West Indies v England, 1st Test, Kingston, Feb 4-8

Now that's throwing down the gauntlet to our manliest men.

(Spot the missing inverted commas ...)

First day of a first test and I'm happy to see rain. That's so depressing.

Saved by the rain.

It's all a bit embarrassing. Maybe Daren Powell knows his onions after all...

PeterCS wrote:Now that's throwing down the gauntlet to our manliest men.

(Spot the missing inverted commas ...)

Now that's throwing down the gauntlet to our manliest "men".

Right?

holcs wrote:

Merlin wrote:

holcs wrote:Fair enough, I have always thought Benn was a very tidy, clever bowler from what I have seen.

Aye that he is ..., mind you being 6' 5" does help a bit!

There's not much more to say about Belltosser ... other than I now seriously physically hate the little sh!t with a vengance.

Its completely irrational, but I know eactly what you mean. Never have I known someone get more chances and be less deserving IMO!

Well I was going to say I could think of one, but it's getting close between him and Ramprakash for who was least deserving of so many chances. In Ramps' favour he was messed about by the selectors and did play the occasional valuable innings despite having an average that wouldn't have justified his place even if he had been a wicketkeeper.

Bell on the other hand has been given a secure place in the team by the selectors and still hasn't performed when it matters. And has that annoying habit of making meaningless runs to maintain his average and place in the side.

eowyn wrote:

PeterCS wrote:Now that's throwing down the gauntlet to our manliest men.

(Spot the missing inverted commas ...)

Now that's throwing down the gauntlet to our manliest "men".

Right?

"manliest", or "gauntlet".

We have to bat as well you know. Devon Smith/Xavier Marshall v Monty on this pitch = urgh

Ha ha ha ha. Just heard Ashocker couldn't make the test due to Visa problems. Wonder who kiboshed that in the Windies!!

Well this is fairly poor. You have two bloke playing in our top 5 who have struggled to score any runs for the last 30 odd test innings bar the odd place saving innings. And you have a bloke sat in the stands who was arguably our best batter in the last 2 ODI series bar KP, and who scored a 100* in the warm up games.

WIFAN wrote:We have to bat as well you know. Devon Smith/Xavier Marshall v Monty on this pitch = urgh

Trouble is, Monty's usually at his most useless when everything seems to be set up perfectly for him.

PeterCS wrote:

eowyn wrote:

PeterCS wrote:Now that's throwing down the gauntlet to our manliest men.

(Spot the missing inverted commas ...)

Now that's throwing down the gauntlet to our manliest "men".

Right?

"manliest", or "gauntlet".

My gauntlet is real and we have manly non-men.

scary!

Dello wrote:

WIFAN wrote:We have to bat as well you know. Devon Smith/Xavier Marshall v Monty on this pitch = urgh

Trouble is, Monty's usually at his most useless when everything seems to be set up perfectly for him.

Kev may have to trundle his trundlers.

they are not exactly racing along at the rate of Darrell hare....

193 balls for the 2nd fifty. Impressive.

No watching

but it seems like the kind of Jamaica pitch where IND won in 2006, even Bhajji got 5/13

This is the kind of negative approach that lost us that Adelaide Test a couple of years ago and resulted in the whitewash... and that was against Warne and McGrath. This attack wouldn't trouble most county sides, and still they are scratching around like this.

England pair hanging on like a farqin stunned gnat.

I'm always surprised and possibly unduly admiring when Collingwood gets runs. He never looks likely.

I don't think forum would have meaning without Ian Bell. Can we re-name it flaming-bells with a burning effigy of Bell as the logo? (go on Dello you know you want to photoshop it)

"Hell's Bell's"?

I think we are all a bit harsh on Bell to be honest. I think he has done well, considering he is the first known mammalian invertebrate.

beamer wrote:This is the kind of negative approach that lost us that Adelaide Test a couple of years ago and resulted in the whitewash... and that was against Warne and McGrath. This attack wouldn't trouble most county sides, and still they are scratching around like this.

How about that blockathon against NZ on the tour there- about 200 overs for 300 runs is what it seemed like.

lol@pomgolians living some form of attractive cricket mantra

It all looked so promising as well at first. I remember his first Test at home to WI I think, he made a gritty 70 or so (think that's the last time that adjective could be used to describe his batting) and looked like the player for the future. We could even allow him a crap Ashes series, as we won anyway and he was still learning at that level. Since then it's been failure in between one false dawn after another. Now we all just want him to cut out the rare glimpses of potential and soft second innings runs that keep him in the team!

horace wrote:lol@pomgolians living some form of attractive cricket mantra

BARMYARMY! .... BARMYARMY! .... BARMYARMY! .... BARMYARMY!

a really gritty effort from the Poms' spiritual captain - Ian Bell- has kept the english alliance in the match