*Official* England in West Indies

[sammy2]

It's idiotic posts like this that make CW both a great and a terrible place, on the rare occasions they're made.

you can make up whatever excuse you please to make your love for flintoff become stronger, but for normal cricket fans we aren't impressed by him or his record one bit.

 

[four_or_six]

Are there teams anywhere yet?

 

[Prince EWS]

you can make up whatever excuse you please to make your love for flintoff become stronger, but for normal cricket fans we aren't impressed by him or his record one bit.

Haha, yeah, most informed cricket fans think Flintoff is crap. It's common knowledge....

 

[Flem274*]

That sort of bowling just can't get you 5frs, flintoff is a school boy cricketer and his record proves this. He has no variation in his deliveries and it's funny it took playing in the WI for people to start talking about this.

The disrespect for WI is surely exposing some below par players.

Fidel edwards has played 64 less innings than flintoff and has taken 7 5frs, and 2 4frs.

He is a real strike bowler. Fidels Strike rate is at 58, while flintoff after playing all those games has a strike rate above 65...

BTW, JT strike rate is at a kool 54. Face it, flintoff is way overated.

Little boy, be a big girl and put Voltys avatar on, then kindly wikipedia "cricket"

 

[roseboy64]

Bell is a better batsman with one hand missing than Xavier Marshall is and quite possibly will ever be. I honestly have never seen a more inept batsman play international cricket for this many games, maybe Ricardo Powell, but at least he only played 2 Tests. Even Shahid Afridi's better than Marshall, and that really is saying something.

WI's batting worked well-ish in their only innings in the First Test, and just about well enough in the 2 games in NZ. England's is in a poor state right now and has been for a fair while, but it should still be better than WI's. However, things do change and it's possible that WI's best batsmen have made vital leaps in recent months and are now better than England's. That, though, will only be revealed a year or so down the line from now.

What about Marshall apart from his inability to maintain concentration and choose shots makes him a bad batsman?

 

[roseboy64]

Oh and ......

 

[pskov]

What about Marshall apart from his inability to maintain concentration and choose shots makes him a bad batsman?

What about Jaques Kallis other than his ability to maintain concentration and choose shots makes him a good batsman? It's a lot easier to develop a great technique in the nets than to put it into practice in the middle.

 

[roseboy64]

What about Jaques Kallis other than his ability to maintain concentration and choose shots makes him a good batsman? It's a lot easier to develop a great technique in the nets than to put it into practice in the middle.

I don't mean to imply that Marshall is a world class bat. There's obvioius potential there and he'll start making loads of runs when he gets that century but just wanted to know why Richard thinks he's the most inept international batsman ever. That seems to be just going off his record because I've seen worse batsmen play.

 

[garage flower]

Yeah, Marshall is nothing more than a talented kid with a good eye, who may or may not develop into an international class cricketer, but isn't at the moment.

His complete inability to cope with Vettori in NZ - bowling with his usual guile, but no turn - - was painful to watch.

 

[Prince EWS]

Yeah, Marshall is nothing more than a talented kid with a good eye

I'd expand on that by saying he also has a good technique. I haven't really noticed much wrong with him technically since his recall.

His problem is his absolutely disgraceful shot selection. That's as big a problem as any TBH and it shouldn't be downplayed just because it's a mental issue, but "a talented kid with a good eye" to me generally implies a poor technique.

 

[superkingdave]

Bell, Harmy out Jimmy & Shah in...hopefully they will justify the changes

 

[Prince EWS]

9.25am Owais Shah replaces Ian Bell and James Anderson is in for Steve Harmison. Changes are utterly afoot. Wavell Hinds replaces Xavier Marshall but there are no other changes (other than a shift in the batting order) for West Indies

Assuming they mean Ryan Hinds (as he's the one who's actually in the squad and not the one no longer available to the West Indies..) then those really are awesome, awesome changes for both teams. Really looking forward to this game.

 

[Richard]

Guess most people'd say Shah should've played at least 3 Tests ago... Harmison playing ahead of Anderson in the First Test, or in India, wasn't a good decision, but whether Anderson (as anyone) can take wickets on this pitch remains to be seen. Ryan Hinds playing ahead of Marshall is obviously quite right, infinitely better batsman.

Apparently there's a genuine possibility that the game might be called-off because of a dangerous outfield.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Yay. Bell out!

 

[four_or_six]

Guess most people'd say Shah should've played at least 3 Tests ago... Harmison playing ahead of Anderson in the First Test, or in India, wasn't a good decision, but whether Anderson (as anyone) can take wickets on this pitch remains to be seen. Ryan Hinds playing ahead of Marshall is obviously quite right, infinitely better batsman.

Apparently there's a genuine possibility that the game might be called-off because of a dangerous outfield.

Isn't this the ground where a few people got injuries in the WC?

 

[Richard]

I don't mean to imply that Marshall is a world class bat. There's obvioius potential there and he'll start making loads of runs when he gets that century but just wanted to know why Richard thinks he's the most inept international batsman ever. That seems to be just going off his record because I've seen worse batsmen play.

I've seen worse batsmen play, but not be a regular part of a Test set-up for a year and more. He may, at some point, start making plenty of runs. But equally, he might very easily not do. And I'm not talking about what happens someday, I'm talking about right now. And right now, he's woeful.

He has more fundamental basics than Runako Morton does, but right now he's absolutely no way close to being as good as Morton - and that really is saying something.

 

[NUFAN]

I think the Windies team looks very balanced now that Hinds has replaced Xavier Marshall.

Anderson is a great pick, I don't get why cricinfo lists Anderson after Panesar in the lineup, no chance that the man with 0 ducks in 44 innings is going to bat behind Monty.

 

[Richard]

you can make up whatever excuse you please to make your love for flintoff become stronger, but for normal cricket fans we aren't impressed by him or his record one bit.

Haha, yeah, I'm some blind Flintoff fanboy.

No, actually, I don't do fanboyism. I assess each cricketer on his own merits. Flintoff is a very good bowler, and nothing else. Anyone who can't see that - whether you've watched him bowl or not - doesn't really know a lot about cricket.

 

[Richard]

I think the Windies team looks very balanced now that Hinds has replaced Xavier Marshall.

Anderson is a great pick, I don't get why cricinfo lists Anderson after Panesar in the lineup, no chance that the man with 0 ducks in 44 innings is going to bat behind Monty.

You'd hope not, but they've made strange decisions with the nine-ten-eleven batsmen in recent years. Anderson should've been batting above several who he's ended-up behind.

 

[pskov]

Those shots of the outfield they've been showing on Sky just now.

Would not be at all surprised to see this match called off before lunch. It's a shame they couldn't just agree to move the match to the pitch at the ARG and play it there.