***Official*** West Indies in England

[roseboy64]

No one is making out that it's an attack to be feared.

 

[Evermind]

As I said, people who judge T20 from the 200 def all out for 70 blow-outs are equally as stupid as those that judge test cricket from the last 5 (including the farcical abandoned game) Eng vs. WI tests.

No ****, Sherlock. Which is the point I was trying to make - that you can't say one form of the game is inherently superior to another, that on a good day a 20/20 game could make for better viewing than a test.

Your persecution complex concerning the Indian team is surpassed by your inability to read; I have a feeling one colours the other.

 

[oitoitoi]

Hopefully Taylor and Edwards pitch it up and cause some problems with their extra pace. Backing Bopara for a ton here if England bat first.

Page 31, before even the toss.

*Takes a bow*........*realises he forgot to put money on it in his rush to get out the house this morning*.........*facepalm*

 

[tooextracool]

No one is making out that it's an attack to be feared.

I dont think they bowled well enough to have any team 289/7 on a flat pitch, let alone the dozen catches that were dropped off them. Perhaps you may think so, because of Edwards and Taylor's bloated reputation, but I honestly dont think that changes the fact that they collectively bowled fairly poorly today.

 

[oitoitoi]

Windies are good value at the market for me, market seems to expect that they'll get rolled for 250 or the match will meander to a draw. With some application they can give themselves an opportunity to win this.

 

[Woodster]

Outstanding effort from Ravi today, proving the brave choice of Andy Flower and co, of throwing him in there despite a lack of experience there with Essex, looks like being the right one. Still one or two footwork issues, ie still stuck in the T20 hit and giggle mentality, but that will be corrected now he's back playing proper cricket. His patience looked good today, just before lunch the WI were beginning to get a bit of a stranglehold on Cook and Bopara (with Benn and Baker operating), but he beded his time and broke the shackles with a glorious square cut. His strokes down the ground are imperious, looks like his bat is 2 foot wide.

Thought Lionel Baker probably bowled as well as I've seen him bowl prior to lunch, got the ball swinging at very decent pace, maybe a touch too wide at times, but did look more threatening than usual. Top effort also from Fidel, gives his all and generally doesn't get the rewards he deserves, will deserve 5 for this innings.

The dropped catches in the final session are unforgiveable. Yes it can be a long time in the field, and it's probably pretty cold for them guys, but some were truly awful.

I think England have a slight edge on the first day overall, and if conditions are similar when England bowl, I expect Jimmy Anderson especially to cause more than a few problems.

 

[roseboy64]

I dont think they bowled well enough to have any team 289/7 on a flat pitch, let alone the dozen catches that were dropped off them. Perhaps you may think so, because of Edwards and Taylor's bloated reputation, but I honestly dont think that changes the fact that they collectively bowled fairly poorly today.

I pointed out before that I fell asleep after lunch but was making the point that Over the last two years the two have been improving and while neither are world class, they're Test class. The rest of the attack is less experienced so a judgement of them being nopt up to it can't really be made. It's a decent attack and is more than capable of bowling out teams as shown against Australia last year and against Sri Lanka.

 

[aussie]

I dont think that prospect should even be considered. He needs to sort it out, or else there is little chance of him carving out a successful test match career for England.

No doubt, goodish thing about Cook is that regardless of this technical flaw he is still managing to carve out starts. Just not getting that big score.

As i said, i saw some improvements before he got out. Lets see how he goes for the remainder of this series..

 

[aussie]

I've been thinking about Prior as a batsman for a long time now. If you just forgot he was a keeper and just looked at his performance with the bat for both England and Sussex over the last two or three years, he is the second best bat we have behind KP. I could definitely see him becoming a specialist number 5 or 6 in the near future, the only question would be if he was willing to give up the gloves or not.

He could become a poor man Alec Stewart, he has the game to become a nice counter-attacking pure # 6 without a doubt...

 

[aussie]

Aussie, I really wonder what you was doing when Prior was keeping during the Windies test series. He had a ****ing mare. A record breaker.

Only test in the caribbean where Prior was bad was in Trinidad i think, when Amjad Khan really gave him a hard-time with his wayward stuff. Ramdin had a though time as well.

Of course he can still improve & ATM is pretty much a batsman that keeps a but. But he didn't drop any catches in WI or IND. So that should have been taken as a positive.

 

[Richard]

I forgot how annoying it is to be unable to watch the first day of a Test summer. First time since 2002 (school days) that that's happened. Even then I was able to listen on the radio.

Either way, sounds like it was a good job I didn't see that post-Tea. 6 catches missed in a session! FFS, how diabolical can you get? Sounds like Bopara played well to get to 76 though. Am looking forwards to highlights 10 minutes after this post.

 

[Jono]

No ****, Sherlock. Which is the point I was trying to make - that you can't say one form of the game is inherently superior to another, that on a good day a 20/20 game could make for better viewing than a test.

Your persecution complex concerning the Indian team is surpassed by your inability to read; I have a feeling one colours the other.

Woah man, I was agreeing with you.

 

[oitoitoi]

But he didn't drop any catches in WI or IND.

 

[Uppercut]

Yeah, given the general arseitude of the fielding I reckon you can knock at least 5 runs off their averages for a truer reflection.

Two of the best three seamers playing in this test are West Indian IMHO.

I'd say Fidel's all but a world-class bowler by now. He's been real quality for quite a while.

Problem is, beyond those two bowlers they have nothing. At least England can call up bowlers of Bresnan or Onions's quality when they need a replacement. Neither even deserve a place in the side, but both are a lot better than Lionel Baker, who seems to be the best third seamer the Windies can come up with.

They have the body of a strong team now, but it's making the holes in it seem even bigger.

 

[BoyBrumby]

I'd say Fidel's all but a world-class bowler by now. He's been real quality for quite a while.

Problem is, beyond those two bowlers they have nothing. At least England can call up bowlers of Bresnan or Onions's quality when they need a replacement. Neither even deserve a place in the side, but both are a lot better than Lionel Baker, who seems to be the best third seamer the Windies can come up with.

They have the body of a strong team now, but it's making the holes in it seem even bigger.

Yeah, fairly big drop off in the quality of available seamers after Taylor & Edwards (obviously Collins & Collymore might make a difference tho).

TBF to Baker tho his first spell today was pretty tidy but be fell away quite badly after that.

 

[GIMH]

Hey Brumby, random thought but you should try and get your op postponed so you can sit and watch the Ashes in full

Bet it was ace lying there all day watching the cricket today! Er I'm sure the pain hurts too

 

[oitoitoi]

Collins yes (why has he played so little?), not sure about Collymore these days. Can see the logic behind picking baker, has the foundations of becoming a decent 3rd seamer. Benn was both suprisingly good (he had Bopara plumb on 40ish) and suprisingly bad in patches.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Hey Brumby, random thought but you should try and get your op postponed so you can sit and watch the Ashes in full

Bet it was ace lying there all day watching the cricket today! Er I'm sure the pain hurts too

TBF I'm more zonked out than in pain now. Doc doubled my dosage of codeine yest and not quite used to it yet.

But yeah, have had worse days, tbh.

 

[oitoitoi]

Brumby if you don't mind me asking, what did they cut you for? Hope you get better soon, one of my friends had his appendix out recently and post op he self medicated with opium tea! Never seen the bloke so happy!

 

[oitoitoi]

BBC predicting some proper rain on friday....draw here we come...