**Official** West Indies in England 2012

[social]

That's true. Another contender is Mike Gatting - first played in 1977 but never did enough to stay in the side until the Indian tour of 1984/85 where he made a couple of big hundreds and continued to do well until the hotel incident in 1988.

I reckon there must have been others to do it against England over the years though.

Gatting was never a particularly good/talented player though - he simply had a couple of great series in the midst of a lot of crap ones

I reckon a better comparison is Carl Hooper - massively talented but rarely did himself justice until later in his career

 

[tooextracool]

Had Samuels in a bit of trouble that over Onions, constantly asking questions.

Been unabashed Onions fan myself, as I have often said before he is a poor man's Asif. Certainly been very unfortunate during his England career, beats the bat regularly but hasnt had the chance to claim a bag despite the fact that he's often been creating the most problems. Hope if nothing else at the end of this game he gets himself higher in the pecking order than Steve Finn.

 

[Jacknife]

Been a top spell so far this.

 

[Spark]

Samuels has been absolutely magnificent, eh?

 

[MW1304]

Haha Samuels is too cool.

 

[wpdavid]

Been unabashed Onions fan myself, as I have often said before he is a poor man's Asif. Certainly been very unfortunate during his England career, beats the bat regularly but hasnt had the chance to claim a bag despite the fact that he's often been creating the most problems. Hope if nothing else at the end of this game he gets himself higher in the pecking order than Steve Finn.

Yeah - it did occur to me that the main reason for resting Broad and Anderson is to see which of Finn & Onions should get the nod if there's an injury later in the year.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Wonder whether the two days being washed out made a difference in selection.

 

[GIMH]

Wonder whether the two days being washed out made a difference in selection.

Reckon Broad would have played if it had started on time

 

[wpdavid]

Gatting was never a particularly good/talented player though - he simply had a couple of great series in the midst of a lot of crap ones

Not saying he was close to being as good as Waugh or one or two others that have been mentioned, but I think he was a bit better than you're suggesting. There was a definite step up from 1984/85 for three years until he lost the captaincy over the hotel incident. After that he was poor on the occasions when he did play, but he was in & out of the side, as well as missing a year or two for his SA jaunt. But there were fairly obvious reasons why he would have been disenchanted by then.

Perhaps someone can dig out his average from the Indian tour in 1984/95 to the 1st test against WI in 1988.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Reckon Broad would have played if it had started on time

Yeah, my thinking too.

 

[Jacknife]

I know it was probably expected with all the rain we've had but this pitch looks a pudding.

 

[Spikey]

Chris Lynn is at the ground!

 

[vic_orthdox]

 

[Spikey]

i didn't think that was out.

 

[Spikey]

yeah would not have given that. oh well. nice innings. bed time now.

 

[Spark]

that's unlucky imo. definitely wasn't giving that live.

 

[GIMH]

Need to take this chance and give ourselves time to bat a few overs before close.

Will be interesting to see how we bat. Would like to see Pietersen come out tomorrow and plau very aggressively to try and hit a quick, big score and give us an outside shot at victory.

Lot of work to do before that of course.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Lol. Narine runs right down the middle of the pitch.

No flies on him.

 

[BoyBrumby]

No mug with the bat, Narine. Put away that half-volley quite beautifully.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Hope Onions gets enough games to have a lucky Test for England. That would be absolute carnage.