England v West Indies, 1st Test, Lord's, May 6-10

Oh Lord that is great bowling from Swann.

Two great batsmen out first ball to absolute jaffers in this match. Now we are up against it.

Swann the Destroyer.

Lol early May and we are being bundled out by an offie.

We have looked fairly comfortable against the moving ball so far and have actually been quite positive.

Tbf if Swann bowls more of the sort of delivery that got the mighty Shiv out there is not much our batsmen can do.

Heh. Panesar really is done for the foreseeable future. Barring the odd opportunity (injuries etc) it'll be a couple of years before he even has a shot at coming back into the side on a full time basis. If that.

Potatoes gone.

Oh dear, I don't know whether to count time in minutes or in wickets here, from 99/2 to 119/8.

99/2 - 137/9........................

The ball is swinging but the major difference between the two sides is that England have caught brilliantly.

If we had fielded similarly this match would be close even with this catastrophic collapse.

lol! what a mess made of one of the easiest run-outs you can hope for. certainly going to be one of the highlights of this summer

Aye, excellent comedy of errors ... a definite candidate for "What Happened Next" on A Q o S later this year!

Early days, but Onions impresses - and Broadly getting quicker and cleverer.

Not bad. Poor Timbo might not get chance to do anything this test the way things are going.

Fret not ... he will Ange!
Follow On confirmed.
Straussy learning from past hic cups!

Well done Onions, bloody good stuff. Also looks as thought they're going to enforce the follow on, which is good. We've got on the ropes, let's try and finish them off in good bowling conditions.

Fantastic bowling from Onions, no complaints, it was fantastic stuff. I don't think we played many bad shots tbh, there was just some fine bowling and catching in helpful conditions.

Now we will see if this team spirit we have seen over the last 2 years will hold sway. This last hour of play is just about as difficult as you could get in tests.

Your futuristic vision of a collapse was sadly very true.

Glad it was Onions though. Just seen the quickie highlights package and he looked gun. Straight and scary.

That ball to dismiss Sarwan seamed back a ridiculous amount.

It's just top bowling in helpful conditions, can't really blame the batsman.

5 or more wickets on England debut

Who needs Andrew Flintoff?


And i'm being serious.

Henry wrote:Who needs Andrew Flintoff?


And i'm being serious.

In these conditions he is certainly not needed. You could not ask for more 'English' seamer type conditions.

On flat wickets Freddie's bowling is invaluable though.

Stuart Broad was clocked at 93 mph.

Henry wrote:Stuart Broad was clocked at 93 mph.

Something was definitely wromg with the speed gun. Fidel was bowling quicker than Broad and was only clocked at 92. They had Baker bowling at an average speed of 88mph which is simply not his usually speed.

I think the speed gun is pretty accurate. The spinners were clocked at their usual pace. Edwards looks quicker than he is because of his slingy action.

Henry wrote:I think the speed gun is pretty accurate. The spinners were clocked at their usual pace. Edwards looks quicker than he is because of his slingy action.

In every other match I have seen Fidel has been appreciably quicker than Broad.

Lionel Baker is barely over 85mph when he is in his best rhythm and yet he had an average speed of 87/88 mph in this match.

OK if Swann gets Smith out now he must never play for Windies again.

Close of play 39/2 we are pretty much fugged. You know you are going to be hammered when Devon Smith is your best performer in both innings.

Hats off to England though, I thought they were absolutely superb. I don't think Windies played any really terrible shots, there was just some seriously good bowling.

The only thing I would say is that the Windies body language was terrible from start to finish. I know it was cold and very gloomy all day but you would have expected at least one batsman to guts it out and avoid the follow on. No matter what the conditions are like you should not lose by an innings when the opposition only scored 377.

Yorkie Jill wrote:

Glad it was Onions though. Just seen the quickie highlights package and he looked gun. Straight and scary.

Gonions. Pronounced Gun-yuns.

I call him Gronions personally. Just sounds right.