*Official* England in West Indies

[Martin1]

Can't believe how badly Powell is bowling! The attitude of the West indies is still all wrong. They don't know how badly injured Shah is and Prior is next man in. They have a real chance but the mentality seems to defend at all costs.

 

[Martin1]

An easy hundred for Strauss. It is like playing club cricket and Strauss celebration suggests he knows it.

 

[pskov]

Strauss' fifth hundred as captain in 17 innings. He now averages 65.66 as skipper.

 

[King Pietersen]

17 Test Hundreds now for Strauss. Starting to form a pretty fantastic record considering a long period of poor form. Seems to be in fantastic form at the minute.

 

[Martin1]

A year ago everyone seemed to be saying he should be dropped.

 

[superkingdave]

A year ago everyone seemed to be saying he should be dropped.

Actually a year ago he'd just got back in the side having been dropped

 

[roseboy64]

Not without a fair amount of luck but good on him.

 

[superkingdave]

Not without a fair amount of luck but good on him.

Missed the first session when i was at work but since then he hasn't looked at all troubled (apart from by Shah's running) Did he give chances in the morning?

 

[King Pietersen]

Talk about biased commentating: "was good to see Chanderpaul limp off". I thought the South African commentators were bad this morning =/

 

[Martin1]

A bit of luck. He could have been run out a few times and a couple went near the slips but other than that it was pretty straightforward

 

[roseboy64]

Missed the first session when i was at work but since then he hasn't looked at all troubled (apart from by Shah's running) Did he give chances in the morning?

Runout chances. A slip catch that dropped just short and the slip should have been in further.

 

[superkingdave]

Runout chances. A slip catch that dropped just short and the slip should have been in further.

Assuming your talking about the one off the spinner i saw that and didn't think it was particularly close to carrying(it was a deliberate shot that he put a little finer than he'd have wanted), but willing to be corrected on that. The run-outs, well they were hardly anything to do with him, would have been more unlucky if he'd been out. Compared to his other recent innings its been quite comfortable tbh

 

[Richard]

@ Dav & Xav - Strauss' innings this time has been chanceless, unlike his previous centuries this series. But like both of them, there've been possible direct-hit run-outs. He's played far better here than he did at The ARG or Kensington though.

And on Nash's face - well if you say so.

 

[roseboy64]

Was talking about at the ARG and Kensington in my initial post.

 

[Richard]

A year ago everyone seemed to be saying he should be dropped.

Actually a year ago he'd just got back in the side having been dropped

And practically everyone was hoping he'd be dropped again very quickly. Most England fans on CW were actually disappointed when he made that career-saving 173 at McLean Park this time last year, because they thought - understandably - that he'd just gotten another stay of execution and was going to be ****ing things up for another 4-5 Tests.

However, absolutely 100% credit to him, he saved his career with that knock and since it has completely reinvented himself back to the formula that saw him succeed in 2004 and 2005. I certainly didn't believe him capable of that and nor did anyone else that I saw posting about the matter at the time.

 

[Richard]

Can't believe how badly Powell is bowling! The attitude of the West indies is still all wrong. They don't know how badly injured Shah is and Prior is next man in. They have a real chance but the mentality seems to defend at all costs.

And apparently someone instructed that the grass be taken off the pitch and then left-out spinners... despite the fact the groundsman apparently told everyone who'd listen that if the grass was taken off the pitch would break-up in no time.

Totally bizarre.

Anyway, Joey Carew was right - this pitch is already turning plenty for rollers like Gayle and Ryan Hinds. This should be doing plenty and plenty and plenty for Swann and MSP when they get ball in hand. It's just a question of whether MSP can bowl well enough to cash-in, and whether the pitch hasn't become so slow by then that any turn is negated.

 

[pskov]

When was the last test (Zim & Bang excluded) that featured two pace attacks as poor as this match?

Anderson - erratic
Broad - just promising
Khan - who knows?

Baker - toothless
Powell - dreadful
Edwards - decent

 

[Manee]

Talk about biased commentating: "was good to see Chanderpaul limp off". I thought the South African commentators were bad this morning =/

Was said semi-jokingly, tbh, and at least Nasser doesn't let the bias cloud his analysis like a certain Sir Ian.

 

[Manee]

When was the last test (Zim & Bang excluded) that featured two pace attacks as poor as this match?

Anderson - erratic
Broad - just promising
Khan - who knows?

Baker - toothless
Powell - dreadful
Edwards - decent

Indeed, absolute joke upon jokes how low the standard of fast bowling is.

 

[Richard]

When was the last test (Zim & Bang excluded) that featured two pace attacks as poor as this match?

Anderson - erratic
Broad - just promising
Khan - who knows?

Baker - toothless
Powell - dreadful
Edwards - decent

WI vs India in 2002 couldn't've been too flash TBH. I forget the exact particulars. Nehra, Khan, Dillon, Sanford and others were certainly involved, however. Agarkar might've been as well.

A few Pakistani attacks with Shoaib Akhtar missing from about 2002/03 to about 2004/05 might have a few possibilities if the oppos were poor enough. Can't remember everyone they played in that time though (SL and Aus were a couple of definates).