Just seen a funny sight, you fly out to the sunsoaked paradise of Antiuga and dont get a tan...why? because you are dressed as Spongebob Square Pants......only the Barmy Army
Yep, England failed to finish them off. Great fight shown by the Windies though and questions will be asked of Strauss as to why he didn't declare earlier yesterday. At least that might take some of the heat off the ECB and the Stanford fiasco.
Steve Harmison AGAIN fails to deliver when it really matters. How the feck can he not knock over Fidel Edwards with a simple yorker. The bloke is a joke, give someone else a go FFS.
Top marks to Freddie though, he tried his nuts off for the team, what a man.
[cite]Posted By: Ormiston Addick[/cite]Follow-on was tough because at the time Harmy was sick and Freddy crocked so probably not feasible.
But England faffed about with the bat and should have declared an hour earlier.
my thoughts as well, normally would have forced them to bat again but our bowling was going to be weak. definitely should have declared earlier - hate the way he waiting for the magic number 500 before declaring, so pointless. annoying that the pitch hadn't changed that much even by the end of the 5th day.
Personally thought everyone bowled well, Flintoff through his obvious pain, but Broad, Harmison and Anderson all bowled well, and the spinner did the job asked of him. Maybe we should have played Panesar as well?
[cite]Posted By: pickwick[/cite]Personally thought everyone bowled well, Flintoff through his obvious pain, but Broad, Harmison and Anderson all bowled well, and the spinner did the job asked of him. Maybe we should have played Panesar as well?
Lets hope Pietersen's finger is not broken.
Can't agree about Harmison, how can a fecking 6ft 5in fast bowler not be able to knock over a shithouse batter like Edwards with a fast, straight yorker?
Harsh to criticise Strauss too much re the declaration in my view.
At the time he had to make the decision to declare Flintoff was injured and Harmison was ill. In other words he was potentially two front line bowlers down and even if one or both were able to bowl how effective would they be?
At the time the decision needed to be made he needed a "buffer" and 500 runs was a reasonable buffer.
Any criticism should be directed at the English batsmen for not scoring faster thus attaining a 500 lead sooner
Should have declared at lunch on day 4. Had a lead of 418, and that was plenty. If the windies had scored 418 to win, then fair play to them. Another poor decision was chucking Anderson in as night watchman, when the game was 300 + for 1 to England. A hour wasted, before he got out.
Disgraceful using a nightwatchman when 300 in front. I hate them at the best of times - either you are good enough to bat for England at anytime of the day or you shouldn't be in the team. Cost us the win for sure.
How much time was lost to rain on the last day though? It's easy to say we batted too long, but there were a couple of decisions that didn't go our way and without the rain delay we'd have had longer to get that last wicket. Yes, we batted too long, 450 should have been the target, and would have meant an extra hour+ to bowl. Also, Anderson should have been told just to have a swing in the morning, get some quick runs or go down blazing as it were.
Comments
Top marks to Freddie though, he tried his nuts off for the team, what a man.
Can't do worse than Harmison.
But England faffed about with the bat and should have declared an hour earlier.
Lets hope Pietersen's finger is not broken.
Can't agree about Harmison, how can a fecking 6ft 5in fast bowler not be able to knock over a shithouse batter like Edwards with a fast, straight yorker?
Where did we go wrong with the batting?
At the time he had to make the decision to declare Flintoff was injured and Harmison was ill. In other words he was potentially two front line bowlers down and even if one or both were able to bowl how effective would they be?
At the time the decision needed to be made he needed a "buffer" and 500 runs was a reasonable buffer.
Any criticism should be directed at the English batsmen for not scoring faster thus attaining a 500 lead sooner
If you dont bowl the team out twice you dont win.
Good game though .... still 1-0 ...