England v WI, 2nd Test, Chester-le-Street, May 14 - 18

JKLever wrote:I see Jimmykins bowling average has dipped below 34 for the first time since 2003. Certainly heading in the right direction...

Fixed.

Henry wrote:

JKLever wrote:I see Jimmykins bowling average has dipped below 34 for the first time since 2003. Certainly heading in the right direction...

Fixed.

True, but I was totally discounting the Zimmer series...

"Preparing for the Ashes by playing the West Indies is a bit like preparing for a marathon by walking the dog..."
Simon Mann on TMS

Ouch...

Here are my musings on various individual players in the series:

England:

Jimmy Anderson - Awesome and absolutely unplayable at various points in the series. If the Aussies face overcast conditions for much of the Ashes they may well be in trouble as they are not exactly super against swing either.

Graham Onions - I'm extremely impressed, he has the attributes to be a solid test match bowler in most conditions, and a destroyer when there is movement off the pitch. I can see him getting a decent number of wickets in the Ashes.

Tim Bresnan - Not overly impressed tbh, though his opportunities have been limited it has to be said. Will be ok when it swings but I have my doubts about his effectiveness when it doesn't swing.

Ravi Bopara - Looks very good and I enjoy watching him bat. We have been generous enough to drop him on a number of occasions and I doubt the Aussies will do the same, but I still think he is the real deal.

Windies:

Fidel Edwards - Top bowling at Lords that should have put us in an excellent position if not for poor fielding. Less impressive in this test but conditions were not in his favour. He is developing into an excellent tearaway fast bowler.

Jerome Taylor - Simply not himself during this entire tour, pace was 3-5mph down and he looked to be placing the ball rather than bowling it with effort. Very disappointing as a fully fit and firing JT would have been so good in these conditions.

Lionel Baker - Not good enough IMHO. Not as quick as Fidel or JT, he's not that accurate, doesn't get much movement even in these conditions and he is the same height so doesn't add anything different. Ravi Rampaul should be our 3rd seamer. If they want extra height it should be Richardson and if they want pace like fiyah it should be Pascal. It's not rocket science FFS. Sometimes our selectors make things seem so difficult.

Devon Smith - Why why why was he even here? I will not even bother following the Bangladesh series if he is not replaced by Adrian Barath.

Lendl Simmons - Is clearly a talent and plays some extremely pleasing shots but his technique has been well and truly found out. The selectors will have to decide whether we can do better at number 4 or if they should persist with him. I personally think Dwayne Bravo is a better batsman than Simmo anyway and I would bat him at 4. He tends to bat better when he is given more responsibility.

My team to play Bangladesh in July:

Chris Gayle (c)
Adrian Barath
Ramnaresh Sarwan
Dwayne Bravo
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Brendan Nash
Denesh Ramdin
Jerome Taylor
Suliemann Benn
Ravi Rampaul
Fidel Edwards

Reserves:

Lendl Simmons
Andrew Richardson

JKLever wrote:

"Preparing for the Ashes by playing the West Indies is a bit like preparing for a marathon by walking the dog..."
Simon Mann on TMS

Ouch...

How quickly 51 all out is forgotten. Did you hear Cozier, Holding etc making statements like that after an even bigger humiliation than we have seen in this series?

What a tit Simon Mann is...

WIFAN wrote:Here are my musings on various individual players in the series:

England:

Jimmy Anderson - Awesome and absolutely unplayable at various points in the series. If the Aussies face overcast conditions for much of the Ashes they may well be in trouble as they are not exactly super against swing either.

But conditions are overcast and Australia gets the best of them, or similar to what England bowl in and Johnson, Hilfenhaus, Clark or Siddle, or maybe all if a 'spinner' isn't picked exploit them, can the English batsmen survive good spells of swing and seam with Clark and Siddle bowling a good line and length to complement?

WIFAN wrote:

JKLever wrote:

"Preparing for the Ashes by playing the West Indies is a bit like preparing for a marathon by walking the dog..."
Simon Mann on TMS

Ouch...

How quickly 51 all out is forgotten. Did you hear Cozier, Holding etc making statements like that after an even bigger humiliation than we have seen in this series?

What a tit Simon Mann is...

To be fair to Mann, it was a quote from Martin Johnson, The Times.

Sports humorists/commentators should try harder than that to balance their humour with reason. It's all very well to raise a cheap laugh. But we can all do that, even here on FB.

I think the England bowling has been mildly encouraging.

Red wrote:But conditions are overcast and Australia gets the best of them, or similar to what England bowl in and Johnson, Hilfenhaus, Clark or Siddle, or maybe all if a 'spinner' isn't picked exploit them, can the English batsmen survive good spells of swing and seam with Clark and Siddle bowling a good line and length to complement?

It's going to be interesting that's for sure. It will be nice to see an opposition that gives a fugg and wasn't press-ganged into action too.

PeterCS wrote:

To be fair to Mann, it was a quote from Martin Johnson, The Times.

Sports humorists/commentators should try harder than that to balance their humour with reason. It's all very well to raise a cheap laugh. But we can all do that, even here on FB.

I think the England bowling has been mildly encouraging.

Martin Johnson (whilst in the main humourous) - can be an absolute tit at times in his effort to raise said laugh.

I'm more than mildly encouraged by England's bowlers - IMO they performed bloody well - did the job efficiently and used the conditions well. Can't ask for much more than that.

WIndies really are a team in disarray (sadly) ... they need to start at Board level and work their way down ; cut out the deadwood and inject an enthusiasm that is so lacking in ALL aspects of their game. A despondent skipper serves as much good as a fart in a storm - pick a new captain and get Crystal to commit or else bugger off to T20.

Still - Job done by England, and done convincingly.
Bring on the baggy greens.

I must confess I'm a tad worried about those comments from Dyson. It appears that Dwayne Bravo hasn't arrived in England yet and may have picked up another ankle injury in the IPL.

England sneak back above the Paksters into 5th in the ICC Test Rankings.

'Meh' - is the obvious response, but at least it's a step in the right direction from Flower's first series in full control.

For me, the best thing to take away from this series as far as England are concerned (in extremely favourable conditions always suiting the home side, has to be said) - was the fact that once they were on top, so to speak, they never once took their foot off the oppo's throat, and finished both games off emphatically - well within the allocated time and even despite losing a days play to rain at Durham.

Can't ask for much more.

England's team spirit seemed good as well.

Henry wrote:England's team spirit seemed good as well.

Colly's post match interview with Athers on Sky emphasised this fact.

The team spirit would appear to be better whenever Pietersen and Flintoff aren't sharing the same dressing room.

Team spirit tends to be good when you are winning. Just 2 months ago we were all banging on about the West Indian team spirit being so good and how they seemed to get on so well together in contrast to the England team.

Well that didn't last very long did it?

WIFAN wrote:Team spirit tends to be good when you are winning. Just 2 months ago we were all banging on about the West Indian team spirit being so good and how they seemed to get on so well together in contrast to the England team.

Well that didn't last very long did it?

I think WI team spirit is fine, they all seem to be behind Gayle. They just weren't professional enough in preparations (i.e Gayle turning up 2 days prior to the game) - Something which Dyson alluded to in an interview.

Coach issue settled
Big-mouth KP gone as skipper
Johann a steadying hand
Dead branches (Dingdong, Harami, Monsta) lopped off
New players performing

All lead to a more harmonious dressing room.

True, but the team spirit didn't allow them to give 100% in the field did it? That is what annoyed me.

Just looking at the highlights of England's first innings and Lionel Baker really did bowl a big load of carp. 85mph short and wide is not exactly ideal to anyone let alone Matt Prior. He is not the answer to our 3rd seamer problems.

Benn bowled quite well though and was unlucky not to end up with more wickets. We have a number of talented spinners though so he will have to perform very well against the Bangles to keep his place.

PeterCS wrote:

WIFAN wrote:

JKLever wrote:

"Preparing for the Ashes by playing the West Indies is a bit like preparing for a marathon by walking the dog..."
Simon Mann on TMS

Ouch...

How quickly 51 all out is forgotten. Did you hear Cozier, Holding etc making statements like that after an even bigger humiliation than we have seen in this series?

What a tit Simon Mann is...

To be fair to Mann, it was a quote from Martin Johnson, The Times.

Sports humorists/commentators should try harder than that to balance their humour with reason. It's all very well to raise a cheap laugh. But we can all do that, even here on FB.

He only needed to add the words "at home" to make it a more than reasonable statement. Or "at home in May in the freezing north of England when the WI players would rather be playing SAPL T20" to be even more accurate...

England ratings out of 10:

Strauss - 7: nothing to shout about with the bat, but seemed to be more in control in the field

Cook - 8.5: proved he can score big runs even when he's not totally in control of his game. Any whispers about his place in the side now totally silent.

Bopara - 9.5: two innings, two hundreds. Batted with style. The endless debate about England's no. 3 now over..........for now

Pietersen - 5: largely anonymous. No bad thing after the winter's shenanigans.

Collingwood - 8: typically gutsy display with the bat. As for the 'keeping - stick to the day job Colly!

Prior - 7: two fluent 50s. Keeping showed some improvement, but still not test class.

Broad - 8: gets better and better. Thinks long and hard about his bowling. Some useful runs as well. Probably not a regular number 7 yet.

Swann - 8.5: Runs and wickets, and a pretty decent fielder anywhere. What more could you ask?

Bresnan - 6.5: not really required at Lords. Bowled ok in the second innings in this test. Jury still out.

Onions - 8.5: enough pace, line, length, oh yes - wickets too.

Anderson - 9: hooped it round corners today at decent speed. Average heading in the right direction. Leader of the bowlers.

Fair call that Bas, KP can save his runs for the Aussies!

West Indies series rating out of 10:

Gayle 3: Turned up late, insipid captaincy, unfortunate comments in a newspaper (misinterpreted or not) and only played 1 decent innings out of 4.

Smith 3: Can't play finger spin to save his life, dropped a vital slip catch at Lords and still has the same batting flaws as he always had.

Sarwan 6: One excellent innings, 3 failures which I will forgive because he is having a very difficult time off the field at the moment.

Simmons 3: Clearly talented but did not have the technique to cope with these conditions.

Shiv 4: His worst series for a long long time. He looked a bit out of form but was still trying his best to stay at the crease for a long time.

Nash 5: One excellent innings, one incredibly unlucky dismissal and a poor shot. A mixed series but he was not too terrible. One big blot on his record is the sitter he dropped off Bopara at Lords that would have left England in a big hole had he taken it.

Ramdin 6: Scored two fifties in a row and looked very calm and assured at the crease. His keeping in the 2nd test was distinctly Prior like and thus he only gets a 6.

Taylor 2: Did not look himself with the ball or in the field. 3 - 5mph down on average speed and was clearly unfit. He didn't do as well as he should with the bat either.

Benn 4: Bowled very well without the rewards he deserved in the 2nd test and was okish in the 1st. He dropped a lot of catches and didn't apply himself anywhere near well enough with the bat.

Edwards 7.5: Superb bowling at Lords which should have resulted in an 8 wicket haul but his team-mates let him down and he settled for 6. Was not so impressive at Durham but the conditions were against him. The only criticism I have is it would be nice if he bowled 90 -95mph at the start of each innings instead of at the end of the day.

Baker 2: No pace, no movement, not really that accurate, average fielder, can't bat. Do the selectors really believe he is a test class 3rd seamer??????????

WIFAN wrote:Sarwan 6: One excellent innings, 3 failures which I will forgive because he is having a very difficult time off the field at the moment.

What's the story with Sarwan at the moment then?

WIfan -
I'd rate Fidel at around 8.5 tbh - he bowled his lungs out in both games with little back-up from the other end and worse back-up from his fielders ... yet he kept on banging them in with venom.

PS - What are Sarwan's off-field problems ?