*Official* England in West Indies

[Flem274*]

I'd rather see Mascarenhas get a test before half the bowlers that England pick, no offense, but some of the selections have been loopy.

Still back Charlie Shreck to do a decent job if he gets the opportunity.

 

[Flem274*]

Nash is like the white Chanderpaul, love watching these two bat.. Sorts the really devoted cricket fans from the rest

Brendan Nash is pure awesomeness, love the defence, love the cut shots and the clever little pushes, love the dibbly dobbly medium pacers.

Wish we had him in our line up of "get to 20-30 and throw it away" batsmen.

 

[Goughy]

I'd rather see Mascarenhas get a test before half the bowlers that England pick, no offense, but some of the selections have been loopy.

Still back Charlie Shreck to do a decent job if he gets the opportunity.

Eng have picked 10 specialist fast bowlers (inc Flintoff) in the last 2 years. Guys like Kabir Ali and Saj are not even included in this number.

Khan is a 28 year old with a horrible career FC record.

On no level is he an England prospect and I very much doubt that if he didnt have an interesting back-story that gave him a higher profile that he would be close to the team.

 

[Manee]

I'd rather see Mascarenhas get a test before half the bowlers that England pick, no offense, but some of the selections have been loopy.

Still back Charlie Shreck to do a decent job if he gets the opportunity.

I don't get it with Shreck, he is huge, not slow and has a superb record including a fine last season, where is the issue with selecting him. Heck, is he even on the Lions tour?

 

[shivfan]

Bravo could possibly be back.

It would be good to have him back, with Gayle most likely to be out of action....

This was a great performance by Nash and Shiv. I hope they move on to centuries tomorrow.

 

[Flem274*]

I don't get it with Shreck, he is huge, not slow and has a superb record including a fine last season, where is the issue with selecting him. Heck, is he even on the Lions tour?

Nope. He was really good down here when he played some domestic cricket, unlike Strauss, who was pure **** bar one game.

Wellington have a habit of finding good county bowlers, perhaps they should select the England international bowlers for you?

 

[Manee]

I hope so, Napier all the way!!! It is a joke that after the season he had for Wellington, he did not win a place on the Lions tour. And even as an Indian fan, it is a bigger joke that he has to sit out for Balaji and Kulkarni, both inferior bowlers and batsmen.

 

[zaremba]

Doesn't Shiv have an awards ceremony to go to tonight?

His going AWOL again is just about England's last remaining hope of winning this match.

 

[Flem274*]

I hope so, Napier all the way!!! It is a joke that after the season he had for Wellington, he did not win a place on the Lions tour. And even as an Indian fan, it is a bigger joke that he has to sit out for Balaji and Kulkarni, both inferior bowlers and batsmen.

Quite liking Napier atm, used to think he was a rubbish bits and pieces player but now he's a genuine bowling allrounder.

 

[Manee]

Quite liking Napier atm, used to think he was a rubbish bits and pieces player but now he's a genuine bowling allrounder.

Definitely a working cricketer too who strives to improve his game and a quality one at that.

 

[superkingdave]

Napier's never going to be an international cricketer to be honest forget about him

 

[Burgey]

Aghhhhhhhhhhh I am sick of the commentators saying it was negative stuff by Gayle... he ahd no damn choice...

Once Taylor got injured we had no coice but to do what we did... why would we at Benn at 8 when all we need is a draw, the English commentators need to wake up and realise Gayle did the only thing he could do...

Especially as England picked Giles in the Ashes here ahead of MSP because Giles would give the lower order solidity.

Though TBF, I don't think the England commentators were especially happy with that decision either.

 

[Uppercut]

Especially as England picked Giles in the Ashes here ahead of MSP because Giles would give the lower order solidity.

Though TBF, I don't think the England commentators were especially happy with that decision either.

That's true, but they were still trying to win the matches (and failing, miserably). It's always a bit of a let-down when one team makes no effort whatsoever to actually win a test.

Tbh though, England have/had every opportunity here to make it blow up in their face. The pitch is giving plenty to the spinners and they're getting the ball to reverse. If they had bowled well enough today they could easily have won this match comfortably. But they haven't. They can't blame anyone else for that (unlike at Kensington, which wouldn't have given a result if a Chris Martin XI took on 1980s West Indian Fast Bowlers United.)

 

[garage flower]

Aghhhhhhhhhhh I am sick of the commentators saying it was negative stuff by Gayle... he ahd no damn choice...

Once Taylor got injured we had no coice but to do what we did... why would we at Benn at 8 when all we need is a draw, the English commentators need to wake up and realise Gayle did the only thing he could do...

Of course Gayle/the selectors had a choice. They left a specialist bowler, who played a key role in winning the first test, out of the team. Another choice - and arguably a better one - would have been to pick him.

Taylor was injured during the last test match so there would appear to have been ample time to call up a replacement and - while they were at it - find someone to replace Powell, who continues to masquerade as a test bowler. They chose not to do this.

Of course, having failed to take up either option, they could then have dropped the utterly ineffective Powell and picked Benn. Another choice.

Yet another option - given that they evidently weren't interested in winning the test match - would have been to call up another three batsmen and not play any specialist bowlers. If there's no logic in batting Benn at 8 because "all we need is a draw", why pick any specialist bowlers at all?

Choices galore.

 

[FBU]

We will be going for the record tomorrow. 61 extras at the moment. England Test record extras 64.

Prior has the record number of byes in an innings for England .... 30 and counting.

 

[aussie]

How can it make sense to pick such an inadequate bowler? Whatever Hoggard or Harmison can no longer do they're both infintely superior to such a poor bowler who can do nothing..........least of all bowl two consecutive balls on a good length.

No doubt Amjad Khan has looked like he really was born in Denmark in this test.

But seriously haven seen him a bit on TV before. He isn't the worst i've seen and pretty much the best out of the box pick IMO. Picking Mahmood, Plunkett, Lewis or Davies would be wayyyyyyyy worst.

I would have played Harmison no doubt, but its clear the selectors no longer are taking the approach of just expecting him to find that nasty bounce @ 90 mph consistently. Which is under-standable. I wouldn't be surprised if Harmo found his feet @ home this summer, since he was never going to be effective this winter since we sort of knew the kind of pitches we where going to get in IND & WI. So he was likely to look flat in this test as well.

Hoggard name is only being mentioned because of Sidebottoms injury. Since its clear him & Anderson are ths designated swing bowling options.

 

[Zinzan]

I'd almost feel sorry for Windies if we managed the win through having to take just sixteen wickets (say if Chanderpaul's injury gets worse) but after that Barbados pitch and their abysmal tactics in the field in this game I really won't

Can't see it tbh

 

[Craig]

Amjat Khan is not very good is he?

 

[Uppercut]

Amjat Khan is not very good is he?

Nah he can force the odd wicket on flat pitches though, which noone else there can.

 

[wpdavid]

Eng have picked 10 specialist fast bowlers (inc Flintoff) in the last 2 years. Guys like Kabir Ali and Saj are not even included in this number.

Khan is a 28 year old with a horrible career FC record.

On no level is he an England prospect and I very much doubt that if he didnt have an interesting back-story that gave him a higher profile that he would be close to the team.

Let's see now - Flintoff, Anderson, Amjad, Broad, Sidebottom, Harmison, Hoggard, Tremlett, Plunkett & Pattinson? Gee that's horrible. Frighteningly, for all his weaknesses, Broad has actually been the most impressive of the lot this winter.

Totally agree about Amjad though.

You have to wonder who they'll turn to for the home series, given that it's only a handful of games into the season.