West Indies v England, 5th Test, Port of Spain, Mar 6 - 10

Given that the current match is destined for a draw, might as well look ahead.

It will be a must-win for England, so it will be interesting to see if Strauss's approach changes, or whether or not there are changes to the balance of the England side.

And hope and pray that a decent Test pitch is laid on.

OP Tipping wrote:

And hope and pray that a decent Test pitch is laid on.

If the WI had any sense it'll be another road...

Or a beach.

"If the WI had any sense it'll be another road..."

But what about the spirit of fair play and the importance of the traditions and spectacle of the grand game and so on...

On a statistical note, QPO has only seen one drawn match in the last 15 years. The last ten matches played there have all been won (mostly by the visitors, though the Windies did win the 2nd match of the two match series against Sri Lanka there last year, late on day 4).

It's been raining loads in T & T, and I have never seen a QPO wicket end up as a road.

The last test played there was this one:

WI v , 2nd Test, April 2008

It was an excellent test match wicket, with a little bit of movement for the pacers, especially with the new ball, and some good turn for the spinners on day 4. Jerome Taylor bowled absolutely beautifully, and bowled Jayawardene with an absolute jaffa that pitched on middle and hit the top of the off stump.

JKLever wrote:

OP Tipping wrote:

And hope and pray that a decent Test pitch is laid on.

If the WI had any sense it'll be another road...

You seem to be creditingt the WICB and local cricket admin bodies with both thinking ability and then an ability to put said thoughts into some form of action, vaguely along the lines of the outcome of the thinking process.

This, as I am sure WIFAN will agree is grossly over-generous to our convivial hosts down here...to wit...Viv Richards Stadium Antigua Feb 2009.

As regards piss-ups in breweries; there is only the Carib brewery down here in T'dad so you would have thought that with familiarity they could get around to organising, but that is not how it works here.

It has been raining bucket-loads here despite it being mid-so-called dry season. the rain has eased off considerably for 2-3 days now, so the pitch should be interesting. It is getting very hot again, but I can't help feeling that with the amount of rain, the wicket will retain some dampness and may be a bit stodgy for pace, but useful for spin!!!!????

I strongly suspect it will be a result pitch despite any local desire for a road.

And to think that even us pessimistic English forummers were expecting England to win this series fairly comfortably.....

Henry wrote:And to think that even us pessimistic English forummers were expecting England to win this series fairly comfortably.....

I think I am on record here as stating that the WI could well spring a surprise. A combination of being a WI follower and taking note of the clear signs of greater consistency and professionalism along with the well founded despair at England's continued floundering and inability to punch their way out of a paper bag...the latter point applying to the admin as well as the team and players individually.

WI are on the up. England.....aren't.

doctorspin wrote:

Henry wrote:And to think that even us pessimistic English forummers were expecting England to win this series fairly comfortably.....

I think I am on record here as stating that the WI could well spring a surprise. A combination of being a WI follower and taking note of the clear signs of greater consistency and professionalism along with the well founded despair at England's continued floundering and inability to punch their way out of a paper bag...the latter point applying to the admin as well as the team and players individually.

WI are on the up. England.....aren't.

I think most of us recognised WI cricket had certainly improved. And the english cricket fan is never surprised in the least that we can pull a 51 all out out of the hat just like that...

Don't run your team down, Jekyll. That 51 was a superlative effort.

freddled gruntbuggly wrote:Don't run your team down, Jekyll. That 51 was a superlative effort.

It was rather impressive in the 'WTF is going on?' stakes it has to be said. We spoiled it a bit by 'recovering' from 26 for 7....

Don't worry. I'm sure you'll surpass it one day.

He's not Jekyll.

He's our own ickle Jackal.

And he will have his day, I promise you this.

Dello wrote:Or a beach.

Like life?

Bump for the lard.

I agree, this looks much more official.

lardbucket wrote:I agree, this looks much more official.

Oh bugger - I just cast my vote for your effort!

Drop Shah for me, play five bowlers:

Strauss, Cook, Pietersen, Collingwood, Bopara, Prior, Broad, Rashid, Swann, Khan, Anderson.

Khan has become brilliant purely by virtue of the fact that he isn't Steve Harmison. That seems to be happening in a lot lately - a bowler's stock rising whilst he's out of the team simply because he's not the shit-house currently in it. Maybe that's a new strategy, surprise the opposition with our shitness and then hit 'em with the sucker-punch. Anyway, time to groom Pietersen to be our number 3 seeing as no-one else is good enough. Not happy with Bopara in the team whatsoever, get Fat Sam in there at 4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can't really drop Bops after a ton though, shame 'cause I likes Ace.

I can see Sales, Key, and Patel offering stout resistance in the near future.

Exactly my team in lardy's unofficial Match Thread, 'cept I'd swap Jimmy for Harmless in one final roll of the dice ..... but I can be easily disuaded on the issue.

All the batsmen have scored heavily at some stage - so, let's get bolshei and play 3 quicks and 2 spinners with additional contributions from the dibbly dobblers that are Wobbles, Bops and KP.

Shame about Ace...

If I were selecting for England, I'd give serious thought to playing Swann and Panesar, as alluded to in my opening post on the (now redundant) other thread. The England pace bowlers seem impotent, if they have any bowling edge at all it's in the spin department.

So much for Shahs 'extended run' then?

Surely he has to play ahead of Bopara who could've been out playing a terrible shot for 4 lets not forget.

Harmison won't be anywhere near the team given Andy Flowers interview yesterday.

It will be interesting to see if they dare to play Kevin Pietersen at 3 though. It's the logical choice...

...but why go with logic when Michael Vaughan?

You see, that sentence didn't really make sense but Michael Vaughan is an acceptable beginning, middle or end to anything in English Cricket.

lardbucket wrote:If I were selecting for England, I'd give serious thought to playing Swann and Panesar, as alluded to in my opening post on the (now redundant) other thread. The England pace bowlers seem impotent, if they have any bowling edge at all it's in the spin department.

The last 2 decks have been good for batting though, especially the last one. Apparently Trini will have a bit of help for the seamers.

Not sure Monty should play - I'd take a risk and play Adil instead. Of course the risk we should have taken was setting WI 450 rather than 500 in the '3rd' test....