I 100% agree with this view. Strauss shouldn't come under critiscism for not enforcing the follow-on, but for his bowling changes. And for whatever part he had in allowing our batsmen to go at snails pace yesterday morning.
He will get an excellent view of the action on TV. If he retains his place it will be on the strength of his ability as a batsman, namely his ability to leave wide balls from Steve Harmison and his ability to avoid making contact when trying to hook for 6.
What indeed is the point of Harmison? ****ed if I know the answer to that question. Haven't done for over 4 years tbh. If we do lose this series, maybe the good to come out of it will be a fond farewell to the underachievers who have done absolutely nothing to justify their selection for far too long. Hopefully GBH will join Bell & Panesar in the CC for the whole of this summer.
Swann bowled a full toss which Powell smacked into the ground and it bounced up into Pietersens wrist/hand. Looked nasty.
Wasn't a long hop, but yeah, this.
Sorry, full toss. I'm so irritated, I'm not thinking straight.
:-o
Not to mention the legend that is Matt Prior missing the final Test.
and we'll probably be playing Handycap Harmison for the last 2 tests as well
Nah, we all said it had to happen at the time- now with hindsight, it's even more obvious. The pitch got no worse, and Windies were restricted to 370/9 (would have been a lead of about 100) in their second innings. The two bowlers suffering from fatigue and injury were still doing so 18 hours later, shockingly, and in any case they took one wicket between them. The follow-on had to happen, simple as.
