Richard
Cricket Web Staff Member
Hmm... interesting one, that.
Last year we had completely the better of draws against India and West Indies and would pretty well unquestionably have won had more time been available.
In 2006 we had the better of a comfortable draw with Pakistan and would have beaten Sri Lanka but for dropped catches.
In 2005 we were hammered by Australia.
In 2004 we beat West Indies and you lot, the former emphatically, the latter via something of a comeback.
In 2003 we were hammered by South Africa, with much in chaos at the time.
In 2002 we easily beat India and pulled-off a sterling comeback to draw with Sri Lanka.
In 2001 we were hammered by Australia due to dropped catches and hammered Pakistan without them.
In 2000 we scraped home against West Indies in the greatest Test in history and hammered Zimbabwe.
That's not a bad set of results in recent times. The only real fallibility was dropped catches, which has afflicted both sides (and obviously I wish it hadn't done either).
The previous 16 years were far, far less distinguished, however - between '84 and '99 we won just 4 (and lost 11) out of 23, and 2 of those came against the pretty weak Sri Lankans of '88 and '91.
but obviously really worried about the whole rain situation despite the ***y drainage facilities now in place at Lords.