*Official* England in West Indies

[shivfan]

There's only so much the WICB can do, especially an incompetent WICB, with Gayle expressing his concerns about the safety of his players and the pitch only getting a couple days to prepare it's hardly a sure thing we'll get play tomorrow.

Well, we have play today, and with England comfortable on 36-0, it seems Roberts has done a good job of preparing another lifeless track at short notice....

 

[Nate]

Hahahaha.

Shot of some English ladies and Holding goes "36/0 but time for me to go now, here's Tony Cozier."

Oh Miky.

 

[Richard]

Good toss to lose.

How can so many people, from commentators to the players, read the pitch so wrong?

Will wait until we've had a couple of Benn overs, but this looks soooooooooo like the ol' ARG.

How can so many people misread a pitch? Because pitches change quite a bit in a short time if you try hard enough.

 

[Richard]

Well done, Andy Roberts and his team!

How many groundsmen around the world would've been able to prepare a pitch with less than 48 hours' notice?

Roberts isn't the groundsman any more apparently - they had the chap who is on Sky (he too thought it'd do a decent bit BTW), I can't remember his name but he definately took-over from Anderson.

 

[Richard]

Lucky escape that

Yup, if this pitch is going to play like first signs suggest it's going to, you can't afford to be missing early run-outs.

 

[Durham_CCC]

Good start this, pitch was read wrong.

Also, pleased Swann is playing.

 

[shivfan]

Roberts isn't the groundsman any more apparently - they had the chap who is on Sky (he too thought it'd do a decent bit BTW), I can't remember his name but he definately took-over from Anderson.

Yeah, it's Keith Fredericks who has prepared yet another antiguan road at the ARG....

 

[Neil Pickup]

Lucky boy Andrew. I was giving that in real time.

 

[shivfan]

Lucky boy Andrew. I was giving that in real time.

Me too....

Good shout by Gayle, but Harper and Rudi don't like to give those!

 

[Richard]

Also, pleased Swann is playing.

Judging by this pitch, I think he might well not be come the end of this game.

 

[Richard]

Lucky boy Andrew. I was giving that in real time.

Yet the evidence shows clipping leg. Fair enough n\o in the end.

Certainly not an obvious let-off the way that that run-out was.

BTW, at the fact that the VRS holds not far short of half the Antiguan population.

Well, 'tis Lunch. Unexpected.

 

[shivfan]

Will wait until we've had a couple of Benn overs, but this looks soooooooooo like the ol' ARG.

How can so many people misread a pitch? Because pitches change quite a bit in a short time if you try hard enough.

Anybody who really knows the ARG could've told those journalists and 'experts' that they were going to get it wrong....

I'm no 'expert', but even I could see that a lot of fuss was being made over nothing about this pitch.

 

[TT Boy]

Well that was short and sweet.

I really shouldn't have drunk that litre of a coffee an hour ago. I will now have to find something to do for 40 minutes to amuse myself. Pushups seems like a good idea.

 

[GIMH]

Good first session, a couple of scares for Strauss but generally well batted

 

[Richard]

Wouldn't Ian Bell have loved to have earnt himself one last chance on this pitch?

 

[Woodster]

Should be a nice re-introduction for Shah however, providing he can settle himself down quickly. It does a typical ARG pitch at the moment but have been pleased with the way England have gone about their business in the first session. Good running, both displaying decent timing, couple of strokes down the ground timed beautifully from Strauss (small boundaries I appreciate). Need to regain a bit of confidence in this innings, need a very decent toal.

 

[roseboy64]

Thank you. I didn't know there was a private message function on here. I have replied but not sure if I sent it correctly.

It's public messaging.

 

[pskov]

How can so many people, from commentators to the players, read the pitch so wrong?

They've been rolling the crap out of it for the last 48 hours, probably worried that the pitch wouldn't hold up over 5 days otherwise, so it seems they've killed the zip it had when England were netting on it two days ago. A bit disappointed about that really, would've liked to see how well test players do on a club standard strip.

 

[shivfan]

The problem is that the media were listening to the wrong experts!

Andy Roberts knows this pitch better than all of them, and he said it would be fine....

Andy's main concern was with the outfield.

 

[Nate]

Gayle drops one. Tough chance. Beautiful ball by Benn. He's toiling hard.