1 Andrew Strauss, 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Owais Shah, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Matt Prior (wk), 7 Stuart Broad, 8 Graeme Swann, 9 James Anderson, 10 Amjad Khan, 11 Monty Panesar
[cite]Posted By: Brunello[/cite]Cannot believe Bopara being dropped nor Prior coming back both of which look likely
It's all about balance. The Windies attack isn't that strong and England *should* be capable of scoring enough runs to win, and other than Jamaica in the second innings scoring runs hasn't been the problem. However the problem all winter has been taking 20 Windies wickets and England erred in Bardbados in only selecting four front-line bowlers on a flatter than flat track. England without Flintoff have needed to make a couple of hard decisions so RavBop loses his place, but then he doesn't offer much as a bowler. Time will tell if England have gotten it right.
[cite]Posted By: Covered End[/cite]No, England won the toss and batted. 11-0
I blame that on cricinfo which has now corrected itself.
I'm not sure what the Windies tactics are though..their bowling line up is Edwards, Powell, the debutant Baker, Nash a medium pacer with one Test wicket to his name, Hinds and Gayle. A bad toss to lose with that attack.
The pitch seems to be very easy paced, but if England are to win they are going to need a decent score batting first, trying to get quick runs on day one could end in disaster.
[cite]Posted By: kinveachyaddick[/cite]very dull - you would think we needed the draw to win the series not them!
Shah is batting for a score and his test career (can't blame him I suppose) rather than the team
The batting isn't as strong as before with the 5th bowler so I guess they are aiming for a big 1st innings total the idea being to pressurise the Windies although they bat a long way down.
I think the wicket is also a factor in making it difficult to score quickly.
Goodness these pitches are offering nothing to the bowlers. Even Boycott hinted that was a boring day's play. His old Mum could've prepared a better strip!
It's starting to break up already though-hopefully this should be a result pitch and given the state of their attack that result shouldn't be an England defeat.
At the start of the series I thought we had a vastly superior group of bowlers, but they don't seem to have shone. Now I'm worried that the Aussies will give us another cricketing lesson in the forthcoming Ashes series. Still think we'll equalise this though.
W Indies weren't even trying to get us out. They picked a team for a draw. They had their field back and were just looking to slow the run rate so they would have less time to bat and we would have less time to bowl them out twice. They also picked an extra batsman for this reason.
Thought England had a fairly good 3rd day? Don't think we can overcome those Windies tactics on that pitch though. BFR what did you think of Amjad? That's a big step up to international cricket? Strauss' captaincy hasn't affected his batting but is he a bit too chummy for the Ashes? I think we'll take Windies on home soil easily but can't see our bowling attack matching the Aussies.
Feck me, I know the Windies are desperate to win the series but their tactics since the 1st Test have been an absolute joke.
They have barely got out of second gear and have just tried to kill time in each game and run the clock down on the series, helped of course by these dead pitches.
They will hold on easily here and win the series but won't be able to use the same tactics on early-season English pitches in the return series in May.
It's only a two-test series (Lords, Durham) and they won't be able to use these bore draw tactics with the ball swinging and seaming all over the place.
My view is that their should be an international pitch standard to bring the levels up because what we are seeing in the Windies will damage Test cricket in the long-term.
By comparison, the SA's and the Aussies are putting on much better entertainment in their series because the pitches have got something in them for the bowlers.
[cite]Posted By: Ormiston Addick[/cite]My view is that their should be an international pitch standard to bring the levels up because what we are seeing in the Windies will damage Test cricket in the long-term.
I agree with you there ormy, i love my test cricket, but for the first time ever this has literally bored me into watching something else, which is very much unlike me, those pitches are an absolute joke, and as you say these Windies tactics could be bad for test cricket in the long and short term!! Imagine someone turning that on and watching a test for the first time, then watching say the one day game in NZ v the Indians, i know what they would rather be interested in, and it sickens me to think this, as i am not that much a fan of the shorter version of the game!!
I hope that the Windies are pleased with themselves, because even without the dodgy boring tactics they probably would of beaten us anyway!! They must be so desperate to win a series!!
The thing is MCS that as much as I love Collingwood as a real battler there is no way that he should be getting the runs he is getting in this series, its just that the wickets are so slow paced that even batsmen with limited techniques like Collingwood have time to get themselves out of trouble if a ball does a bit and even if players do nick it then the ball is not carrying to the slips.
[cite]Posted By: Darren[/cite]Thought England had a fairly good 3rd day? Don't think we can overcome those Windies tactics on that pitch though. BFR what did you think of Amjad? That's a big step up to international cricket? Strauss' captaincy hasn't affected his batting but is he a bit too chummy for the Ashes? I think we'll take Windies on home soil easily but can't see our bowling attack matching the Aussies.[/quote
I think he may prove to be too wayward inhis length and line to have a long career at Test level, but in a match like this he may as well be bowling, the ball he got Sarwan with yesterday demonstrates that he's got some ability. It'd help if he'd cut his pace down a fraction and aim to bowl a fuller length, as well as cutting out the no balls.
Comments
Excellent! Harmy has had enough chances.
It's all about balance. The Windies attack isn't that strong and England *should* be capable of scoring enough runs to win, and other than Jamaica in the second innings scoring runs hasn't been the problem. However the problem all winter has been taking 20 Windies wickets and England erred in Bardbados in only selecting four front-line bowlers on a flatter than flat track. England without Flintoff have needed to make a couple of hard decisions so RavBop loses his place, but then he doesn't offer much as a bowler. Time will tell if England have gotten it right.
Anyway, Windies won the toss, but England bat.
I blame that on cricinfo which has now corrected itself.
I'm not sure what the Windies tactics are though..their bowling line up is Edwards, Powell, the debutant Baker, Nash a medium pacer with one Test wicket to his name, Hinds and Gayle. A bad toss to lose with that attack.
Shah is batting for a score and his test career (can't blame him I suppose) rather than the team
The batting isn't as strong as before with the 5th bowler so I guess they are aiming for a big 1st innings total the idea being to pressurise the Windies although they bat a long way down.
I think the wicket is also a factor in making it difficult to score quickly.
Getting KP on should improve the run rate.
They deserve to lose with those tactics.
Colly on 101 and Prior not out 57.
Straus has to be bold & tell them to start hitting out 30 mins after tea - get past 550 and declare.
Strauss should aim to declare and give his bowlers 10/12 overs at Gayle & Smith.
I think there'll be 18 overs at the Windies tonight...
Much less of the dancing girls today though, after yesterdays saturation coverage
They have barely got out of second gear and have just tried to kill time in each game and run the clock down on the series, helped of course by these dead pitches.
They will hold on easily here and win the series but won't be able to use the same tactics on early-season English pitches in the return series in May.
It's only a two-test series (Lords, Durham) and they won't be able to use these bore draw tactics with the ball swinging and seaming all over the place.
My view is that their should be an international pitch standard to bring the levels up because what we are seeing in the Windies will damage Test cricket in the long-term.
By comparison, the SA's and the Aussies are putting on much better entertainment in their series because the pitches have got something in them for the bowlers.
I agree with you there ormy, i love my test cricket, but for the first time ever this has literally bored me into watching something else, which is very much unlike me, those pitches are an absolute joke, and as you say these Windies tactics could be bad for test cricket in the long and short term!! Imagine someone turning that on and watching a test for the first time, then watching say the one day game in NZ v the Indians, i know what they would rather be interested in, and it sickens me to think this, as i am not that much a fan of the shorter version of the game!!
I hope that the Windies are pleased with themselves, because even without the dodgy boring tactics they probably would of beaten us anyway!! They must be so desperate to win a series!!