alec Stewart's record of 170 England one-day international appearances - and South Africa crushed by seven wickets. What a day for the Man of the Match. Oh, and typically, a flying catch at backward point to dismiss danger man AB De Villiers for two.

The Durham dynamo (left, with me at The Oval earlier this year) ended with 2-24 off six overs with the ball as South Africa could only manage 250-9 off their 50 overs at Centurion. Then, with a little help from Jonathan Trott, 87, and Eoin Morgan, 27 off just 18 balls, Colly scored a magnificent 105 off 110 to see England home.

Home captain Graeme Smith, who gets more articulate by the day since his early, clumsy attempts at verbalising on his first tour in charge here back in 2005, was left admitting candidly: "I think the realisation has dawned that we're in for a long, hard summer of cricket against England.

"Credit to them, they bowled well and we were 30 runs short. I think we were a little soft with a few dismissals in the middle. I'd like to congratulate Paul Collingwood...and we will have to be at out best from now on."

How's that for a change of mood? Just a week ago, South Africa raced to a record Twenty20 victory at the same ground (curiously the hero of that game, Loots Bosman, was left out in the longer form of the game) and injury-hit England looked in all sorts of trouble despite somehow contriving to draw the two-match wham-bam series.

The 50 over game made the South Africans look impatient and under-prepared. Collingwood said: "To be fair this was a completely different track today. Last week was a quick track, the ball was coming onto the bat. I thought we bowled really well and I had great support from Trotty and Morgs.

"Jonathan just took was he does in county cricket and did it here. To be fair, his international innings so far have all been magnificent.

"It was a big day for me, but I thought the team were fantastic all the way through. I had a bad back last week but the medical staff did a great job and hopefully I'll be fine now."

As a Sunday cricketer lucky enough to have netted with Collingwood, and ghosted newspaper columns with him, you can rest assured a day like today couldn't happen to a finer fellow. A handy golfer and all-round sporting genius, Collingwood has often been lambasted for being something less than Andrew Flintoff as an all-rounder. If England are to live without Freddie, we have to start loving Colly more.

Lifted by a warm-up win against South Africa A in Potchefstroom, England were magnificent today, apart from a couple of dropped catches from captain Andrew Strauss, who also failed with the bat.

But as he picked up the magnificent R15,000 winners' cheque (that's about £1,000, which won't go far back home), Strauss was all smiles. He did all the captain had to today, winning the toss before play had even started. He said: "It was an imporant toss to win, I think the pitch flattened out a bit for us. But I was very happy with how we bowled. It was a professional performance. Paul and Jonathan played very well and hopefully we can take this forward. We aren't going to get carried away, but we're fairly happy with where we are at the moment."

With three more one-dayers to go - the first was rained off in Johannesburg on Friday - followed by the four Tests, we're all fairly happy Straussie. And as Collingwood said: "We'll just have to give the captain some catching practice."