England v West Indies and South Africa

booth70

The English summer is almost upon us!

Despite the drubbings over the winter England should win comfortably against the Windies but it will be a different story against the South Africans

Some exciting cricket to look forward to:)

booth70

Injury rules Bopara out of the first test

Game , set and end of Test career for Bopara I reckon.....pity given that he would have fancied scoring against the Windies and cementing the No 6 spot

booth70

Straussy's test career is safe after an inevitable return to form against the West Indies yesterday!

Bell to follow suit today?!

djimi

Was Strauss' test career ever in doubt? He hit a bad patch of form but I couldnt believe it when I read people actually suggesting that he be dropped.

booth70

I doubt whether he would have played against South Africa had he failed against the Windies....one hundred in 50 test innings before yesterday isn't exactly what you are paid to do....not after the drubbings over the winter

booth70

Chanderpaul and Samuels have been simply brilliant this morning......some baffling captaincy from Straussy but England still firm favourites

Would have been really interesting if only Windies had the services of Sunil Narine when England start their 4th innings chase:o

TheDrog

the windies have a spinner who recently took 10 wickets in a match with them they just decided not to play him and it may well cost them

booth70

TheDrog wrote: »

the windies have a spinner who recently took 10 wickets in a match with them they just decided not to play him and it may well cost them

Yep....Shillingford and Narine would have caused a few jitters in the England camp

Hopefully Gayle will play the second test now that RCB have been knocked out!

Rjd2

booth70 wrote: »

Hopefully Gayle will play the second test now that RCB have been knocked out!

Would love to see it, but his ego may not allow it. Its one thing smashing Indian trundlers on flat IPL pitches but he may not fancy it against Broad and company in a format of the game we all know he doesn't like.


West indies after the collapse yesterday have batted well, would be annoyed with Sammy for giving it away but that's to be expected with him.


I also want to see Fidel do some damage second innings, not impressed with him recently and an average near 40 is not good enough for someone spearheading their bowling.

booth70

England 10/2 at stumps chasing 191.....West Indies have been simply brilliant today:)

decies

Better hardly brilliant , if they win today and we hope they will , fair enough .

booth70

decies wrote: »

Better hardly brilliant , if they win today and we hope they will , fair enough .

Considering No:1 was playing No:7 and that half their first XI are plying their trade in the IPL I thought the Windies were brilliant yesterday:)

Obviously they weren't brilliant enough to win today;)

Rjd2

decies wrote: »

Better hardly brilliant , if they win today and we hope they will , fair enough .

You didn't think the West Indies getting to 345 after been 36-3 against the number 1 bowling attack in the world in their backyard was brilliant?

Obviously it wasn't enough but to even get them in with a sniff it was a bloody impressive turnaround.

booth70

I would have actually put some money on the Windies today had they played a quality spinner that England would have no doubt struggled against in the 4th innings chase

Hopefully Sunil Narine gets a look in for the third test once the interminably long IPL is over

Gyalist

booth70 wrote: »

Hopefully Sunil Narine gets a look in for the third test once the interminably long IPL is over

No chance. He'll most likely come in for the T20s and ODIs.

booth70

WI 304/6 after being 135/6

They have been an absolute revelation this summer:).....wonder how much better they would have been with their IPL players

MrKingsley

I was amazed watching it today and yet again their lower middle order saved them. I was sure that it wouldve been a skittling after the first 15/20 overs.

However it wont be able to save them all summer. One of their top 3 needs to step up. If they had managed to get 1 century in any of their 3 innings so far theyd had been properly competitive

petersf

Narine got all the ability to be in the test as his performance his awesome in the IPL league. Hope he would have played for his country.

decies

Fight windies fight , another afternoon in garden with TMS, my dear old thing

MrKingsley

Windies need KP out as quick as possible here. If he gets going i can see a declaration on the cards tomorrow evening

decies

West indies revelation my arse they should have least got 400 plus this morning, now it's al la carte bowling . Bring on the south Africa, and the Aussies for the one dayers.

booth70

decies wrote: »

West indies revelation my arse they should have least got 400 plus this morning, now it's al la carte bowling . Bring on the south Africa, and the Aussies for the one dayers.

They were 135/6 yesterday or were you not watching when their no:8 bat made a century

I dunno what your problem with the Windies is

They'll still get beaten 3-0.....I was merely stating the fact that they haven't rolled over like everyone predicted

decies

I see so losing 3/0 would be a moral victory lol. There useless admit it.

Dozen Wicked Words

decies wrote: »

I see so losing 3/0 would be a moral victory lol. There useless admit it.

I boldly predict this test will be a draw. So they won't lose 3 nil. And regardless, if I'm wrong, they will leave with a lot more credit than India did.

bwatson

booth70 wrote: »

They were 135/6 yesterday or were you not watching when their no:8 bat made a century

I dunno what your problem with the Windies is

They'll still get beaten 3-0.....I was merely stating the fact that they haven't rolled over like everyone predicted

I've played league cricket against far better batsmen than Darren Sammy, the captain of the West Indies. I'm sure many contributors here have. The Windies are just not very good.

England were totally toothless yesterday, and even then Sammy looked to be doing his best to give them chances.

booth70

decies wrote: »

I see so losing 3/0 would be a moral victory lol. There useless admit it.

Well....they are a whole lot better than the shambles of a team they once were and if you can't see it nothing much I can do about it

Hopefully when the Aussies arrive for a pointless one day series and the South Africans later this summer you'll get the higher standard cricket you want to see

booth70

dooferoaks wrote: »

I boldly predict this test will be a draw. So they won't lose 3 nil. And regardless, if I'm wrong, they will leave with a lot more credit than India did.

My point precisely:)

booth70

bwatson wrote: »

I've played league cricket against far better batsmen than Darren Sammy, the captain of the West Indies. I'm sure many contributors here have. The Windies are just not very good.

England were totally toothless yesterday, and even then Sammy looked to be doing his best to give them chances.

Er....Sammy is not in the team for his batting.....if he was he wouldn't be coming in at no: 8......and seeing as he did come in at 8 against the 'best' bowling attack in the world with his team at 135/6 and make a century I'd say he has probably done a whole lot better than any of the league cricketers you might have played against

bwatson

Sammy is certainly not there for his insipid medium pace alone. His batting averages are very mediocre too. He is there solely for his leadership and captaincy.

As I type this Kirk Edwards is got LBW by Bresnan. Undoubtedly the worst batsman I've seen in a long time. He was supposed to have had a very good start to his test career too!

decies

Shambles!!!

booth70

decies wrote: »

Shambles!!!

Agree......but based ONLY on their second innings score of 61/6 which I thankfully missed bcos of the IPL final:)

They have been brilliant otherwise

I reckon the two Sams will bat all day tomorrow and grind the England bowlers to dust

Dozen Wicked Words

My original point is still valid but I am going to boldly predict my initial bold prediction was a bit too bold, and now I am slightly less boldly going to predict England will now, indeed win this Test. The last part is bold. :rolleyes:

bwatson

dooferoaks wrote: »

My original point is still valid but I am going to boldly predict my initial bold prediction was a bit too bold, and now I am slightly less boldly going to predict England will now, indeed win this Test. The last part is bold. :rolleyes:

It must be said, the English pace attack is really quite ferocious at the moment. So much strength in depth too with the likes of Tremlett and Finn who would more than likely slot into any other attack in test cricket (save possibly south africa).

While the West Indies have been disappointing there is no doubt a lot of individual quality there. You have to feel for their fans when you think just how good a team they could be if their cricket board was even semi-competent and all of their players were committed to the cause.

booth70

Mark Nicholas.....the master of exaggeration:D

Apparently the current England team are the new Australia

Makes you wonder if he was in a coma while England were getting hammered over the winter!

bwatson

booth70 wrote: »

Mark Nicholas.....the master of exaggeration:D

Apparently the current England team are the new Australia

Makes you wonder if he was in a coma while England were getting hammered over the winter!

In terms of the way this England team ruthlessly takes advantage of an opposition's weakness, I don't think he is far wrong.

Pleased to see Bresnan awarded the MoM. His spell yesterday evening more or less secured the game. Would like to see Finn come in for Anderson for the final test.

booth70

Wonder if Morgan will get a surprise recall for the 3rd test given that Bopara is out and Jonny B failed in the first two tests?;)

decies

Get Morgan back for Ireland I doubt he will play another Test for England again even the Tms team don't seem to like him. Someone please kill off that IPL before it sucks the life of the Test Match Format. This must be the worst period in terms of quality in Test Nations that I can remember for a long long time.

bwatson

decies wrote: »

Get Morgan back for Ireland I doubt he will play another Test for England again even the Tms team don't seem to like him. Someone please kill off that IPL before it sucks the life of the Test Match Format. This must be the worst period in terms of quality in Test Nations that I can remember for a long long time.

I wonder what Morgan's opinion on turning out for Ireland again would be or would he not be happy to be out of the international limited overs scene for so long?

A lot of Cricket writers and commentators in England seem to have completely given up on Morgan as a test player. The number 6 slot is still very much up for grabs, but Morgan isn't even referred to in the debate.

TheDrog

he hasn't been in very good form for middlesex to justify a call up again, if he starts making runs it might happen but not at the moment

TrueDub

TheDrog wrote: »

he hasn't been in very good form for middlesex to justify a call up again, if he starts making runs it might happen but not at the moment

Hard to score runs when you're sat on the bench in the IPL.

gumbynation

He has been back from the IPL for 2 weeks now - wasnt with KKR for finals.
Scored 42 against surrey 2s on his return but hasn't done well in either the CB40 or the Championship outings for the 1st team since.
http://www.cricketeurope4.net/DATABASE/ARTICLES5/articles/000011/001143.shtml

Rjd2

Narine is in for inured Roach.

Ian Bell is not pleased.

booth70

Rjd2 wrote: »

Narine is in for inured Roach.

Ian Bell is not pleased.

....but Jonny B must be delighted

bwatson

booth70 wrote: »

....but Jonny B must be delighted

I don't think so. He's extremely talented and has shown he is extremely resilient. I think he would have far preferred another chance to face Roach.

He's got a big future in the test side in my opinion.

dfx-

So sorry for Fidel Edwards and his injury problems. Looked a terrific prospect all those years ago..

Looking forward to the Proteas' visit

booth70

Hope the Windies play Narine

Would be really interesting to see how Narine does.....it's one thing taking wickets in T20 when the batsman are trying to hit every ball outta the park....it's a completely different game when batsman have more time to work you out