Re: West Indies v England, 2nd Test, Grenada, 21-25 April, 2015

by Lindsay no.2 Sun 26 Apr 2015, 13:25

tricycle wrote:
Lindsay no.2 wrote:
tricycle wrote:
Lindsay no.2 wrote:
All that said I'd love Shiv to play in the next test and crab his way to a ton. Perhaps they should drop Darren Bravo for a test to blood a newcomer - thereby potentially jolting Bravo into a better mindset and allowing Shiv a swansong. He then can retire post this series and Bravo brought back to become the player he could be (but almost undoubtedly won't).
Or it could push Bravo into a path similar to his brother and become a freelancer. He is worth preserving in the team.

Potentially so. But is he flashy enough to be picked up by IPL/BBL? If they'd have come a calling already I'm sure he'd have been off like a shot.
He did have an IPL contract. Was unavailable when he chose to play for West Indies. He would get a contract in any league if he were to ensure availability for the full tourney.

I stand corrected then and I apparently do him a dis-service in presuming him to be a mercenary type - so thank you for the clarification tricycle. But is he a huge draw for an IPL team these days? Does he even play T20 cricket for WI? I s'pose he could be like Eoin Morgan - get paid a lot by an IPL team and then spend most of the time sitting on the bench. Easy money.

by tricycle Sun 26 Apr 2015, 13:39

Yeah, pretty much Morgan really.

by Henry Sun 26 Apr 2015, 23:50

Of course, one test victory against the Windies later, Cook has now come out and called Anderson England's "best ever bowler."

FFS. Shut the f*ck up and just concentrate on winning the series against the World's 8th ranked test team!! Players complain that the media overreacts, that "non cricket people" interfere, and yet here is the England captain, fuelling the hype, and ultimately the backlash when the team fails. Just concentrate on playing decent cricket, rather than hyping up your own players to impossible levels at every given opportunity. Qunts.

by Merlin Mon 27 Apr 2015, 08:49

PeterCS wrote:
Lindsay no.2 wrote:

I was writing about the Trott issue and then just saw that you've already brought up that point. Sorry for any repetition. [...]

On the contrary. Forums should not be places for mad possessiveness.

Whether everyone else thinks this or not (< I'd better use the emoticon ...) ..... I always tend to think "the more (views), the merrier".

Drop Trott - once and for all.
He is not an opener - never has been - and the #3 slot is now Ballance's to lose.
Open with Lyth - got to try him out, can't take the lad all the way out there for a sunshine holiday just to carry
the bats, gloves, drinks and messages.
Along with (and I hate to say it ... Le Chef - Jesus, it's amazing how one test win against a feeble side
elevates an indecisive and clueless twat to the heights of an all-conquering Themistocles !)
The UK newspapers here are all jerking themselves off in rapture at his ascension from obscurity!
Puke inducing.

Anyway, that's my only change for Bridgetown ...

by PeterCS Mon 27 Apr 2015, 11:32

Steady on, Merls ...

by Brass Monkey Mon 27 Apr 2015, 12:48

Have to agree with Trevor Mudge and Merlin - overly joyous about a win against a mediocre side. Triumphal. Vindication felt. Back slap away, girls. Enjoy. You're in for a dicking very, very soon.

by beamer Mon 27 Apr 2015, 18:25

Brass Monkey wrote:Back slap away, girls. Enjoy. You're in for a dicking very, very soon.

Yeah, and after that they have to play Australia.

by Brass Monkey Mon 27 Apr 2015, 18:31

beamer wrote:
Brass Monkey wrote:Back slap away, girls. Enjoy. You're in for a dicking very, very soon.
Yeah, and after that they have to play Australia.

Yeah, the kiwis in town... Not sure there will be enough time in the matches for a result

by beamer Mon 27 Apr 2015, 18:34

Well, they're not as early as the usual first Test series of the summer, due to the current Caribbean tour (I think there's still JAMODIs to play after the third Test before returning home to play the Snoozers?)

by Brass Monkey Mon 27 Apr 2015, 18:38

Good point, we can collapse twice in 5-6 sessions anyway and if the haircut 100 are going continue to waste the new ball....

by beamer Mon 27 Apr 2015, 19:44

Yeah, Usain and Mouthee will no doubt show them how it should be done.

by lardbucket Mon 27 Apr 2015, 21:30

PeterCS wrote:Was meant more light-hearted/tongue-in-cheek than as sarcasm, in fact.

Light-hearted remarks can allow a certain amount of earnestness in a point. Whereas sarcasm is often a bit more more mallet or acid than ambiguity or twinkle.

If you spot the jokeyness of the toilet metaphor ... or the change of tone from my first to second paragraph ... those were signs.

But maybe the best clue was in the words "to be serious", in the second paragraph. Lardy started his response quoting my original post, after I'd already edited it (a few seconds later - notice there's no "edited" sign at the bottom of my post), so as to make even clearer there was a heavy dose of there, without having to brandish the (maybe overused?) signpost of a

Even one of those is overuse, IMO.

by PeterCS Mon 27 Apr 2015, 23:38

beamer wrote:Well, they're not as early as the usual first Test series of the summer, due to the current Caribbean tour (I think there's still JAMODIs to play after the third Test before returning home to play the Snoozers?)

Well - one. In Dublin.

That might be on the way home.

http://england.cricketworld4u.com/

by PeterCS Mon 27 Apr 2015, 23:42

Brass Monkey wrote:
beamer wrote:
Brass Monkey wrote:Back slap away, girls. Enjoy. You're in for a dicking very, very soon.
Yeah, and after that they have to play Australia.

Yeah, the kiwis in town... Not sure there will be enough time in the matches for a result

Probably falling into an irony elephant trap here, but they're Snoozers no more (apart maybe from Two Metre Peter, if he's still around).

Big Mac can knock up 200 on his own in under a day.

And Boult, Wagner, Southee, whoever else, can run through a side if they have a bit of help from the conditions. Even if it's the Englanders who try as they might to shut up shop, run down the shutters, pull up the drawbridge and slam the portcullis.

No Snoozers.

EDIT: Well, I suppose you did at least half move that way in your next post!

by PeterCS Mon 27 Apr 2015, 23:46

beamer wrote:
Brass Monkey wrote:Back slap away, girls. Enjoy. You're in for a dicking very, very soon.
Yeah, and after that they have to play Australia.

Bloody hell. BM is turning into Rolf?!?!?! Shocked

by beamer Tue 28 Apr 2015, 17:35

PeterCS wrote:
beamer wrote:Well, they're not as early as the usual first Test series of the summer, due to the current Caribbean tour (I think there's still JAMODIs to play after the third Test before returning home to play the Snoozers?)

Well - one. In Dublin.

That might be on the way home.

http://england.cricketworld4u.com/

I was sure there were three ODI's in the West Indies, kept wondering when they would announce the squad given all the uncertainties about the future direction of the one-day side. Instead they just take a second string to Ireland and hold off on that decision until they play the team formerly known as Snoozers in a couple of months (think England perhaps more deserve that title now, rather like how Chelsea have taken over the Boring, Boring mantle for so long held by Arsenal...)

by horace Wed 29 Apr 2015, 01:12

Captain Cookonfidence is back in charge!

I expect the poms will be highly competitive this northern summer with a shedload of runs from cook, belfard, root and ballance and a poultice of wickets from a rejuvenated pom pace attack.

I predict a series win against the snoozies and a series draw at minimum against Oz

by taipan Wed 29 Apr 2015, 04:30

horace wrote:Captain Cookonfidence is back in charge!

I expect the poms will be highly competitive this northern summer with a shedload of runs from cook, belfard, root and ballance and a poultice of wickets from a rejuvenated pom pace attack.

I predict a series win against the snoozies and a series draw at minimum against Oz

No harm in getting the reverse woofing in early.

by horace Wed 29 Apr 2015, 05:50

hehe, although I do think they will be highly competitive. Stoopid S Smith today bagged the poms's chances. In my view this is both disrespectful and a misreading of the relative team strengths.

by PeterCS Wed 29 Apr 2015, 14:00

One version of what Horald has just mentioned:

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/apr/29/ashes-england-wont-come-close-steve-smith

I like this reader response (see Comments, at foot of same page), from a "mightymojo"

I'm guessing this is another one of those situations where the bare text robs the quote of context. I imagine he was actually giving a pretty standard response, backing his own team and determined to make up for past mistakes. They haven't won a series here in 14 years remember, and I'm sure there's a burning desire amongst the Australian public to set that right, especially given the current form of both teams. This kind bullish tubthumping is exactly what his fans want to hear.
Anyone who takes it to mean he thinks they've already won doesn't really know Steve Smith.
(... and ...)
If I was being mischievous, I'd suggest this quote was taken deliberately out of context in an attempt to fire up the English players (and fans)...........

As usual, such +/- required standpoints before a series are easily spiced up by the media in all parts of the globe: as prima facie evidence of some daring, dangerous presumption - the sort of pride that proverbially "comes before a fall".

To be fair to the Guardian, it's really only the headline writer who's thrown in the sprinkle of chili there. Lesser (less scrupulous) media in both countries (and elsewhere) often make the original dish unrecognisable, lacing it with stifling amounts of ginger, cayenne, Scotch bonnet and habanero. Even poison.

Nevertheless - even if Schmidt's only talking evident sense, perhaps banalities - such pre-fight predictions (almost) always offer a BIT of a hostage to fortune.

A fake-hostage, in many cases.

Which is why sports sections & news channels love these since-Packer (unimaginatively American-derived) pre-Showdown rituals of FIGHTIN' TALK!! Also helps to fill slow days and gaps in the schedule.

by tricycle Wed 29 Apr 2015, 14:34

Hubris is a dangerous thing. He mustn't forget how every time Australia have played on a slow pitch, they've been shown up miserably (even in the lost test in South Africa).

by taipan Wed 29 Apr 2015, 14:37

Horace wrote:England are doctoring the pitches again.

by tricycle Wed 29 Apr 2015, 14:42

In esteemed company

George Bailey, October 2014 wrote:I still think teams are doctoring their wickets to produce very large spinning wickets when we come and play them, which says to me that teams still think that we're vulnerable against spin,

by Brass Monkey Wed 29 Apr 2015, 16:13

The pitches helped the home side in the last Ashes :spamofote: boo to the hoo.

by PeterCS Wed 29 Apr 2015, 16:39

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