International cricket thread

VillaMad

England finally passed 300 for the first time in 13 innings but only just about with Bairstow really being the only standout performer.

Pitch looks benign to me at the moment and looks like a new-ball wicket so the West Indies should be confident of a decent reply.

Gillespy

Wood first change in the sixth over already with the runs flowing off Woakes. Overton a bit less useless. Last thing Strauss wanted to see.

VillaMad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118758049#Comment_118758049

Not wholly surprising whatsoever. Woakes has struggled time and time again away from home whilst Overton is a useful bowler but not much else and most certainly isn't a bowler to be feared and that's your opening bowlers right there.

Fairly slim pickings it looks like when you leave out Anderson and Broad. Robinson and Archer would be easy choices if fit, but the list isn't particularly long. Fisher and Mahmood are the other two bowlers (uncapped as well) in this test squad but it's hard to see either of them making a huge impact either.

Strumms

England should have gotten closer to 350…. I’d have given Wood a bollôcking for that shot that he got himself out with. Pointless being that cavileer with that many wickets down yet Bairstow still there…on 140

56 runs off 12 overs for West Indies… a nice busy start, 4.6 an over… Leach looking his usual not threatening self. Getting excited at dot balls.

for any Leach ‘fans’ out there, the guy averages 1.7 wickets per innings..

VillaMad

England now on top with Stokes and Wood giving a bit of extra pace and each getting a wicket.

The West Indies just probably need to see those both off to get going again.

Gillespy

Foakes uncharacteristically very messy. Da Silva has out kept him so far.

VillaMad

West Indies finished on 202/4 at the close of day 2.

Pitch doing nothing and the ball going soft after 40 overs or so made it easy enough for Holder and Bonner to build a partnership.

Nobody on top as of yet as if the pitch does start to break up, it will suit England bowling last, so the West Indies need to continue to accumulate and build a lead if possible.

Strumms

Bonner, 34 from 103, Holder 43 from 104…

bit of a tough watch that…33.01 and 41.35 the respective strike rates.

Strumms

Would have liked to have seen a big time more aggressive field from Joe root but seeing as he is known for his conservatism… defensive fields and his most defensive bowler Jack Leach who bowled the second highest over count with England requiring wickets, without causing much or any distress to the batsmen…baffling…wtf… one slip and a gully to the quicks and men saving runs not catching balls.

Joe will probably be lying in bed… “ yesss Jack Leach bowled 9 maidens and had a sweet economy rate, god I’m so happy “….

Yes, but didn’t take a wicket did he Joe…

Tom Mann Centuria

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118760456#Comment_118760456

Not sure who I'd have instead, but Root really is an underwhelming Captain. Should have lost it when Giles (correctly) got the boot imo, complete fresh start.

Strumms

You get a real appreciation for how good a captain Cook was watching Root. I think I’d make Stokes test captain and relinquish him of that one day responsibility..

Root as good a cricket player as he is and he’s brilliant make no mistake, and seemingly a good lad to boot, he’s no captain,

Gillespy

Been a good to and fro game so far. Two fairly well matched teams.

Jason Holder must be the most consistent performer out of all the good allrounders around currently. What a player.

Mahmood and Fisher in for the next game surely. Leach bowled well, with no turn that's all he can do. Problem today is runs flowed at the other end to him. Opposite of the Ashes.

Strumms

Only one wicket falling in the AM session and 35 runs behind… WI will be delighted so pretty much going to go into the second innings with a decent lead of maybe 100 plus unless they get skittled which is looking unlikely…

Overton bowling to a field with no slips.. no short leg, no close catchers….what’s the point ? A Root conservative clueless special…

jack Leach has bowled more overs then any other English bowler.. you need wickets yet the guy you bowl most is your bowler who is statistically has the least chance of getting a wicket.

Overton now bowling wides on height, about a meter over the batsman. Finally a silly point.. silly captaincy.

madness…

Strumms

Eventful couple of overs…Leach does manage to get a wicket, a good one trapping Da Silva LBW…BUT Crawley drops Bonner… ball went quickly off the bat but it was a comfortable height and not far from his body..Overton gets Joseph cheaply…

VillaMad

Pretty dull day with the West Indies just creeping along with England offering little threat.

Lead currently is 30 with 2 wickets in hand. Hard to see how the West Indies can win this unless England collapse which to be fair wouldn't be a huge surprise!

MFPM

Only catching bits of this match, creeping along a bit. Not withstanding England's propensity to collapse, hard to see it on this pitch, so it's looking like a draw.

Gillespy

A day for the purists.

VillaMad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118765327#Comment_118765327

171 off 90 overs with England taking just 5 wickets. Not the best week of Test Cricket so far, to say the least.

Gillespy

One of them was a run out and Bonner's edge barely registered on Ultraedge.

Wood is injured, Stokes hobbling. West Indies might fancy themselves in this one yet. Nice lead, better bowlers and we know how fragile England are.

Strumms

More desperate umpiring… Crawley given out LBW in the first over but his review shows the ball would have gone over 5th stump.. two inches too high and about five inches wide of the stumps… jeez

VillaMad

England 72-1 at lunch. Crawley looking relatively good and they lead by 8 runs. Lees out twice cheaply on debut as England continue to work down the list of all available county openers.

Strumms

Nothing about Lees might suggest he’ll be anywhere near this England team long term.

he only averages 34.86 in first class cricket but when he goes big he tends to cash in, when he doesn’t he tends to fail… he has a top score of 275* which suggests a lot of talent but it seems to be consistency that is enabling his downfall… he is goes big or fails.

a touch of the Mark Lathwells about him.

VillaMad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118769209#Comment_118769209

And consistency is the main thing that keeps you in the team so that boom or bust output simply isn't going to work at test level. I'd imagine they'll give him the rest of the series to see what he can do in any case.

As for the game itself, well England are 146-1. They lead by 82 and it's all pretty comfortable for them at the moment once the swing went off the ball. The game is heading for a pretty forgettable draw.

Strumms

Yes, only one result possible now, that earlier rain delay plus the overall slow run rate over the innings… this has been a good partnership but 137 off 251 is not a scoring tempo to get the pulses racing. Putting the foot down now but I think that’s more because of the guys punishment of poor tired bowling as opposed to anything else. 173-1 could sacrifice one of these to see if they can get 25 minutes before lunch at the West Indians tomorrow.

TrueDub

"only one result possible"

Absolute rubbish.

All 4 results are possible - win for either side, a draw or a tie.

Strumms

Crawley and Root with strike rates respectively of 58.50 / 53.16

one wicket down on a pitch with no gremlins and a bowling attack they had the measure of completely…good short balls aside.

given the game situation the sensible thing was for one of them to go BIG and aggressive but Crawley with an average run rate in an otherwise excellent innings and Mr Conservative again turning down singles…. One wicket down Crawley should both have tried to blast it, lose one wicket… maybe revert to plan A… realistically it wasn’t a game they could lose… too many wickets in hand, too many runs ahead and not enough time for WI…win predictor had WI at 2%…. an English win or draw… but England played for the draw… baffling. 85% now for the draw, which is being a bit generous to England. It’s poor captaincy.

Gillespy

Credit to Crawley and Root for getting out of a tricky deficit and build a healthy lead. Disagree completely with the complaints of their strike rates. Both are naturally fast scoring and given the slow pitch and game situation they did fine.

Three back to back tests and Wood injured, unless the pitch suddenly shows signs of breaking up, England might be smart to put the miles into the West Indies bowlers. Don't be shocked if this pitch is rated poor by the ICC.

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118770698#Comment_118770698

the pitch is an absolute road, that in four days play has showed zero signs of deteriorating.

the pitch is completely batsman friendly with no uneven bounce, little sideways movement off the pitch, it has no pace at all, it hasn’t enabled pace or spin bowling and has nothing inconsistent about it to worry batsmen..

in 63.2 overs of a third innings on a day four pitch only one wicket has fallen and only one other half chance created….

England need a lead of 280-300 to be out of sight and safe… that might happen about an hour after lunch or thereabouts…

so England declare at this potentially opportune time then they’ll have about 3 hours 40 minutes play to bowl the West Indies out..West Indies won’t chase that total. It’s unlikely given what we’ve seen that England can bowl the West Indies out. The West Indies batted for 155 overs in their first innings… I doubt they will be bowled out in about 55 or so.

so in my opinion only one result is possible….

TrueDub

All 4 results are possible. That’s a fact.

You say is that only one is likely. That’s an opinion, and probably a correct one, but still an opinion.

Tom Mann Centuria

Where's the old fashioned rolls eyes emoji.

Anyway, weird how the last couple of Tests have been pretty poor viewing when there's been so much good 5 day cricket in recent months.