West Indies Tour of England - May to June 2012

[barmyarmy]

You should have let him get his well deserved century.

I've been trying to get him a pair. It only just worked for me.

 

[Owzat]

On the Chanderpaul batting too low thing, personally, I don't think you can blame him for the WIndies boards failings. With their strongest side out, he'd have Gayle and Sarwan ahead of him and it wouldn't be an issue really. It's only because he's head and shoulders ahead of the rest of the team, that he gets classed as 'selfish' or something crazy like that.

The problem is the side doesn't have Gayle and Sarwan in the side so the needs of the side should come first. He's unlikely to hammer his own average so it has to be selfishness or stupidity on someone's part.

As it happens he got support and has gotten out, so this time there were no extra runs in the making. Maybe Marlon could move up the order, his batting average is pretty feeble anyway and batting 3,4,5 and 6 his averages only range from 26.80 to 29.50 with his best average when batting 7 (44.40 from 11 inns) Batting 6 seems to be his worst averaging slot yet he's batted there most, his 86 his HS for that slot. His 105 batting 4 was against South Africa, his other hundred (104) was against India batting 7



Looks like windies will have something to bowl at, I wouldn't imagine enough but I'm sure England won't want a target of much more than the 120-150 I mooted. Not much in the locker once one or both of these two are out.

 

[puddleduck]

I have no idea why you seem so sure that Shiv has to bat higher. The guy scores runs at 5. Not his fault other players sometimes get out. He starts better against a softer ball as well because of the way he plays. You could have him at 4 and the top order could still collapse and he's batting with the guy who's now at 5 but was at 4... You're barking up the wrong tree really, not like if suddenly Shiv bats 4 the Windies are back to the 80's

 

[Sedition]

Yeah, I'm very much in the camp of leaving a guy to bat in the position he's scoring runs at, unless he really wanted to bat higher.

 

[Haarithan]

Wow Bresnan has been unimaginably woeful. Preferred him over Finn only for superstitious reasons.

 

[puddleduck]

Well I said all along Finn should have played, but I wasn't exactly against Bresnan. I still think it's a weak decision to pick him ahead of Finn. I don't really know why they keep dropping Finn each time he plays well. I hope that they're not gonna end up messing him about.

Another reason tactically for picking Finn is that the Windies batsman play on fairly slow pitches and a lot of their seamers are skiddier, kiss the surface kind of bowlers. They like to play a bit away from their body, and the extra bounce of a Broad or Finn (who is generally quicker and bouncier than Broad) can really exploit that. In England, you'd really hope that when it swings, you'll give the ball to Jimmy anyway. So with Broad considered a strike bowler, I suppose the reasoning is that Bressers is there to just bowl the long spells when the ball is softer. Still, I think against a Windies team, you have to look to attack their batsman and try to get them out. They're fairly fragile.

Yeah Bresnans match numbers are woeful at the moment though, and I really hope Finn gets in for the 2nd test (or Onions) since they are clearly better bowlers than Bres.

 

[Deleted member 13648]

My word, Jimmy. You are bloody gorgeous.

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It's a shame you can't bat...

 

[puddleduck]

Do we now wait another 50 innings for Strauss' next hundred?

 

[westindies2007]

Do we now wait another 50 innings for Strauss' next hundred?

Dont worry next Match he will get 100 .

 

[puddleduck]

Fair play to the West Indies though, really put themselves in this game now. Englands batsmen will be all too aware of their recent difficulties, and a bit of pressure like this is ideal to see if they really have moved on mentally.

Still, I don't want to be the dick that criticises the century maker, but he gave his wicket away straight away on the resume of the first innings and therefore left the middle and lower order to face the new ball and probably meant we were 50-100 runs short considering Bell looked good to get a score. Then he has again put the team under pressure by getting out at a bad time. He keeps doing it, his job is to see off the new ball, and if he does he has to go on. I don't mind him getting out cheap today so much I suppose, because that happens to openers, but he really is making a habit of putting the rest of the batting lineup under pressure.

 

[swacker]

Blimey! What an end to the day's play. Level pegging now I'd say. If we went in without losing a wicket I'd think we'd be just ahead, but the Windies have just as much of a chance of winning this as we do.

 

[puddleduck]

But it was only Strauss and apart from the tour of Pakistan we've been winning tests without him scoring any runs for the last few years

Jimmy on the other hand could be missed

 

[angryangy]

Basically, if England are able to not get out to short pitched bowling, they'll be okay.

 

[Aditya]

Roach was brilliant in the 3 overs that he bowled yesterday. It was very important for West Indies to at least pick 1 or 2 wickets yesterday and Roach did that for them. The match has got exciting now and I do feel that West Indies will pick up another quick wicket today but I feel KP will win the match for England. The target is about 50 runs less than what it should have been. Though, even if England win, West Indies must be appreciated for the fight.

 

[Owzat]

Wow Bresnan has been unimaginably woeful. Preferred him over Finn only for superstitious reasons.

Got a hundred in the match....................... with the ball. He may come in and have to stave off a defeat at this rate.



I cannot express in words how annoying the use of a nightwatchman is, batsmen shirking their responsibility and when it backfires it has worse knock on effects. Best case scenario Anderson might have made 30-40 or better, worst case scenario he was out before the close of play and doubly worst case scenario England sent out another.

England now go into today with a mental mountain of two wickets to overcome. It may be one wicket plus a tailender, but it will still have an impact and leave everyone batting one place lower which will matter if it gets down to the lower order and someone like Broad or Swann running out of partners.

BUT Trott and Cook are two batsmen you would think will grind away and hopefully see us through past 50-70 before there's a sniff of a wicket. England will want to get past 100 with no more than 3-4 wickets down tops, and I'd want England to get within 30 runs before 5-6 are down. All that said England may cruise to 150/3 and it will be a doddle, but having been so pathetic in UAE there is no telling - and the windies rather shocked England not so long ago, Fidel is capable of destroying England.