West Indies Tour of England - July 2020

[NILAYSHAH60]

Probably because 4 of his last 6 Tests were against England and he is showing signs of improvement ?[DOUBLEPOST=1594643162][/DOUBLEPOST]Btw did anyone notice the catch that Stokes never really took. I mean the one where he was diving in the opposite direction way before the catch came to him? It looked funny and horrible at the same time.

 

[Dutch]

Congrats to the Windies: well deserved win imo.

 

[Bevab]

Michael Holding had high hopes for him and was crestfallen when he got out in the first innings. Good on him to show that he has indeed improved.

 

[qpeedore]

Joe Root is coming back. Who would you replace for Root? Who will keep? You cannot fault any of the bowlers. If Wood loses his place to Broad, it would be totally unfair. That bowled wicket he got in the second innings...that was one of the best deliveries I've seen for a long time. Can he give you those deliveries on a consistent basis?

Again, Anderson can't play all the games. Not three Tests against WI knowing Pakistan is following. Same with Broad, but Broad can probably play 3 on the trot. This Test or the next one? I was happy with England's attack in this game, so maybe not Broad yet.

Dom Bess has shown some promise. Roston Chase has not, in terms of bowling.

Drop Shai Hope and play the spinner in Cornwall. You guys all know I want him to play. Old Trafford does take on some spin from day 2...play Cornwall, drop Hope, push Blackwood up to three, have our fav vitiligo player Campbell around to open...

A lot of people talked about moments in the match. I'll give you my moment. Shannon Gabriel was fielding at mid off/mid on...and he was NOT running well. I think it was Ian Bishop who said, "Gabriel did not field that ball all that well, he's running gingerly."

Holder gave Gabriel another spell. Day 4, after tea. One of the best spells of fast bowling you will ever see.

Ginger, Injury, screw that. Gabriel ran in and did what he has always done. Intimidate, and dominate.

 

[Adam78]

Gabriel is great to watch. If only he can work on the no-ball problem...

Winning without a single wicket from Roach is impressive.

 

[CerealKiller]

Dom Bess has shown some promise. Roston Chase has not, in terms of bowling.

Drop Shai Hope and play the spinner in Cornwall. You guys all know I want him to play. Old Trafford does take on some spin from day 2...play Cornwall, drop Hope, push Blackwood up to three, have our fav vitiligo player Campbell around to open...

Why drop Hope though? He's the best batsman WI have. If the pitch is really helpful for spinners, I'd get rid of Joseph.

 

[Sherlock Holmes]

Joe Root is coming back. Who would you replace for Root?.

Stokes...... for captaincy though :P

 

[wasteyouryouth]

Why drop Hope though? He's the best batsman WI have. If the pitch is really helpful for spinners, I'd get rid of Joseph.

Hope has the worst average in the top 8, so best batsman is pushing it.

 

[Bevab]

Why drop Hope though? He's the best batsman WI have. If the pitch is really helpful for spinners, I'd get rid of Joseph.

Hope has been living off that Headingley knock for far too long IMO. His style of play in ODIs seems to mask the deficiencies he has in his game that creep out when he plays test cricket. A spell on the sidelines might actually do wonders for him if he works on his mental and technical issues.

I wouldn't drop Joseph too, he looked lively and dropping him would seem harsh. It would be a shame but unless Hope is dropped or opens in place of an unfit Campbell, I cannot really see anyone else who could be replaced by Cornwall. Knowing West Indies though, we are unlikely to see Cornwall as the current team does love their decent batsmen and four pacer strategy a bit too much.

 

[Bevab]

It seems unlikely that England will drop Denly given the wave of support for him recently and that might mean Crawley going back in the hut despite a fifty. Ideally you would have opted for Wood and Archer in Old Trafford with one of Broad or Anderson sitting out but there is no way they will go without Broad again after a loss. Wood will probably be axed under the pretense of rotation. Hopefully Root makes better use of Bess, him bowling just ten overs in the second innings was a shockingly poor decision.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

It seems unlikely that England will drop Denly given the wave of support for him recently and that might mean Crawley going back in the hut despite a fifty. Ideally you would have opted for Wood and Archer in Old Trafford with one of Broad or Anderson sitting out but there is no way they will go without Broad again after a loss. Wood will probably be axed under the pretense of rotation. Hopefully Root makes better use of Bess, him bowling just ten overs in the second innings was a shockingly poor decision.

I remember close to couple of years ago India were chasing around 250 at Southampton on a similar pitch and they too just like West Indies had lost 3 early wickets in Rahul, Dhawan and Pujara. Kohli and Rahane nearly brought us back in the game before Moeen Ali wrecked havoc in the Indian batting. And that day Moeen Ali had bowled close to 30 overs. Bess being a better bowler definitely should've bowled more than 15 overs.

 

[wasteyouryouth]

It seems unlikely that England will drop Denly given the wave of support for him recently and that might mean Crawley going back in the hut despite a fifty. Ideally you would have opted for Wood and Archer in Old Trafford with one of Broad or Anderson sitting out but there is no way they will go without Broad again after a loss. Wood will probably be axed under the pretense of rotation. Hopefully Root makes better use of Bess, him bowling just ten overs in the second innings was a shockingly poor decision.

There's no way Denly keeps his place. He's had his chance it's time to go. Same goes for Buttler but Ed Smith can only handle one public shaming at a time.

 

[CerealKiller]

Hope has the worst average in the top 8, so best batsman is pushing it.

Hope has been living off that Headingley knock for far too long IMO. His style of play in ODIs seems to mask the deficiencies he has in his game that creep out when he plays test cricket. A spell on the sidelines might actually do wonders for him if he works on his mental and technical issues.

I wouldn't drop Joseph too, he looked lively and dropping him would seem harsh. It would be a shame but unless Hope is dropped or opens in place of an unfit Campbell, I cannot really see anyone else who could be replaced by Cornwall. Knowing West Indies though, we are unlikely to see Cornwall as the current team does love their decent batsmen and four pacer strategy a bit too much.

By "best" batsman i meant in terms of talent. No doubt he hasn’t been at his best in Tests. But if Campbell is out, i wouldn’t drop Hope too.

 

[qpeedore]

Definitely not dropping Joseph. He has one of the best attitudes toward cricket that you'll ever find in the modern game. He is absolutely emotionless on the field. He knows he has a job to do, and he does it well.

I'd like you to tell me when you've ever seen him show anything other than a shy smile or an out and out frustrated expression.

And if Campbell is out then promote Hope to open with Braithwaite. Otherwise if Campbell is fit then I'm all for dropping Hope altogether. No regrets about it.

 

[qpeedore]

CricInfo had a nice tidbit somewhere in their coverage where they said that WI has had a 4th innings target of 200 or less something like 60 times, and have never lost the match. I think they said something like only 5 draws too. The overwhelming majority of those targets were successfully chased.

We can talk about the toss and the decision to bat first, we can talk about Dom Bess not bowling enough, we can talk about not having Broad. We can talk. But at the end of 5 days, the fact remains that West Indies were the better team for all but two sessions. They themselves aren't without their downfalls. Some batsmen got themselves out rather than outright getting out. Poor technique was exposed by Wood and Archer, and to a lesser extent, Stokes. Roach didn't seem to be on form, despite bowling economically. I can't remember the last time he hasn't taken a wicket in a match.

We can also talk about the umpiring, which was...let's be honest, terrible in the first and second innings. But Kettleborough and Illingworth improved on days 4 and 5. I think it was just lack of playing time on their parts. Gough as third umpire was absolutely excellent with everything he did, he was careful to explain everything that he was seeing, and as he's mic'd up, that's what you want. Simple, easy explanations and the reasons for them. I remember one review where he asked for the front on view and got a view from mid off instead and he said, "Oh, this is the best angle we have? Okay, this is the best one, we will make do...go forward, go forward..." I mean, the transparency in the review process was there and I liked it a lot.

The Test was historic, not just because of the [HASHTAG]#BLM[/HASHTAG] movement, but also this was the first taste of proper cricket since the pandemic began. And, yeah, the artificial crowd buzz was annoying, but I tuned that out quickly. Yeah, seeing the empty stands was weird, but I live in the Caribbean, where having less than 100 people in the ground, including staff and players, is the norm these days. But having this Test be so competitive, and so good, right up to the final ball...that's a great return to Test cricket for the world. And it shows why Test cricket should always be the pinnacle of every fan's hearts.

(EDIT: I do have the skeleton here...to flesh out an article...hmm...)