***Official** West Indies in England***

[pasag]

Lol, I love it.

He complains about Monty when two of his "boys" are awful.

That's our Scaly.

*Cue cheesy sitcom laugh track*

 

[GIMH]

Could have been a great day this, nevermind

 

[TT Boy]

Could have been a great day this, nevermind

For the West Indies.

 

[GIMH]

I just meant of Cricket tbh


The way we've bowled, rain may well have saved us

 

[Scaly piscine]

Lol, I love it.

He complains about Monty when two of his "boys" are awful.

Plunkett was ok, Harmison lost it somewhat obviously. Panesar has virtually the same economy rate as Plunkett, the difference is Panesar got the benefit of the most atrocious playing of spin bowling you'll see since they helped Giles to 18 wickets in two Tests on their last visit. Ooh it's a finger spinner on a flat pitch - lets play for heaps of turn to a straight ball and hide our bats behind the pad...

 

[Scaly piscine]

Yes, admittedly its much harder for Plunkers and Harmi to get wickets that way, as they rarely bowl a straight un.

Still not bad, 6 wickets on a pitch that gave no assistance whatsoever, proves his worth on all pitches, imho.

Yea, about as much worth as Ashley Giles.

 

[stumpski]

Well it's all over - Alistair Cook was Man of the Match. If there was a presentation, I missed it.

 

[Gloucefan]

Yea, about as much worth as Ashley Giles.

Monty has 4 5 fer's after 14 tests Giles had 5 after 54 tests. Monty is easily superior to Giles. I think you've just backed yourself into a corner now and won't admit Monty is a far better bowler than you initially thought.

 

[steds]

Monty has 4 5 fer's after 14 tests Giles had 5 after 54 tests. Monty is easily superior to Giles.

Tbf, Tufnell had 4 after 7, but took only one more in his other 35. Different circumstances, I know, but it's a bit early to judge a career like that.

 

[DireWindies]

This has probably been done in this forum already, but:

Umpire Rauf's performance in this match - discuss.

Poor.

Bias.

LBW only exists when England bowl, again.

 

[Shoggz]

I have to say that I am getting a distinct feeling of deja-vu.

The first test of the summer at Lords and England fail to capitalise on a huge 1st innings total and in so doing, give their underdog opponents a confidence boost going into the rest of the series. Sound familiar? The only difference between this test and Sri Lanka last year is that we dropped fewer catches and there was more bad weather.

You can't fault the performance overall of the batsmen, but the excellent Monty aside, where is our once vaunted match-winning bowling attack? Yes I know there are injuries to key players, but we were supposed to have strength-in-depth.

Steve Harmison has been virtually unplayable for Durham this season -- why can't he reproduce that form for England? It's so frustrating. Liam Plunkett has been on the money for his county also, but can't seem to regularly hit the spot in this match.

Tongue in cheek plan for the next test. Play 8 batsmen + Matt Prior + Monty Panesar + AN Other Spinner (Adil Rashid?) Do without fast bowlers!

I can't think of one single seamer with Hoggard's injury, that I could confidently put into the team and know they be reliable at least...

 

[PY]

Poor.

Bias.

LBW only exists when England bowl, again.

I'll give you that, you have a good sense of humour.

 

[andmark]

I think Harmy should be dropped.

 

[Bob Bamber]

I think Harmy should be dropped.

You can't drop Harmy. Look at the final 2 test of the series. Old Trafford and Chester Le Street. He took 10fer at Old Trafford last year, and Chester Le Street is his home track. He just needs overs , plain and simple. And Lords doesn't really help seam bowlers as it is.


A pretty ordinary game. Who knows what the result would have been if Hoggy would have stayed fit.

Does anyone think Simon Jones might return for the second test? or is he not fully fit yet. Hoggy out , Flintoff out. Will line up something like this:

1) Strauss
2) Cook
3) Vaughan (Unfortunatly)
4) Pietersen
5) Collingwood
6) Bell
7) Prior
8) Plunkett
9) Harminson
10) Panesar
11) Anderson/Jones (I'm making a hunch on Jones , I dunno if hes fit. But you never know I suppose.

 

[TT Boy]

You can't drop Harmy. Look at the final 2 test of the series. Old Trafford and Chester Le Street. He took 10fer at Old Trafford last year, and Chester Le Street is his home track. He just needs overs , plain and simple. And Lords doesn't really help seam bowlers as it is.


A pretty ordinary game. Who knows what the result would have been if Hoggy would have stayed fit.

Does anyone think Simon Jones might return for the second test? or is he not fully fit yet. Hoggy out , Flintoff out. Will line up something like this:

1) Strauss
2) Cook
3) Vaughan (Unfortunatly)
4) Pietersen
5) Collingwood
6) Bell
7) Prior
8) Plunkett
9) Harminson
10) Panesar
11) Anderson/Jones (I'm making a hunch on Jones , I dunno if hes fit. But you never know I suppose.

But the more overs he bowled on Saturday the worse he got…

And Simon Jones went ‘wicketless’ in Glamorgan’s last four day game on a wicket where the pace men got a plethora of wickets. And according to a forum member Jones was not particularly impressive. Personally, I can not see him featuring in this series - or indeed against the Indians considering there is zero talk amongst team England or in the media about the man.

 

[Richard]

Off the top of my head wasn't one of them Mark Ealham, which was against Zimbabwe so I'll have a guess at Ed Giddins as the other?

Bah, I went for the wrong mediocre bowler!

Yes, Johnson and Giddins were really mediocre weren't they?

 

[Richard]

I have to say that I am getting a distinct feeling of deja-vu.

The first test of the summer at Lords and England fail to capitalise on a huge 1st innings total and in so doing, give their underdog opponents a confidence boost going into the rest of the series. Sound familiar? The only difference between this test and Sri Lanka last year is that we dropped fewer catches and there was more bad weather.

Not familiar at all. We let Lanka off the hook by dropping virtually a whole line-up's worth of catches, West Indies just fought their way out.

Our bowling-attack last season was stronger, though, with Hoggard not getting injured early in the piece.

 

[Richard]

Plunkett was ok, Harmison lost it somewhat obviously. Panesar has virtually the same economy rate as Plunkett, the difference is Panesar got the benefit of the most atrocious playing of spin bowling you'll see since they helped Giles to 18 wickets in two Tests on their last visit.

Nonsense, Giles actually turned the ball plenty in those Tests and fully deserved his two nine-fors.

Completely different to the repeated missing of straight balls we saw this game.

 

[marc71178]

Yes, Johnson and Giddins were really mediocre weren't they?

That's what I said, yes.

 

[Richard]

Yes, and I said they weren't.