*Official* West Indies in Zimbabwe Thread

[gibbsnsmith]

you selfish lil...!

come on people! DRAW! DRAW! DRAW! DRAW!
Price, comeon! pick up the remaining 7 wkts, and all is good. :saint:

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

5 down now. Sarwan gave it away, Hinds got a decent ball and now Jacobs and Chanders have some work to do.

Mahwire is proving why he's got such a poor reputation. He bowled 3 wides and 2 noballs and got hit for two boundaries in his first two overs.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Lara got a superb yorker on middle stump. It was a spectacular sight to see a great in-form batsman have his middle stick so emphatically uprooted. :wow:

Ganga played a horrible drive to a ball that wasn't there - caught.

Sarwan played a horrible drive to a ball that wasn't there - caught.

10 runs at a time....

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Heath Streak bowling beautifully! If Zimbabwe happen to win this match (although 230-250 may be difficult to chase with the ball starting to zip a bit), it would be due to Streak's spell today. Superb!

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Don't forget Price - both of those bowlers are doing an excellent job.

WI 84/7. Chanderpaul unlucky leg-before again, Jacobs got an edge.

With the quality of the Windies bowling so far in this series, I wouldn't be surprised if Zimbabwe actually pulled off a win here. Right now they have to chase 188 - think that could be pushed to 220, but that depends on Dillon and Banks...

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Yep it pitched outside for Chanders.

Jacobs played a shot to a ball that was there for the shot, but unfortunately he inside edged it.

Spare a thought for Omari Banks - what a rough initiation into Test cricket! Chasing 417 against the best team in the world and now hanging on against one of the worst. Lol if he survives this, surely he'll be equipped for anything.

 

[garage flower]

It would have been ridiculous to drop Ganga after the last Test match. I would personally have dropped Collymore to keep Drakes, but we all saw how that worked out

You, like many others, seem blinded by Ganga's technical "excellence". The man is a consistent failure at test level! A 70-odd and 20-odd against Zimbabwe are not enough to exempt him from being dropped. We agree that Banks isn't a specialist bowler and should only play as an all-rounder in a 5-1-1-4 line-up. Given that, Drakes should have played for Ganga, we'd have lost nothing with the bat and Zim would have finished well short of 370.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

You, like many others, seem blinded by Ganga's technical "excellence". The man is a consistent failure at test level! A 70-odd and 20-odd against Zimbabwe are not enough to exempt him from being dropped. We agree that Banks isn't a specialist bowler and should only play as an all-rounder in a 5-1-1-4 line-up. Given that, Drakes should have played for Ganga, we'd have lost nothing with the bat and Zim would have finished well short of 370.

Hindsight is such a wonderful thing. :P

I stand by what I said. Before this Test match, there was no basis for dropping Ganga... Gayle maybe, but not Ganga. Unfortunately the selectors aren't psychic.

 

[garage flower]

Mr M, what time is it in your part of he world? Have you woken up yet? You must recall that I suggested dropping Ganga B4 the test started.

Ganga should be the first batsman to be dropped because a cursory glance at his record reveals that he is the worst batsman in the team.

You don't need to be psychic or have any particular sensory gift to pick up on that.

Please have an extra Weetabix or other brain food of your choice before returning to the debate!

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

I am very awake. Yes, you may have suggested that he be dropped before the Test began, but you can't use the events of the Test to justify that. Before the Test Ganga was perhaps the best form batsman. He scored a hundred v Zimbabwe A and then played a chanceless 70odd in the Test. Whether his stats are the worst of the lot or not, the fact is that he was in the best form and why wouldn't you play your best form batsmen?

I await you undoubtedly repetitive and baseless response.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

WI all out for 128. Banks and Dillon tried to save the innings, got to 127, then Price struck twice again.

Series stats for Price: 19/396 (!) - of which half the runs came in one innings on the only good batting pitch of the series.

If that's not enough to be man of the series, something is seriously wrong. Yes, I know Streak has been excellent too, but Ray Price has stood out for me in this series like no other. Lara had only one good innings. Same with Vermeulen (although he's starting well today) West Indies have mainly been a team, especially in the bowling - albeit a weak one.

Dillon just took Sibanda for a duck. Vermeulen has started to whack it around again. Zim 229 behind.

Those who had: WI, WI, Lara, Price, 1100, 40, or near that, give yourself a big pat on the back. No WIndies bowler could possibly take 9 wickets in total. (OK, maybe Collymore, but I don't think so - Dillon and Edwards seems to be good)

Give both teams a big hand for a great series though. They deserve that.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Collymore took 4 in the first... I don't see why he can't take 5 more now...

Edwards is off the field with an ankle sprain.

Collymore has a shoulder problem and he just seemingly had Gripper caught behind, but it was given not out on the TV replay - ruled that it didn't carry. That could be very costly.

West Indies doesn't deserve a round of applause for their performance in this series. Even if we win it, I consider it a loss. We've played some horrible shots in this series as well as gotten some horrible decisions.

Chanders got 2 poor decisions in this game and a questionable one in the first Test. Jacobs got a questionable decision in the first Test and Lara got a horrible LBW decision as well. Certainly the umpires haven't helped the cause.

 

[garage flower]

I am very awake. Yes, you may have suggested that he be dropped before the Test began, but you can't use the events of the Test to justify that. Before the Test Ganga was perhaps the best form batsman. He scored a hundred v Zimbabwe A and then played a chanceless 70odd in the Test. Whether his stats are the worst of the lot or not, the fact is that he was in the best form and why wouldn't you play your best form batsmen?

I await you undoubtedly repetitive and baseless response.

Wouldn't want to disappoint you.

If I'm being repetitive it's because I can't seem to get a simple point across.

Baseless!!?? The basis of leaving Ganga out is that he tends to score less runs than the other batsmen. A fairly sound basis I would have thought.

You, on the other hand, would like to include him because of one decent half century in the 1st test and a good performance in a warm-up game. Your definition of form seems to be a little self-serving. If we're using form from the warm-up game as the basis for selection, Samuels would've been the first name on the teamsheet. If Chanderpaul, Lara and Sarwan had failed in both the warm up game and the first test would you have wanted to dropped them?

GANGA IS A FAILURE AT TEST LEVEL. His recent form, since the tons against Australia, is poor. He has PROVEN to be incapable of scoring runs consistently, or of stringing scores together. He has now confirmed this trend in the current series.

I wanted to drop Ganga BEFORE the test because 5 specialist bats seemed to be the right way to go and Ganga is the worst of the 6 specialist bats in the team.

The logic and the basis for this opinion are clear to me. I would welcome opinion from other forum users whether they agree or not.

 

[garage flower]

Give both teams a big hand for a great series though. They deserve that.

The last thing Windies deserve for this series is a big hand. Unless it's to smack them upside the head!

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Baseless!!?? The basis of leaving Ganga out is that he tends to score less runs than the other batsmen. A fairly sound basis I would have thought.

But at the moment he's 'tending' to score more runs than Gayle and looking better doing it.

You, on the other hand, would like to include him because of one decent half century in the 1st test and a good performance in a warm-up game. Your definition of form seems to be a little self-serving. If we're using form from the warm-up game as the basis for selection, Samuels would've been the first name on the teamsheet.

Facts dictate that he wasn't selected for the first Test. Indeed, Ganga was and he played well. What a poor decision. :rolleyes:

If Chanderpaul, Lara and Sarwan had failed in both the warm up game and the first test would you have wanted to dropped them?

I'm not the one calling to drop people. You are. Besides, it's alot more sensible to drop an out-of-form player than an in-form player.

I wanted to drop Ganga BEFORE the test because 5 specialist bats seemed to be the right way to go and Ganga is the worst of the 6 specialist bats in the team.

And yet we collapse for 128 runs. With your team in trouble with the bat, who would you prefer to have at the crease? Ganga or Drakes? Admittedly Drakes would be very useful right now, but there was just as little basis to drop Ganga as there was to drop Drakes.

 

[luckyeddie]

The logic and the basis for this opinion are clear to me. I would welcome opinion from other forum users whether they agree or not.

Not, in my case.

Ganga had certainly done enough to hold on to his place (without his first-test contribution, West Indies would be striving to save the series as opposed to winning it) - possibly at the expense of Crystal who seems a sad shadow of a class player at the moment - although I was quite dumbfounded at the dropping of Vasbert.

I expect Omari Banks to have a big effect in the second innings - watch this space.

 

[Neil Pickup]

33/3 at lunch and WI on target for a fairly comfortable win.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Do I hear 57/5? Mefinks so.

 

[marc71178]

Wavell Hinds doing the damage - that's a strange one!

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

62/6? Surely you jest.