England v W. Indies Test Series

Looks like a draw, then. Anyone watch today?

I predict a windies collapse post-tea tomorrow
From a safe 150 for 3ish to about 240 all out.

Will be listening to TMS tomorrow at work for this "situation!" Listened on Thursday and Friday. Makes a nice change from Virgin Radio, though "Read My Mind" is a quite nice song in the accomapiment, which is reference to "Music For A Lost Accordion." Bach would have been proud to have devised the line I think!

Getting back into Cricket Commentary after a 15 year gap! Frddrik

Looks like only rain can save the Windies now.

The problem is there's a good chance it might!

Fantastic performance by Roger Daltrey.

The rain wasn't quite enough to stave off The West Indies heaviest ever test defeat then.

Superb performance by our lads - is it me or are the Windies not quite as good as I used to remember them with Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd, Andy Roberts, Michael Holding and co.

quote:

Originally posted by ROTF:
- is it me or are the Windies not quite as good as I used to remember them with Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd, Andy Roberts, Michael Holding and co.

Hmmmm, I'll have to think about that for a while!

Well England are on top again, but I'm not quite sure how. The bowling of Harmison and Plunkett must rank as some of the most erratic I've seen in ages, contributing 42 of the Windies total of 229. Harmison in particular seemed unable to bowl a decent line at all and this helped with his first wicket as Ganga was so surprised that the delivery was on the stumps he just let it pitch on to his pad!

175 ahead and 3 days to go!

Mark

i am already looking forward to the next series.

hopefully more competitive than the trash that we saw today.

I was worried for a moment, but then it was Monty to the rescue - another great series win.

Those Extras are a thorn in our side though.

This is no 'great series win'. It is a poor side beaten by a very erratic one. I went to Old Trafford on Friday (and boy is that place getting shabby) to witness some of the most woeful cricket imaginable.

England have a handful of reliable performers (only) but the Windies probably have just 2 (Bravo/Chanderpaul) who look consistently interested.

Apparently Harmison bowled with fire and purpose today. On Friday it was painful, I think most of the crowd were more pitying than derisory. If he is picking up form, and with Hoggard apparently coming back for Durham, I cannot see the Windies winning anything in this series. However England badly need an improvement in several areas to beat India later in the year. Strauss needs a break and Plunkett is as bad as Harmison without the saving grace of ever actually being that good previously!

Panesar has become a real asset. It is years since we had a spinner as an attacking option (on normal pitches) rather than just a fall-back when the seamers have failed. He needs to watch his excessive appealing though as it may start working against him soon.

Bruce

PS I'd also like to point out that in Craven League Div 3 'my' team have won again and are now 2nd in the table. In 45 overs we only conceded 3 extras too!

I agree, it was no 'great series win'. A 3rd rank side against a 5th or 6th rank side will never make for compulsive listening. But listening to the baying hordes makes one wonder what the crowds were watching; it cannot have been the cricket.

quote:

Originally posted by Nick from Suffolk:
I agree, it was no 'great series win'. A 3rd rank side against a 5th or 6th rank side will never make for compulsive listening. But listening to the baying hordes makes one wonder what the crowds were watching; it cannot have been the cricket.

Nick,

England are ranked 2nd in Test Cricket. And as for why playing a team ranked 5 or 6 will never make for compulsive listening - I would love to know why?

Mark

Well I thought was a great final day - superb c & b by Monty



An excellent catch by Ian Bell to end the innings - and how can anybody knock the great innings by Shiv Chanderpaul.

Harmison was definitely much improved on the last 2 days and bloody good job too as he was awful on the Friday. I hope Donald can get him out sooner rather than later. I still think we miss Simon Jones and have not been the same bowling force since he was injured. I wonder if he will ever fully recover from injury.


Mark

quote:

England are ranked 2nd in Test Cricket.

I think these rankings are pretty misleading as the test 'cycle' takes so long to complete.

Our one-day ranking is woeful. Since we've played almost everybody within the last 2 years I suspect it is more accurate and we are a bit flattered by that Test rank at the moment. Let's face it, everybody appears second division behind Australia at the moment (in both styles of the game).

Bruce

Missing the point here a bit, we are certainly a very erratic one day side, with good players on their day, if they're all having a good day we win, if not, we lose.

I think we're a pretty good test side though, can't remember the last series we lost at home. OK, so the last Ashes tour was dismal and embarassing but I think that one was always kind of written in stone. We have some good batsmen and one of the worlds best (and youngest) spinners at the moment. We need a really good and consistent fast bowler rather than the slightly mixed bag(!) we have right now, just to nail it.

We are a far better test side than one-day for sure. I was making the point that our Test ranking probaly flatters us as a Test team but the one-day rank is about right as a one-day team.

I think India will push us close in the second Test series of the summer.

It was nice to see WI gritting a bit, and even nicer to see Eng (who excellently won Ashes in 2005) win series.

Well done Chand/Vaughan etc.

Two more great innings by Shivnarine Chanderpaul - I think he's a superb player, but it was England's day yet again and another wonderful victory.

Paul Collingwood had another match winning performance and plenty of wickets distributed around our bowlers with Steve Harmison definitely on the way back to form. Lots of positives from this shorten match.

Eaaassy. Eaaassy. Eaaassy.

quote:

Originally posted by ROTF:
Two more great innings by Shivnarine Chanderpaul

He must rank as the most difficult player to remove of all time!

Another 3-0 series victory against the Windies. I'm not sure whether this says more about the West Indies or England.

I agree though, that there were good performances from Collingwood and Monty and Harmison was much improved today. England have good batting right down the order and, actually, rather than the traditional middle order collapse, this is where their strength seems to lie now. It is the higher order batting that is a bit inconsistent at the moment.

India will be a much stiffer test, though.

Mark

After a narrow defeat in the first Twenty20 - back we come with a resounding victory and Paul Collingwood didn't need to do it all by himself,

Good end to the game Shah leaving a straightish one and the ball swings away for five wides - yes.

And a resounding one-day victory at Lords.