**Official** England in The West Indies

[tooextracool]

Pressure off?!!

The side is 3-0 down and has crumbled badly against a side that the fans are used to seeing being humiliated by the West Indians.

Are you trying to say that there's no pressure on Lara, as captain of that side?

ok this has already been stated before and answered!

i wonder if any of the english players dont mind him going past the record against them for the 2nd time.....i know that thorpe wouldnt want him to.

 

[marc71178]

Why Thorpe in particular?

 

[luckyeddie]

Pressure off?!!

The side is 3-0 down and has crumbled badly against a side that the fans are used to seeing being humiliated by the West Indians.

Are you trying to say that there's no pressure on Lara, as captain of that side?

<quack>

Let's wind that forward a year for Craig's benefit. It is August, 2005, The Oval. Australia, 4-0 down, are a side in tatters. Totally thrashed in every game so far in the series, they look for inspiration from familiar quarters. Unfortunately, Shane Warne has not returned from the previous day's coach excursion to the East Kent sea defences, having misinterpreted the term 'World War II Pill Boxes' for something else. New skipper Brad Williams, having taken over from Ricky Ponting following the Headingley debacle (the least said about that the better) promotes himself up the order to Number 10, muttering the now-famous words "Bunch of Poufdahs."

That kind of pressure, Craig.

 

[luckyeddie]

Why Thorpe in particular?

On the field last time

 

[Adamc]

I wonder if Darrell Hair will mind seeing Lara score 375+ again.

 

[Craig]

Pressure off?!!

The side is 3-0 down and has crumbled badly against a side that the fans are used to seeing being humiliated by the West Indians.

Are you trying to say that there's no pressure on Lara, as captain of that side?

I have answered this and made my statement so you need to ask me for a second time?

"Fair points, but I'm commenting on how once the series is over he makes this huge score. It would have been better had it been in the second or third Tests."

From an earlier post.

 

[Lions81]

ok this has already been stated before and answered!

i wonder if any of the english players dont mind him going past the record against them for the 2nd time.....i know that thorpe wouldnt want him to.

I'm sure Nasser Hussain won't want to see it happen again in front of his eyes either.

 

[luckyeddie]

I have answered this and made my statement so you need to ask me for a second time?

"Fair points, but I'm commenting on how once the series is over he makes this huge score. It would have been better had it been in the second or third Tests."

From an earlier post.

I know this isn't aimed at me, but do you honestly think that the pressure of being one test down (which happens time after time after time) is anything in comparison to the pressure of avoiding the only whitewash at home in the side's history?

The implications of such an occurrence are catastrophic for West Indian cricket. There are already enough people looking at basketball and football without the rest of the young kids in the island becoming even further disillusioned with cricket as their chosen sport.

There are enough people on these boards dismissing West Indian cricket as a joke - or was that just to put down the achievement of England leading the series 3-0, Harmison taking a hatful of wickets etc etc etc.

Well, what Lara has done is given the side a little self-respect and the supporters just a modicum of pride. The chant going around the crowd for much of yesterday was 'No whitewash, no whitewash'.

Pressure? Pah!

 

[Swervy]

quite oddly, this West Indian batting performance (esp. Lara) adds alot to Englands performance in the series overall...can anyone really say that WI are truely awful and that Englands success was due to playing such an awful team now???? (I know what I mean anyway)

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

I wonder if Darrell Hair will mind seeing Lara score 375+ again.

Darrell Hair also saw him score 277 against Australia. Botham made the joke that whenever Lara needs some runs, all he has to do is call up Darrell Hair and see what he's doing.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Keep in mind too the importance of Jacobs in all of this. If he were to get out early, Lara will have to play some shots if he is to get there, as the West Indies doesn't have much of a lower order, just a long tail. Basically Jacobs will have to pull a Chanderpaul IMO and be there at the end.

 

[Adamc]

The chase is on... Lara 332* and counting, Trescothick into his 17th over.

Up to 11th on highest individual scores list, another nine runs and he will be 5th. Then there's only Hutton, Sobers, ummm... Lara, and Hayden to go!

 

[luckyeddie]

Keep in mind too the importance of Jacobs in all of this. If he were to get out early, Lara will have to play some shots if he is to get there, as the West Indies doesn't have much of a lower order, just a long tail. Basically Jacobs will have to pull a Chanderpaul IMO and be there at the end.

Very true. I have been quite impressed with Jacobs in this innings - although now is his real test with the new ball in the hands of Harmison.

 

[Swervy]

interesting discussion on TalkSport...Is Lara right going for the record at the possible expense of winning the game?

I think England will be relatively happy with Lara batting on...a 3-0 win is better than a 3-1 win.

Is lara being driven by financial incentives?

what does everyone think

 

[marc71178]

England seem to be doing a good job of keeping the runs down today - 3 an over was presumably not in the West Indies gameplan.

 

[Adamc]

interesting discussion on TalkSport...Is Lara right going for the record at the possible expense of winning the game?

I think England will be relatively happy with Lara batting on...a 3-0 win is better than a 3-1 win.

Is lara being driven by financial incentives?

what does everyone think

The way I see it, there are 274 overs left in this match. If the West Indies bat another 20 overs and declare 750 or so, then England have 254 overs to avoid being bowled out twice for less than 750. If they get knocked over for less than 450 in the first innings then I think WI have a very good chance of winning it.

Financial incentives? What do you mean, exactly? Somehow I don't think that Lara is thinking about his bank balance at the moment.

357* as I type, just 24 runs to go!

 

[Swervy]

The way I see it, there are 274 overs left in this match. If the West Indies bat another 20 overs and declare 750 or so, then England have 254 overs to avoid being bowled out twice for less than 750. If they get knocked over for less than 450 in the first innings then I think WI have a very good chance of winning it.

Financial incentives? What do you mean, exactly? Somehow I don't think that Lara is thinking about his bank balance at the moment.

357* as I type, just 24 runs to go!

MRF apparently have performance incentives built into their contract with Lara, the talk of the commentators on TalkSport radio (www.talksport.net) is that if Lara can get the record and maybe the first test 400, he certainly wont suffer financially from it.

Its an interesting thought....however I agree that really I think his mind is more likely focussed on the record, just for the sake of having the record...not the money.

I do think though WI's are not doing their chances of winning the game much good

 

[marc71178]

Harmison has found a novel way of avoiding his ton!

 

[Adamc]

England in real strife now, Harmison gets his third warning for running on the danger area and is out for the innings.

 

[luckyeddie]

England lose a second paceman - Darrell Hair warns Harmison for encroachment to add to the two he received from Aleem Dar.

Poor bloke didn't appear to have the strength to get off the wicket. On the plus side, I have never seen a pacer look so happy about being banned.