**Official** West Indies in England Thread

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Chanderpaul playing a fine innings and Banks looking really impressive, despite being dropped twice. Windies aiming to bat at least 'til stumps.

 

[Adamc]

Grr... Banks out, another man out in the 40's. Shiv is only 16 runs away from his career-best 140 though.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Well bowled Flintoff and well played Chanders.

 

[marc71178]

And well done Ashley IMO

An interesting session now.

A total of 22 overs to bat - England to aim for 70 or so by the close?

 

[badgerhair]

And well done Ashley IMO

An interesting session now.

A total of 22 overs to bat - England to aim for 70 or so by the close?

Pretty much spot on.

By heck, this is an incredibly boring match. As a birthday, today was about as tedious as it gets.

I blame Micky Hunt. We haven't had more than about one wicket an innings fall to good bowling rather than careless batting in a Lord's Test since 2001. I think Devon Smith's lbw to Giles may have been a genuine bowler's wicket, but that's the only one so far in this game, and I think Jones and Vettori got one each in the NZ game, but I'd be hard pressed to think of any others.

This pitch is a disgrace, since it draws the sting of the genuinely skilled bowlers and allows even mediocre batsmen to look good, without offering the good batsman any pace he can use to demonstrate his best shots. It's neither a good exhibition nor a thrilling contest, and Test cricket deserves better.

Cheers,

Mike

 

[Tom Halsey]

Must say, Giles has looked impressive. Banks also got some turn before stumps.

Well bowled Freddy, looks to be right back on it.

England well on top, I'd be mightily disappointed if we fail to win this now.

 

[roseboy64]

It might be a draw.

 

[PY]

I was thinking about this on the bus on the way home from work.

I reckon if England get to 160-170 with 6+ wickets in hand then we might see some fireworks from the English batsman to try and pump the lead upto 400+ while still leaving 4 sessions to bowl out the West Indians. That's what I'd like to see but would be possibly dangerous as WI could get those runs on this surface if Lara, Sarwan, Chanderpaul and Gayle get in and playing shots.

Maybe aiming for a lead of 500 then to kill off the game?

 

[marc71178]

The pitch is only going to get worse from here.

For me England can bat 2 sessions, and should be able to add around 200 more.

Declaration around Tea will see the Windies about 35 overs (depending on how bad the over rate is) and a day to bat.

I can't see them going for the runs so the onus is on the England attack to get it right.

I have a sneaking suspicion that they will - Harmison is due a few, Hoggard looks to be on form, Flintoff will do a good job on the tail, Jones has this knack of preducing the occasional great ball and Giles is quite simply the best spinner to ever play the game

 

[roseboy64]

That Giles comment is going a bit too far.He didn't deserve two of those wickets and the West Indies wpould have been still batting tomorrow if it wasn't for that.

 

[marc71178]

It was also made 100% seriously and there was not a hint of TiC in it.

Also, theres no way of definitely saying the Windies would still be in but for those 2 wickets.

Either way, it doesn't give credit to the way he came on early when the run rate way in excess of 6, yet he was the main reason it came down to such an extent...

 

[Revelation]

there's no way saying that, but for a guy coming off consecutive test scores of 400*,53 and 120, i'd say the probability of it happening was more than likely. Remember that C'paul was 128*. No telling where the game could have been now. Wi might be in the lead!

 

[Craig]

A most bizarre Flintoff innings in the circumstances - I can only assume he was told to do it, because the Flintoff of recent times has batted a lot more sensibly than that.

Still not sure why he'd be told to do it though!

Well the most simple way of thinking would be Vaughan had a total in mind for a declaration?

 

[Craig]

If I was England I would condiser putting Flintoff up the order to 3 or 4 and giving him the licenise to let rip. After all a lot of pressure will be on Lara to restrict the total.

 

[Craig]

no because collingwood has played absolute rubbish in the recent ODI series'

Why should one's performance in an ODI series be reflected upon in Tests?

It is a different form of the game.

 

[badgerhair]

Originally Posted by tooextracool
no because collingwood has played absolute rubbish in the recent ODI series'

Why should one's performance in an ODI series be reflected upon in Tests?

It is a different form of the game.

You and I might think that, but that's not how Duncan Fletcher thinks, going by reports.

Key was picked as the replacement for Butcher partly because he had considerable county form this year but at least partly because he did better than Collingwood in the ODIs (for interesting values of "better").

Amidsst all the talk of who we're going to drop when Butcher recovers, spare a thought for Collingwood, who must have heard the news of Key's growing innings with mounting dismay as he saw his chances of a Test career receding faster than Phil Tufnell from a fast bowler.

Cheers,

Mike

 

[tooextracool]

Why should one's performance in an ODI series be reflected upon in Tests?

It is a different form of the game.

its got to do with form....if im not mistaken hes been struggling at the domestic level too. i for one dont want to see an out of form player play a test match,fail and then never hear of him again.

 

[tooextracool]

Well bowled Freddy, looks to be right back on it.

i think it was a big mistake to bowl him, its imperative that he remains fit for the more important series against SA and australia......

 

[marc71178]

there's no way saying that, but for a guy coming off consecutive test scores of 400*,53 and 120, i'd say the probability of it happening was more than likely. Remember that C'paul was 128*. No telling where the game could have been now. Wi might be in the lead!

Interesting how you use Lara's recent form (although it's a fair while ago) to say that he would've probably have still been batting, yet ignore that prior to this game Chanderpaul was out of form, so by rights he wouldn't have been not out.

The beauty of the game of cricket, is that predictions cannot be made with any real certainty based on past form.

 

[marc71178]

Key was picked as the replacement for Butcher partly because he had considerable county form this year but at least partly because he did better than Collingwood in the ODIs (for interesting values of "better").

I would have thought more that he was in as it was a top order player missing, and Collingwood is more suited to coming in for a number 5 or 6.

That side doesn't really have one of the middle order you'd want to move up to 3, so bring one in.