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

Can England actually stuff this up?!

Merlin wrote:

WIFAN wrote:Anything that winds you guys up this afternoon Merls will be said.

I just said Carew created the first road, I did not praise him for this achievement.

No worries WIFAN - your boys deserved it after wiping us for 51 at Sabina.
And yours won't be the only wind-up ... Jimmy A comes over in May for his usual Tandoori-fest with us locally,
and rest assured he'll be giving it some too!!

God bless Jimmy.

I guess England will have to go AGBB and try and declare a lead of 200 at lunch tomorrow.

Might as well lose in the pursuit of an unlikely victory.

Stupid question to ask on Day 4. But why isn't Jerome Taylor playing?

He has a dodgy ankle unfortunately. They like to wrap him in cotton wool as he is our biggest chance of winning test matches.

Dello wrote:I guess England will have to go AGBB and try and declare a lead of 200 at lunch tomorrow.

Might as well lose in the pursuit of an unlikely victory.

Yup.

220-230 would be preferable if they can get there so they can keep attacking fields in. 48 overs to get there...should be possible.

Rather have 60 overs at it.

Probably a moot point anyway - they've sent out Cook to block the shit out of it.

Imagine the night-watchman's padded up too...

Don't talk bollocks, England would rather protect a 0-1 defeat than risk a 0-2. Otherwise why the ****** send Cook out? You'd have sent Prior and Swann out and told them to beast the shit out of it.

****** England, total shite.

Seriously does Harper know what leg byes are? He never gets them right...

Not sure Harper knows what anything is anymore.

Seems to have lost the plot entirely this series.

Lol what an idiot.............. How the hell did he not hear that noise, and the ball changed direction when it hit the edge.

How on earth is that not out? I can't wait for this series to end, can we have some proper umpires please?

Could you honestly see that it hit the bat though?

If that can't be over turned then we may as well just scrap the reviews and stick with the umpires decision.

I think the wicket keeper just made a popping sound with his tongue.

kkf wrote:If that can't be over turned then we may as well just scrap the reviews and stick with the umpires decision.

Yes. They're useless. Create more doubt than clarity.

And waste soooo much time...

Didn't matter ...

Sorry, but I think the referrals have been the most interesting thing about this series!

Shah departs and his England Test career probably ends. He has looked way out of his depth, to be honest.

Augustus wrote:Shah departs and his England Test career probably ends.

Probably - but the situation demands playing some shots, so it's pointless reading anything into the innings.

He has looked way out of his depth, to be honest.

I don't really buy that. Should've had a hundred in the first game - didn't seem in any trouble until he ran himself out. Ultimately he's looked like Ramps did - like he's convinced himself that Test cricket is the hardest thing in the known world and every ball is made out of dynamite. Every run is such an effort.

A very distinct contrast between the confident, cocky batsman who made his debut in 2006. Can't help but wonder if being frozen out for so long, being the "nearly man", has adversely affected his approach to batting. The "fear of failure" was definitely evident in the way he shaped up in this series.

No doubt the system has screwed him over but that's just tough, really. I like the guy, it's a shame, but Bopara is young and talented and was unlucky to be dropped. We'll see, I'd give Shah another chance, but England face the prospect of going into the Ashes without an assured number 3 no matter what happens. Unless Pietersen is promoted.

Well at least something is happening at last.

Augustus wrote:No doubt the system has screwed him over but that's just tough, really. I like the guy, it's a shame, but Bopara is young and talented and was unlucky to be dropped. We'll see, I'd give Shah another chance, but England face the prospect of going into the Ashes without an assured number 3 no matter what happens. Unless Pietersen is promoted.

We're also going to into the Ashes with no bowlers and a dropsy bye-monster behind the timbers.

Oh, and an all-rounder who can't bat. Or stay fit.

Bad times all in all.

Augustus wrote:No doubt the system has screwed him over but that's just tough, really. I like the guy, it's a shame, but Bopara is young and talented and was unlucky to be dropped. We'll see, I'd give Shah another chance, but England face the prospect of going into the Ashes without an assured number 3 no matter what happens. Unless Pietersen is promoted.

I'm sure looking at the stats will prove that very few players establish themselves at Test level at the age of 30 or thereabouts when they have never been regulars before that age. Apart from Australians that is, but they seem to defy all logic anyway, maybe it's just due to them having a strong domestic competition, at least compared to our county game which second and third string Aussies have pissed all over for years anyway.

Bell's going to be back in for the Ashes opener no doubt, with some meaningless JAMODI runs and a nice 60 not out for Warwickshire swaying the selectors.

Oh, wouldn't it be good if they did what Nasser said and declared tomorrow at 170ish.

Saying that, they might not be in a position to declare!

Interesting call as to whether this was worth a referral. Cook's not the man to put on quick runs, but on the other hand ending up 3 down would mean there's not much room for error in tomorrow's first session.