Windies in England, warm up matches

Robert Key gets a first-baller. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said for Ian Bell.

Trott goes for a second ball duck, and Stephen Moore for 3.

Fat Sam and Malteser Balls the not out batsmen on 8 and 12 respectively.

33/3.

Bell Gawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwn.

LBW for 27 to Bernard.

60/4.

Grrrrrrr...Little Fat Lad also gone for 27.

78/5.

Jerome Taylor looks in fine fettle with the ball which is obviously great to see.

Bernard is making a late case for consideration with 58 and 2/40.

269/7 at lunch. Ambrose hit 117 and was dismissed by Lendl Simmons from the last ball before lunch.

We really have to sort out our bowling against batsmen at number 7 and 8. We almost always struggle when we have the opposition 5/6 down.

Excellent to see Rashid battling away. 69* off 121 balls so far.


One good bowling performance in the 2nd innings should get him into the England squad for the 2nd Test against the Windies.


The pressure will be on Monty to perform on a possible road at Lords.

311 all out

Rashid got 71. Nelon Pascal dealt with the tail eventually and ended up with 4/68.

Excellent stuff from the youngster but I fear we can't afford to have him in the side as well as Fidel as he is too expensive. If Fidel gets injured though he will be an excellent option.

Lol Devon Smith commits the ultimate sin! Getting bowled by Saj Mahmood for 1.

Surely Dale Richards has to play at Lords? Adrian Barath must be pissing himself with laughter. How on earth did he miss out on this tour?

26/3 Woakes takes out Sarwan for 13 from 15 balls (too many shots too early by any chance?).

Then he gets Ramdin, who is inexplicably batting at number 4, caught at slip.

The batting conditions are a hell of a lot more favourable today so this is seriously impressive stuff from the young pacer.

The pressure will be on Monty to perform on a possible road at Lords.

He surely wont even play.

Rashid 3 overs 0/26

Now 6 overs 1/33 including the wicket of Simmons for 63.

Simmo will probably be moved up to open instead of Smith at Lords after that innings so God knows who is going to bat at number 4.

From 150/4 to 179 all out with only one of the big 3 missing is shockingly bad especially when the overhead conditions are not bad for batting.

Idiotic team selection from Dyson to play both bits and pieces players instead of a proper batsman. It has not only left us extremely likely to lose this match but also denied Deonarine or Richards the chance to earn a test match place.

Now I am officially worried about the test series, especially if they continue to pick such weak batting lineups.

Good effort from the Lions here - they've put up a decent showing.

Woakes, Rashid and Ambrose will have all furthered their cases for senior recognition.

Yeah the Lions have been superb and Woakes and Ambrose have made a big statement.

Windies however are up shit creek without a paddle. The selection policies are so confused I have no idea who is going to bat at 4. Surely they can't play Devon Smith after his scores so far? And Gayle is arriving just two days before the 1st test in IPL slog mode.

Simmons is the only fringe batsman to score runs and he did so at both number 4 and opening the batting. Given the lack of form displayed by Smith and Richards I think Simmons has to open the batting.

Deonarine was only given 2 innings on tour and was bizarrely left out for this match so picking him to bat at 4 would be a huge risk.

My guess at the first test XI:

Gayle (c)
Simmons
Sarwan
Deonarine (don't have a clue)
Shiv
Nash
Ramdin
Taylor
Benn
Edwards
Baker

If Smith, Bernard or Sammy play I will do my nut.................

And that's the win. Good on Keysie and Moore-o for preventing Ian Bell having another bat and inking himself in for the second Test with a "sparkling" 12*.

So an attack of Woakes, Mahmood, Plunkett, Rashid and Luke Wright are able to do in three days what England's "best bowlers" were unable to achieve all winter and take 20 wickets.

It's a funny game, cricket...

From this game, my England XI


Strauss
Cook
Bopara
Pietersen
Key
Collingwood
Prior FFS
Rashid
Broad
Anderson
Onions

Although a couple aren't in the squad, theres always room for Test 2.

DJ_Smerk wrote:From this game, my England XI


Strauss
Cook
Bopara
Pietersen
Key
Collingwood
Prior FFS
Rashid
Broad
Anderson
Onions

What do you mean "from this game"? That doesn't make any sense at all. Key got a first ball duck in the first innings. And if Prior has FFS status, Ambrose's hundred would seem to have boosted him forward as an alternative "from this game".

Match figures of 8-64 not impressive enough to get Woakes into your "from this game" side?

From your arse. You are talking.

Dello wrote:

DJ_Smerk wrote:From this game, my England XI


Strauss
Cook
Bopara
Pietersen
Key
Collingwood
Prior FFS
Rashid
Broad
Anderson
Onions

What do you mean "from this game"? That doesn't make any sense at all. Key got a first ball duck in the first innings. And if Prior has FFS status, Ambrose's hundred would seem to have boosted him forward as an alternative "from this game".

Match figures of 8-64 not impressive enough to get Woakes into your "from this game" side?

From your arse. You are talking.

Not quite. Some of the the players I've picked are basically fringe players. Players whom have been in and around the Test squad. When Woakes gets picked for the Test Squad then he'll be a shoe in. Until then, its all a pipe dream. Of all people you should know how fickle the ECB are. Woakes won't get picked until he's had a 'couple more seasons' of CC as is usually the case with young fresh England possibilities. By then he may have gone beyond this purple patch and have turned mediorch like the rest of them.

Dello wrote:So an attack of Woakes, Mahmood, Plunkett, Rashid and Luke Wright are able to do in three days what England's "best bowlers" were unable to achieve all winter and take 20 wickets.

It's a funny game, cricket...

It is but there are reasons for it:

1) Our shiteness against the moving ball which is well documented and was horribly exposed on the 1st day.
2) It was a fairly strong Lions side and Woakes is clearly one for the future.
3) We had a weakened batting lineup imposed on us by John 'I can't read a spreadsheet' Dyson.

With all the warm ups finished the only positives are Shiv and Lendl's from with the bat and Taylor looked good with the ball. All the fringe players were fuggin awful to say the least. The only positive I can take is that we had a pretty awful pitch at Leicester and a pretty green one at Derby and Lords is unlikely to be anything like that. I have pretty much given up on any hope of getting anything at Chester Le-Street though because it doesn't matter what damage JT and Fidel do, our batsmen apart from Shiv and maybe 1 innings from Ronnie will not be able to cope with the cold conditions and moving ball.