*Official* England in West Indies

[Richard]

Well that's Anderson out of the way early.

 

[Steulen]

Anderson gone.

On the pitch state: Apparently some mastodont heavy roller was used to kill the pitch on Saturday. Be interested to hear whether the two captains knew that.

 

[Richard]

If they didn't, there's some serious communication problems, because people were talking about how that was going to happen before the confirmation even arrived that we were going to be playing here.

Nah, even despite this, the pitch still looked like it'd do plenty and, I repeat, everyone consulted on the issue thought it would and that fielding first would be the only thing that made sense.

Batting first was anticipated to be 150ao material.

 

[Prince EWS]

Haha, wow, I didn't realise it was 1am (Sydney time) already. I thought it was about 11. Awesome though, even if I have missed the first few overs.

 

[Steulen]

Collingwood applying for a single-figure innings it seems...like he always does of course, might well make a century

 

[Steulen]

If they didn't, there's some serious communication problems, because people were talking about how that was going to happen before the confirmation even arrived that we were going to be playing here.

Nah, even despite this, the pitch still looked like it'd do plenty and, I repeat, everyone consulted on the issue thought it would and that fielding first would be the only thing that made sense.

Batting first was anticipated to be 150ao material.

Yeah, even the groundsman said no-one would have to think twice about it. Easy to criticize Gayle's decision now of course.

 

[wpdavid]

What's people's take on the occasional deliveries that are keeping low? Looks good from the perspective of 322 for 3 plus the NW, but are they only doing that to very wide balls?

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Fidel's on fire here.

 

[Nate]

Pretty sure it's mainly the ones hitting the line. Pitch was always going to have a smidge of inconsistent bounce.

 

[Richard]

Yeah it's not exactly the pitch as such that's keeping low, just those which hit that little groove where the halfway-line is. Could possibly be a useful little thingy as the pitch goes on, but equally could quite easily be a red-herring.

Fidel on fire and Collingwood starting quickly if not convincingly.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Pretty sure it's mainly the ones hitting the line. Pitch was always going to have a smidge of inconsistent bounce.

Yeah, those that are hitting the half-way line of the football pitch are almost exclusively grubbers. If that proves a natural length for one of our four seamers, there could be trouble.

 

[pskov]

I'll tell you what, when I think of ranking the batsmen I most like to watch play since I've started watching cricket, Lara is number 1 without question, but I think KP might be number 2.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Yeah, those that are hitting the half-way line of the football pitch are almost exclusively grubbers. If that proves a natural length for one of our four seamers, there could be trouble.

If it was the mid-80s there'd be some carnage.

 

[Nate]

Deadset, no-one likes seeing wickets off full-tosses. Should make the law below the knee imo.

 

[Richard]

If it was the mid-80s there'd be some carnage.

Yeah, 'cos England had the worst team in their history at that time.

And Pietersen wasn't far from being c&b there, but Edwards were never catching that - quite.

And agree with Patt0 BTW.

 

[Neil Pickup]

If it was the mid-80s there'd be some carnage.

I was considering the word carnage and decided against it for precisely that reason.

Does that go down as a chance?

 

[Richard]

Does that go down as a chance?

No, he had no realistic possibility of taking that.

And at Michael Atherton doing a Bob Willis and calling Powell's bowling "rubbish". Not because it's a remotely inaccurate description, but because I've never heard anyone other than The Esteemed Bob use said term to describe bowling during a commentary stint.

 

[GIMH]

KP dropped hey, will probs ton up now

 

[Neil Pickup]

There's just enough erratic bounce starting to creep into this to suggest that come Thursday it could be rather an awkward proposition to bat on. Will make any decision-making over the follow on increasingly complex.

 

[pskov]

Hmm, Powell getting it to keep low when banging it in halfway down. Harmison and Flintoff could be deadly if that keeps consistent throughout the rest of the match.