England in West Indies

[barmyarmy]

I don't particularly like what I've read over the past two pages of this thread. Instead of singling people out (and we're talking more than one) I'm going to issue a general warning instead and promise to infract the next person I see making a personal attack on someone else rather than engaging with the points they're making.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion and it's totally unacceptable to start making it personal.

 

[The_gas]

Yes, it was. Just something that bugs me on internet forums, just thought I'd mention. Not sure why it needed that sort of reaction from you though, as the reasoning behind it makes sense, as surely the premise of a forum is to spout your opinions and ideas? Unless I'm dreadfully mistaken.



I like it. The one person that defends Lee and attempts to turn the attack back onto me is Gas, another member that hails from Norwich. Funny that.

Also, I love that it's you of all people that's telling me to grow up. The 28 year old that finds it hilarious to constantly spam the forums/my vistor message box with a picture of 3 England internationals naked.

Just to end this here, it stopped being a discussion when Lee said how he apparently enjoys 'winding me up' by making himself look like a buffoon. Now that is the earmark of a genius. So it should have been Lee that you quoted, considering he was the first one to mention winding up other members, not me.

I posted that picture twice (Maybe three times maximum ) in the forums, and once in your visitor message, and maybe a few times in other peoples. But this is just spreading the appreciation that England have some cricketers with a touch of exhibitionism about them.

And ill just say i know nothing about what happened in an MSN convo, was just saying what i saw, clearly i didn't see it all.

 

[RoboRocks]

Well it appears, according to cricinfo and Jonathan Agnew on BBC Sport, that Rashid won't play tomorrow. That means that we will stick with 6 batsmen since Broad said before the fourth test he doesn't think he's ready for number 6 or 7.

 

[The_gas]

Well it appears, according to cricinfo and Jonathan Agnew on BBC Sport, that Rashid won't play tomorrow.

 

[Sureshot]

We find out the size of the selectors balls today, clearly we lack fire power and must go in with 5 bowlers, better to lose trying than draw with a n impotent 4-man attack.

My changes:

Khan, Rashid and Prior in.
Sidebottom, Bopara and Ambrose out.

Tough call between Shah and Bopara, but I doubt they'd put Ravi at 3, and no one else wants the gig.

 

[King Pietersen]

It's a result pitch, we shouldn't need 5 bowlers. We needed 5 bowlers on a flat pitch, 4 should be enough on a pitch that's going to offer somethnig to the bowlers. Scoring runs is more important on a result wicket, as even if you take 20 wickets you need runs on the board to get a positive result, and I don't think dropping a centurion would help the team. Broad doesn't want to bat at 7, and Rashid's certainly not good enough, so that should all but rule out his inclusion. I'd be happy to see:

Strauss
Cook
Shah
Pietersen
Collingwood
Bopara
Prior
Broad
Swann
Amjad/Harmison
Anderson

and that's the team I expect to see.

 

[RoboRocks]

It's a result pitch, we shouldn't need 5 bowlers. We needed 5 bowlers on a flat pitch, 4 should be enough on a pitch that's going to offer somethnig to the bowlers.

Would you be prepared to trust the reports?

We have to play bowlers regardless of the conditions and give ourselves the best chance of taking 20 wickets. The batsman are in form, so we need to trust them to make the runs needed.

My team would be the same as Sureshot's:

Khan, Rashid and Prior in.
Sidebottom, Bopara and Ambrose out.

 

[The_gas]

It's a result pitch, we shouldn't need 5 bowlers. We needed 5 bowlers on a flat pitch, 4 should be enough on a pitch that's going to offer somethnig to the bowlers. Scoring runs is more important on a result wicket, as even if you take 20 wickets you need runs on the board to get a positive result, and I don't think dropping a centurion would help the team. Broad doesn't want to bat at 7, and Rashid's certainly not good enough, so that should all but rule out his inclusion. I'd be happy to see:

Strauss
Cook
Shah
Pietersen
Collingwood
Bopara
Prior
Broad
Swann
Amjad/Harmison
Anderson

and that's the team I expect to see.

I expect they will roll the crap out of the 'lively pitch' and by the time 3pm rolls around it will be flat as a pancake.

I just don't think its worth the risk. Look at the so called 'Spicy Pitch', it was rolled to crap and was flat as hell.

Why take the risk playing four bowlers when we can play 5.

EDIT, my team would also match Sureshots.

 

[King Pietersen]

Because as far as team balance go it doesn't work. There's not anyone capable, or willing to bat at 7. Broad's not willing to do it, not believing he's ready, and Rashid plainly isn't good enough, meaning the batting line-up is nowhere near as strong. We took 9 wickets at the ARG in the 2nd innings, and that was with pretty much 3 bowlers fully fit, with Harmison and Flintoff clearly feeling worse for wear. I think if an attack of Broad, Anderson, Amjad and Swann isn't good enough to take 20 wickets on a result pitch then we may as well bin the lot of them. We do not need 5 bowlers on a result pitch, we needed them on the road in the last game.

 

[Gilly Fan]

Was this test series meant to be a 3 match series originally? Or was it always going to be best of 5?

 

[Skater]

Was this test series meant to be a 3 match series originally? Or was it always going to be best of 5?

It was supposed to be 4 Tests but one was added on after the abandonment.

 

[King Pietersen]

Amjad's in =D According to Cricinfo the probable side will be:

1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Owais Shah, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Ravi Bopara, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Stuart Broad, 9 James Anderson, 10 Graeme Swann, 11 Amjad Khan.

I win

 

[Skater]

No Read.

I hope we bowl first I'm fed up of seeing us bat.

 

[King Pietersen]

Yeh, I hope we bowl first, if the wickets got something in it anyway. Don't want to see us bowling on another placcid track though, that's boring as sin, watching Sarwan clock up another hundred. Really hope he fails at least once in this match. Wanna see Amjad bowl as well, not really seen much of him tbh, I doubt he's got this tremendous pace that the Sky commentary team claim though. After all, they're the ones that think Saj Mahmood is in contention for the Test squad. Muppets.

King Pietersen added 10 Minutes and 27 Seconds later...

Panesar in for Bopara? WTF? That means Broad at 7 and Swann at 8, stupidly long tail. Not enough batting I don't think. Rashid should have been in ahead of Panesar. Panesar's going to disappoint. Least Jerome Taylor's out though.

 

[Skater]

So England are batting AGAIN and Panesar, Prior and Khan are in for Bopara, Ambrose and Sidebottom.