**Official** West Indies in England 2012

[Spark]

Bravo has scored three singles, one outside edge dropping short of the slips, one inside edge when he misread a Swann arm-ball, and the other was just pushed to mid-off. Just saying....

He looks like he's looking for singles though. The bowling has mostly been tight if not necessarily threatening and the pitch is pretty turgid.

 

[Spikey]

Bresnan and Broad have both been average. No fire there

lacking a bit of spark tbh

 

[screamingfields]

Bresnan bowled well but wasn't potent. Wicket flattened a bit surprisingly and some turn probably now. 50/50 on the first session.

 

[NasserFan207]

Pleased with that start, not such a big fan of the pitch though, too slow for me.

WI have a big problem with rotating the strike but there's not much you can do with aggressive fields, they haven't done badly here so far.

 

[Burgey]

Good, tough session of test cricket. Bravo was shaky early, but he seems a player you'll always think you have a chance against. Barath just been really good IMO.

 

[Spikey]

when we do start giving it to strauss re toss

 

[Woodster]

He looks like he's looking for singles though. The bowling has mostly been tight if not necessarily threatening and the pitch is pretty turgid.

Was just stating a fact that he had at that point managed three singles, two very fortunate ones, so he wasn't exactly manipulating the ball into the gaps at will. My point is that I don't think it was a massive issue in that session and I think the WI should be more happy with what they have done in those first couple of hours rather than what they haven't done by turning the strike over more frequently.

Barath has been very good on anything over pitched or with a hint of width and deserves a lot of credit for how he's played Anderson and the swinging ball rather than any criticism in his rotation.

I'm sure they'd take 83 for 2 most times in England at lunch.

 

[Woodster]

Pleased with that start, not such a big fan of the pitch though, too slow for me.

WI have a big problem with rotating the strike but there's not much you can do with aggressive fields, they haven't done badly here so far.

Tbf, the pitch was never going to play any different than this considering the weather we've had in this so-called summer.

 

[TT Boy]

Wicket is slow, it won't get any worse for batting in the next few days, Windies don't have a frontline spinner and England are only two more wickets away from breaking the Windies back, so it isn't that bad a situation at present or a terrible call from Strauss

 

[NasserFan207]

Wicket is slow, it won't get any worse for batting in the next few days, Windies don't have a frontline spinner and England are only two more wickets away from breaking the Windies back, so it isn't that bad a situation at present or a terrible call from Strauss

Samuels is going to bowl (throw) a lot of overs.

Though re: the spinner issue, this isn't a good pitch for spin, slow spin is the worst, tends to be very easy to handle for good players.

 

[Woodster]

It's not been a bad call at all from Strauss, the overhead conditions as they were against a side that generally fall away against the swinging ball, it makes sense to stick them in. Yes we've only managed two wickets, but there has been enough assistance through the air and had Broad and possibly Bresnan been more threatening as we've become accustomed to, then it could quite conceivably be a few more down.

Credit to Barath and Bravo though, Barath especially who has played very well for me.

 

[Woodster]

Samuels is going to bowl (throw) a lot of overs.

Though re: the spinner issue, this isn't a good pitch for spin, slow spin is the worst, tends to be very easy to handle for good players.

Still fancy Swann for a few in this Test.

 

[uvelocity]

Only losing 2 wickets on the opening morning early in the season and at lords, and considering the Windies batting line up is a win for WI without question.

All I'm saying is when a third of the overs are maidens it allows the fielding team to feel on top and apply pressure, you can see anderson manipulate the batsman around the crease. But if they turn the strike over he doesn't get so many balls in a row to a bloke.

Probably batting with Powell and Edwards it's a good call because they had no idea. But like Spark said he isn't even looking for it. But he's still in, and scoring at a good rate, so.

 

[NasserFan207]

Only losing 2 wickets on the opening morning early in the season and at lords, and considering the Windies batting line up is a win for WI without question.

All I'm saying is when a third of the overs are maidens it allows the fielding team to feel on top and apply pressure, you can see anderson manipulate the batsman around the crease. But if they turn the strike over he doesn't get so many balls in a row to a bloke.

Probably batting with Powell and Edwards it's a good call because they had no idea. But like Spark said he isn't even looking for it. But he's still in, and scoring at a good rate, so.

I agree 100%, and this is an issue I've had with the WI batting for years now. They desperately need a good batting coach to sort them out.

 

[Spikey]

hahaha first thing dar did after accepting the review was walk over to the foot mark

 

[Spark]

Haha, oh dear

 

[LegionOfBrad]

Looked high to me and he no balled anyway. Waste of a review there.

 

[Spark]

They don't lose a review for that tbf. Lucky imo

 

[Woodster]

Only losing 2 wickets on the opening morning early in the season and at lords, and considering the Windies batting line up is a win for WI without question.

All I'm saying is when a third of the overs are maidens it allows the fielding team to feel on top and apply pressure, you can see anderson manipulate the batsman around the crease. But if they turn the strike over he doesn't get so many balls in a row to a bloke.

Probably batting with Powell and Edwards it's a good call because they had no idea. But like Spark said he isn't even looking for it. But he's still in, and scoring at a good rate, so.

I agree 100%, and this is an issue I've had with the WI batting for years now. They desperately need a good batting coach to sort them out.

Just to clarify, I don't disagree with what you're saying, all good batting sides must look to rotate the strike and thus not allowing a bowler to line them up, so to speak. I just think that WI could not have had a much better session than that and I think it's being a bit too picky to expect them to play a perfect session against this attack in these conditions. When most were expecting WI to subside to around four/five wickets down at lunch, just think the rotation was relatively immaterial on this occasion.

 

[Viscount Tom]

England keep the review cos of the no ball, how odd and now Barath goes.