Hey, he's our third best batsman!
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*Official* England in West Indies
- Thread starter Richard
- Start date
four_or_six
Cricketer Of The Year
I hope that KP wasn't too badly hurt... he is a bit of a drama queen the way he reacts sometimes, so hopefully it was just badly bruised rather than broken.
ozone
First Class Debutant
**** that, at least we'll have a keeper who can close his legs.
JBH001
International Regular
What did he say?
zaremba
Cricketer Of The Year
Well I didn't say it, and I'm not going to criticise him now in hindsight for a decision that I thought was reasonable at the time.
Fred was injured and needed a break. Harmison had gone down with heat exhaustion / homesickness / crapness.
That left us with 2 reliable seamers and a spinner on a flat pitch. So, give the bowlers a break for a little bit, thrash the bowling around and declare early. Made sense. I'm not saying that enforcing the follow-on would have been wrong (I'm usually in favour of doing so anyway) but I can see the sense in not enforcing it.
The way we batted was so very poor though. This, along with the Windies's resolute batting, is why we failed to win this Test. The bowlers will get a lot of stick for not bowling them out today but I think that, too, is unjustified. I thought they bowled pretty well today. Harmison had an Old Trafford 2005 spell at the end which was poor but everyone else stuck to the task well all day.
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Scaly piscine
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
England needed to be patient, unfortunately Strauss messed it up by deciding against enforcing the follow-on so the patience was limited. England paced their innings conservatively and WI could see the light at the end of the tunnel when they batted. Following on it would have been far more daunting knowing there was all that time left, they would have had to have batted through 160+ overs to have saved the game.
Flintoff and Harmison's injury/illness was a non-factor, there were only a handful of overs remaining on day 3 anyway and either way they'd be bowling on day 4. 1-0 down I thought England would have gone for the more aggressive and in the end the better percentage option. But they didn't and this is the result.
Flintoff and Harmison's injury/illness was a non-factor, there were only a handful of overs remaining on day 3 anyway and either way they'd be bowling on day 4. 1-0 down I thought England would have gone for the more aggressive and in the end the better percentage option. But they didn't and this is the result.
ozone
First Class Debutant
Would stake a lot of money on Harmison playing the next test TBH. Without Flintoff, you can guarantee the selectors will want one 'hit-the-deck' bowler. Don't agree with it mind.
And much as the pessimist in me would love to rule out Pietersen of the next test already, its probably early days to come up with teams without him.
ozone
First Class Debutant
Pretty much what's been said on here, said he understood not enforcing the follow-on citing that Strauss had 'extreme circumstances', then heavily criticised England for sending in the nightwatchman and batting **** on the fourth morning. Also praised Broad and Swann.
zaremba
Cricketer Of The Year
Of course it was a factor. If you've been bowling throughout the course of a first innings of reasonable length then any sort of break is going to help you to recover and perform better in the other side's 2nd innings. Bowling non-stop in the heat on a flat pitch when you're carrying a niggle (or a mental block about playing more than 30 miles away from yer mam in Ashington) can mean that as a bowler you're ground down. Just as the England bowlers were by SA at Lords last summer.
Richard
Cricket Web Staff Member
CBA looking through the last 6 pages of 40-post pages. Will just say "daym". Why TF couldn't we have batted a bit quicker on Wednesday? 
However, I think to blame the slow batting would be a cop-out. The real failure is that yet again we have not managed to knock-over a tail we should be blasting out in our sleep.
Oh, and my bloody Godfather would have to come to visit and take us to the pub on this day, wouldn't he?
Last time he was up when there was a cricket match on was August 2005. When a certain game at Edgbaston was on. Fortunately being a morning we were staying in for that one.
However, I think to blame the slow batting would be a cop-out. The real failure is that yet again we have not managed to knock-over a tail we should be blasting out in our sleep.
Oh, and my bloody Godfather would have to come to visit and take us to the pub on this day, wouldn't he?
Last time he was up when there was a cricket match on was August 2005. When a certain game at Edgbaston was on. Fortunately being a morning we were staying in for that one.
Jigga988
State 12th Man
Muahahahaha, not losing this one, I can sense a pretty shocking avatar under the name uppercut with in the next couple weeks
Woodster
International Captain
Very disappointed, having played much the better cricket over the course of the entire Test match to not find that final cutting edge in the last 10 overs. Big credit to Powell and Edwards who batted under extreme pressure and came through it with massive credit.
Everyone can now look back and suggest how things could have been done different, we batted on too long, we didn't bat quickly enough, we should have enforced the follow-on, etc, but the facts are despite all those we had 60 balls at the last partnership. Would we have taken this position at the start of the Test ? Most certainly. That's the disappointing aspect for me, and it's going to take a massive effort now to turn this series around and win 2-1. WI will be hugely buoyed by that draw today obviously, would have felt more like a win, having got out of prison in this Test with their overall lead still intact.
Everyone can now look back and suggest how things could have been done different, we batted on too long, we didn't bat quickly enough, we should have enforced the follow-on, etc, but the facts are despite all those we had 60 balls at the last partnership. Would we have taken this position at the start of the Test ? Most certainly. That's the disappointing aspect for me, and it's going to take a massive effort now to turn this series around and win 2-1. WI will be hugely buoyed by that draw today obviously, would have felt more like a win, having got out of prison in this Test with their overall lead still intact.
Smudge
Hall of Fame Member
pskov is NOT Annabel Chong and I claim my truckload of baby wipes.
Scaly piscine
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
England faced what, 6 overs or something on the 3rd day. Really difficult finding someone to bowl those isn't it after 90 or so overs split between 5 bowlers, that period was more awkward for the batting side than the bowlers. After that all that happens is instead of England having a full 5th day to bowl, they have have a full 4th day. That isn't a good enough reason to cut 30+ overs from what WI needed to survive to get a draw. Against SA England were screwed by Panesar being completely and utterly impotent, end of story.
Uppercut
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Smith and McKenzie batted brilliantly that day too. Now the Windies did very well, but not well enough that they'd have lasted the full two days like SA did. And they could well have won that match with a little more going their way.
England are showing battle scars that put them off going for the win, from that match and from Chennai. That's fine in the first match of a series, but when you've just been rolled for 51 and need to come back from 1-0 down, it's the wrong attitude.
Jigga988
State 12th Man
Yeah, think this was a large factor, amongst the other obvious factor of Mr. Chris Gayle and the mood he's been in lately compounding with the weariness of getting embaressed by losing to Windies and going 2-0 down
Powell was full of bombast before the series, confidently predicted a 3-0 home win - and that still stands. He didn't stop there, either, with his assessment of England after this result. "It's a bigger wound they have now because looking at the position, if I was the fielding side, I would think I would win the game, especially with me and Fidel there batting. But we batted brilliantly and saved the game. England will feel bad now."
Powell is something else.
Powell is something else.