West Indies in England

[BigCrickNan]

Take it back again, 7! Take a bow son, great performance that the windies needed to kick start the tour, although too late in this game.

 

[angryangy]

Is it too late? The Windies chased 417 against Australia just 4 years ago. Granted they're missing Lara and Sarwan since then, but I don't see any Glenn McGraths or Jason Gillespies playing for England, either.

There's a lot of time left and unless Sammy discovered a tricky part of the pitch, plenty of runs left. A bit of luck and a massive morale boost might be the groundwork for a record breaking effort.

I'm hopeful of at least some sort of proper effort.

 

[barmyarmy]

WI will be lucky to make it to tea tomorrow.
Encouragingly Harmison looks to be bowling better too.

 

[BigCrickNan]

Is it too late?

Yes Tough batting conditions, a batting line-up that is nothing compared to the one that chased 418. Plus that game was a dead rubber so the aussies probably let off the gas a bit.

 

[rocklara]

SAMMY, SAMMY! one for our boy back home, windies though wont last till tea...congrats to my english mates on the forums on a series win, much needed kick start under a new coach...

 

[manee]

Obviously the poor West Indies fielding, good England batting and probling spell by Sammy speaks for itself, but I wish to concentrate on Harmison.

I do not believe he has made any improvment to his bowling even in this morning spell. He seems to be putting the ball in a spot rather than bowling them. This leads to a very samey line and length and a lack of pace and swing. Gayle playing around all deliveries gave Harmison false hope because problems remain. The seam is not moderately or remotely straight which means his wrist is not behind the ball and his front arm is falling away which causes numerous problems.

He needs extended time off to work on his bowling and should be 'rested' from the England setup in the mean time to prevent any search for a quick fix. It needs to be pinpointed which stiff joint or muscle causes balls way down leg and off early in the spells and pinpointing that part of his body may be the key.

 

[rabeta]

Obviously the poor West Indies fielding, good England batting and probling spell by Sammy speaks for itself, but I wish to concentrate on Harmison.

I do not believe he has made any improvment to his bowling even in this morning spell. He seems to be putting the ball in a spot rather than bowling them. This leads to a very samey line and length and a lack of pace and swing. Gayle playing around all deliveries gave Harmison false hope because problems remain. The seam is not moderately or remotely straight which means his wrist is not behind the ball and his front arm is falling away which causes numerous problems.

He needs extended time off to work on his bowling and should be 'rested' from the England setup in the mean time to prevent any search for a quick fix. It needs to be pinpointed which stiff joint or muscle causes balls way down leg and off early in the spells and pinpointing that part of his body may be the key.

Good post. Between him and Harmison they have bowled over 20 wides this series, albeit some of them being more than 1 wide. If you think about the leniency that is given in Test Matches for wides, this is shocking. International bowlers should not be bowling like this, let alone village. They have both been given 3 test matches to shine, with 1 pitch each that is perfectly suited to their bowling, Plunkett with Headingly and Harmsion at old Trafford. Unless they bowl superbly tomorrow, for me they both have to be dropped, the selectors need to be strong and tell them that they need to go back to county cricket and miss out on the ODI series, well Plunkett anywayz as Harmison has retired. This will give them time to get lots of overs in and realize their game as well as they can, as at the moment they do not seem to know their game.

However, the problem comes with their replacement, I would say Saj, but I know I get lambasted with criticism , so I will just say that it is up to Moores, and hopefully he can pick two bowlers that know their game well, just like Sidebottom.

 

[Vcassano]

Harmison seems to be slowly coming together, at least in my opinion. I still don't think he should be playing but if we drop him now that means we've wasted all these matches he's played. His batting looks spirited, certainly his 'duel' with Fidel Edwards. It seemed to fire him up a bit. Also this evening he bowled very well, again getting rid of Ganga with a great ball.

People say send him back to county cricket and work out his action but he's clearly done it as he was bowling brilliantly for Durham and dare I say it some of the Counties would be more challenging than the Windies.

 

[PhilD123]

Though in reality, England consider Vaughan indispensable no matter what, in an theoretical setting, showing glimpses of form against the second worst team in test cricket should not get your head off the chopping block. Better players have been shanked for less.

I wouldn't say that to be honest. Yes the West Indies haven't got a great attack by any stretch of the imagination. But to come back from 18 months out of test cricket and show the form that he has, thats unbelievable to be honest. He was unlucky to get out in the way that he did at Headingley. He got a jaffa that nipped back in the 1st innings at OT and then a fantastic return catch did for him today.

Went to OT today, pretty good day's test cricket, although probably not the entertainment that I would have got going yesterday. Good hundred from Cook, he slowed down a little towards the middle of the day, but he has such maturity. Wasn't a usual KP innings to be honest, I said in a post yesterday that fireworks from KP would be nice, it wasn't even sparklers to be honest. Never seen such a strange dismissal though.

Shambolic fielding from the West Indians today. 2 dropped catches and various fumbles in the field. Sammy and Edwards bowled well, although perhaps Edwards could have been bowled a little more.

Harmison still delivering the wides down the leg side, although, he was better tonight than in the 1st innings, wasn't too hard to be though! Monty looked to be causing some problems later on, so he'll be key tomorrow, especially if Harmison doesn't bowl well.

On to the final issue, the streakers! The stewards were absolutely hopeless. Anyone see on TV how much they showed them? No females.

 

[Eddie]

always been like thta at Old trafford..

i was there 2 ashes series ago and there were something like 12-14 streakers (ALL MEN!)..

 

[angryangy]

to come back from 18 months out of test cricket and show the form that he has, thats unbelievable to be honest.

He was given the entire World Cup to use as match practice. It'd be a worry if he wasn't showing some sort of change after 15 innings.

 

[Will_NA]

Very different format. It's as if he knows exactly how to format a Test Innings and shows his real class but in ODIs, he feels the need to try too many things and gets himself out.

 

[PhilD123]

He was given the entire World Cup to use as match practice. It'd be a worry if he wasn't showing some sort of change after 15 innings.

Test Cricket is much more intense than ODI cricket, its much more of a physical and mental battle with the bowlers.

 

[Griffo]

Sammy did superbly and is appears to be much more than what some of the english Planet Cricket members described, it takes talent to destroy an entire team

 

[Eddie]

enitre team?

he mopped-up the tail on a bowler friendly pitch..

I'd be more impressed if he perfomed against the top order when the match was "not" "dead"..

He did bowl well, but on less-helpful wickets he would not trouble our batting line-up.