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

[sohummisra]

Chanderpaul is simply amazing. One of the hottest properties in cricket at the moment!

 

[sohummisra]

Oh, and I'm pissed off that I can't watch this game. Stupid Star Cricket.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Finally some boundaries.

 

[stumpski]

It seems to be raining quite heavily, but spectators aren't putting brollies up, and Holding has just said 'bit of rain in the air, nothing serious.' So does it just look worse on TV against a dark background?

 

[Gloucefan]

It seems to be raining quite heavily, but spectators aren't putting brollies up, and Holding has just said 'bit of rain in the air, nothing serious.' So does it just look worse on TV against a dark background?

I always thought that TV makes the conditions look better than they are tbh.

 

[stumpski]

I always thought that TV makes the conditions look better than they are tbh.

I know that's the case with bad light, but I haven't come across it with rain ...

Anyway seven out now, England look screwed. I'm not too sorry, sets it up nicely for Trent Bridge on Saturday.

 

[Gloucefan]

I know that's the case with bad light, but I haven't come across it with rain ...

Anyway seven out now, England look screwed. I'm not too sorry, sets it up nicely for Trent Bridge on Saturday.

I'm pretty sure it can disguise how bad the rain is too. The 20/20 Glos v Worcestershire was raining throughout but big screen didn't show the bad light or the rain. Also I work part time at Memorial Ground where Bristol Rugby play and when the match is on sky you don't see how bad the rain is on the TV's in the bar. I'd imagine it depends on the filter being used.

 

[stumpski]

Five England players have made their highest ODI scores in this match - unfortunately, only one of them in the top six.

And there goes Sidebottom. Won't be long now.

 

[sohummisra]

I always thought that TV makes the conditions look better than they are tbh.

Generally the case seems to be that the television "intensifies" the rain so to speak. However I'm sure other factors play a role in it, such as light, etc.

 

[Gloucefan]

Generally the case seems to be that the television "intensifies" the rain so to speak. However I'm sure other factors play a role in it, such as light, etc.

Could be that when they know there will be rain and they will be playing through e.g. Rugby or the 20/20 I referred to earlier they use some sort of lens that filters it out but normally the lenses used at cricket don't do this...

I don't know rally

 

[Pup Clarke]

Good match report Richard. . One thing I spotted though, are you sure Devon Smith "top edged" his cut shot?.

 

[Richard]

Whoops, no, in fact I'm certain of the opposite. How on Earth did I manage to type "top" when I quite clearly meant "bottom"?

Good spot, chap, thanks. Piece corrected accordingly.

 

[Richard]

Pretty much. England's batsmen don't have what it takes in this form of the game. They are just way to tentative. I'm sick of seeing them in this position, they need over 7 an over but continure to score at around 2 - 3. I'd rather see us bowled out than pathetically plod along at this rate in the hope that they might receive some very poor bowling. At least give it a go ffs. They just can't take it to any team.

Rant over.

Hate it when people put "rant over" - makes it so much more isn't-that-obvious and makes me feel stupid giving it a Saj.

 

[Pup Clarke]

Haha, just clicked number of replies and you have over 350 posts more than the next.

 

[open365]

Pretty much. England's batsmen don't have what it takes in this form of the game. They are just way to tentative. I'm sick of seeing them in this position, they need over 7 an over but continure to score at around 2 - 3. I'd rather see us bowled out than pathetically plod along at this rate in the hope that they might receive some very poor bowling. At least give it a go ffs. They just can't take it to any team.

Rant over.

Agreed, the team's batting apart from Pietersen seems very afraid of failure, but tbf to them they're all pretty useless one day batsmen anyway

 

[Richard]

But surely that just proves how dumb our selectors are. They must know when they pick the team they need "death" bowlers - so ehy pick a team full of those who don't do it? Surely a key in ODI cricket is that each player should know his role in the team - and be able to do it?

It's the "be able to" bit that's difficult, though, isn't it? Who currently playing and likely to be available for WC2011 is a good death-bowler? It was claimed Kirtley was back in 2002 - soon found-out what crap that was. It's been claimed all sorts of bowlers are - but often proves false.

Flintoff is the only really good death bowler England have had for about the last 7 years now... 2000 was about the last time Gough consistently bowled really well at the end of an innings... did it in one or two games in SA in 2004\05, but not much apart from that, was much better at the start as of 2000\01.

And right now, I don't see anyone bashing down the door, either.

Monty out of team - bad decision....

MSP is really one of those "gets better when you're not in the side" types. Can't see him having had any real effect on that game today, TBH.

Yardy and Mascarenas were OK in terms of economy but you need wickets in middle overs....I don't care who you are you can't score at any rate when you're in the dressing room...

Nah, you bowl economically in the middle you'll get wickets as a matter of course. Sadly, today, we only had 1 bowler who could do that. Yardy was hardly OK, though, 6 overs for 29's pretty poor in my book.

 

[Richard]

England's batsmen don't have what it takes in this form of the game. They are just way to tentative. I'm sick of seeing them in this position, they need over 7 an over but continure to score at around 2 - 3. I'd rather see us bowled out than pathetically plod along at this rate in the hope that they might receive some very poor bowling. At least give it a go ffs. They just can't take it to any team.

And yet...

Did Nixon and Bopara in that WC game against SL not show what can be achieved with a cool head? IMO it's much more sensible to go about it that way than just swing and get bowled-out for nothing. The only solution that'll help you win is not getting into a position where a RRR is 7+-an-over ITFP.

 

[Pup Clarke]

MSP is really one of those "gets better when you're not in the side" types. Can't see him having had any real effect on that game today, TBH.

Nah, you bowl economically in the middle you'll get wickets as a matter of course. Sadly, today, we only had 1 bowler who could do that. Yardy was hardly OK, though, 6 overs for 29's pretty poor in my book.

Haha, Panesar will only improve my playing as many one day matches as possible. We saw towards the latter half of the test series and the first one dayer that he slowed his pace down quite considerably and gave alot of air to the ball.

Yardy imo bowled pretty well. His last over I think went for 10 or 12 and that sort of ruined his figures which were looking impressive up until then.

 

[Richard]

He wasn't great at the other end of the innings, either. tbh I think we're really paying the price for not making any significant use of the new ball. Whoever bowls now would probably cop a hiding from two top batsmen who are well set.

I reckon Flintoff could keep 'em quiet on a good day. And quite possibly get one of 'em out because of the fact he's not allowed them to go beserk, too, hence not allowing them to be set ITFP.

Sure we bowled not-especially-well with the new-ball, but I've sure as seen plenty worse. We were going pretty well until that Collingwood over where Chanderpaul hit a four and a six. If we'd had someone (like Flintoff... or better still, like Pollock, who SA usually have in similar situations) to come on and stop it at that, rather than a Broad to come on and concede 14 by bowling short nonsense, I reckon wickets would have started falling before long - and if they didn't, those 2 would have plodded along at funeral pace for even more overs.

 

[Richard]

Haha, Panesar will only improve my playing as many one day matches as possible. We saw towards the latter half of the test series and the first one dayer that he slowed his pace down quite considerably and gave alot of air to the ball.

But England will only lose games by him playing on non-spin-friendly wickets (which today emphatically was). No point him playing and getting hammered, and I thought it was fair enough to drop him.

Not to mention that I cringe at the look of the tail had he played today.

Yardy imo bowled pretty well. His last over I think went for 10 or 12 and that sort of ruined his figures which were looking impressive up until then.

That's the thing, though, he bowled well when they were prepared to knock him around and not when they went for him. Compare that to a top ODI spinner like Vettori, Dharmasena or the old Kumble (going way back to 1999 here). They were(\are) brilliant when people tried to knock them around, and damn difficult to go for because they were(\are) so intelligent.

It's been the story throughout his short ODI career so far.