England Cricket 2017

[Posh Ram]

I'm a bit worried that we'll thrash WI three times and not really learn much about the new bats we're trying out for Australia.

If Stoneman only plays three innings, we won't really have learned much about his technique at Test level. Personally I'd rather see someone like Buttler or Hales against this weak Windies attack; they're players who could obviously be Test class, just are short of confidence at this level. Malan and Westley I think will get found out in Aus.

[SKRam]

Ah well 1-3 defeat, I'll flick over, cheer myself up, to watch us dismantle this Windi...... oh  

[SKRam]

Roland-Jones replaced by Woakes.... that'll be fine then 

[Jimbo Ram]

Looks like we are in for an exciting last day......if we can get over a 200 lead we are still in with a chance me thinks....

[froggg]

4 hours ago, Jimbo Ram said:

Looks like we are in for an exciting last day......if we can get over a 200 lead we are still in with a chance me thinks....

What about a 321 lead ?

[Jimbo Ram]

2 hours ago, froggg said:

What about a 321 lead ?

No chance....

[eddie]

On 20/08/2017 at 13:21, Posh Ram said:

I'm a bit worried that we'll thrash WI three times and not really learn much about the new bats we're trying out for Australia.

If Stoneman only plays three innings, we won't really have learned much about his technique at Test level. Personally I'd rather see someone like Buttler or Hales against this weak Windies attack; they're players who could obviously be Test class, just are short of confidence at this level. Malan and Westley I think will get found out in Aus.

I think that Australia have their own problems, given the way that they are struggling to deal with Bangladesh (same as us) at the moment.

[Posh Ram]

4 hours ago, eddie said:

I think that Australia have their own problems, given the way that they are struggling to deal with Bangladesh (same as us) at the moment.

I'm not particularly convinced by their batting lineup, as seen by the continued selection of the Marsh brothers until recently. Think their fast bowling will cause us serious problems though. That being said, I thought Malan's innings yesterday was very promising, showed he can dig in against fast bowling.

[eddie]

2 hours ago, Posh Ram said:

I'm not particularly convinced by their batting lineup, as seen by the continued selection of the Marsh brothers until recently. Think their fast bowling will cause us serious problems though. That being said, I thought Malan's innings yesterday was very promising, showed he can dig in against fast bowling.

Saying that, Warner's made me look an idiot.

[PistoldPete2]

Windies have hope and chase batting ... A bad sign for England ?

[PistoldPete2]

So easy for the windies they might even have won if root hadn't declared but it was a pretty daft declaration 

[froggg]

Great win by Windies, superb test match England's mistake was not the declaration but not putting Windies into bat when they were down and out from the previous test match.

[eddie]

38 minutes ago, PistoldPete2 said:

So easy for the windies they might even have won if root hadn't declared but it was a pretty daft declaration 

I'm glad he did though - it made for an excellent match.

Two things spring to mind...

1. There's no way Root would have made that declaration against Australia with England 1-0 up in the series, although he might have done if Australia were 1-0 up and England were desperately trying to get back into the series

2. England lost the initiative by batting first.

[PistoldPete2]

1 hour ago, eddie said:

I'm glad he did though - it made for an excellent match.

Two things spring to mind...

1. There's no way Root would have made that declaration against Australia with England 1-0 up in the series, although he might have done if Australia were 1-0 up and England were desperately trying to get back into the series

2. England lost the initiative by batting first.

Well that's two bad decisions by root. Not good. And terrible catching by England in that last innings... you expect cook and stokes to have safe hands. But hey well done to windies a proper test match for sure. 

[Mr Tibbs]

I think Root was right to go for it, we aren't going to learn much from taking the easy option especially against 'lower' opposition in the build up to a tough tour away down under. Very harsh to class that decision as a mistake IMO, just proves you can't win as a captain, he'd be getting hammered for not going for the win if we'd drawn the match. 

WI were fantastic today and compared to the last test they look twice the team, fair play to them. Makes it interesting at Lords. 

 

[PistoldPete2]

9 minutes ago, Mr Tibbs said:

I think Root was right to go for it, we aren't going to learn much from taking the easy option especially against 'lower' opposition in the build up to a tough tour away down under. Very harsh to class that decision as a mistake IMO, just proves you can't win as a captain, he'd be getting hammered for not going for the win if we'd drawn the match. 

WI were fantastic today and compared to the last test they look twice the team, fair play to them. Makes it interesting at Lords. 

 

Well yesterday it was clear that batting was getting easier.. Woakes and broad scoring easily. Make hay while the sun shines .. Literally. It was a bad mistake, but it did make for some excitement. 

[Jourdan]

I think you just have to stand back and applaud the West Indies for their stirring performance.

When Moeen scored 84 on day four, most probably thought he had taken the game away from the West Indies, myself included.

Knowing how dominant England have been over WI since the turn of the century, of course Root was right to declare and back his bowlers to deliver and defend 300+. 9 times out of 10, it would have happened true to form.

But yes, credit to West Indies for breathing life back into the series, showing some courage and some fight, and making for an entertaining contest.

Everyone's a winner.

[Zag zig]

3 minutes ago, Jourdan said:

I think you just have to stand back and applaud the West Indies for their stirring performance.

When Moeen scored 84 on day four, most probably thought he had taken the game away from the West Indies, myself included.

Knowing how dominant England have been over WI since the turn of the century, of course Root was right to declare and back his bowlers to deliver and defend 300+. 9 times out of 10, it would have happened true to form.

But yes, credit to West Indies for breathing life back into the series, showing some courage and some fight, and making for an entertaining contest.

Everyone's a winner.

Most of all the ECB, should help their coffers nicely.

[sage]

I agree that we wouldn't have declared then against India, Australia and a few others, especially when 1 up in the series. I think batting to the end of the day and hopefully adding an extra 20-30 runs would still have left a chance for the Windies but bought us some insurance,

However for the greater good of cricket it is a good thing that the Windies have won a test in this series.   

[BOB BIGGS]

15 minutes ago, Jourdan said:

I think you just have to stand back and applaud the West Indies for their stirring performance.

When Moeen scored 84 on day four, most probably thought he had taken the game away from the West Indies, myself included.

Knowing how dominant England have been over WI since the turn of the century, of course Root was right to declare and back his bowlers to deliver and defend 300+. 9 times out of 10, it would have happened true to form.

But yes, credit to West Indies for breathing life back into the series, showing some courage and some fight, and making for an entertaining contest.

Everyone's a winner.

Good for the game in the West indies too, hopefully.