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

Merlin wrote:WIFAN - just can't understand why you keep barrelling into Smith in this Test - the poor bugger's top scored in both innings thus far (46 and 41) and has been the glue for the top order! The ball moves a fraction and takes his edge and you kick his arse with a view to dropping him for the next gig !!
Amazing !

Is he to the WIndies what the Bellhop is to us, perchance?

Think Bell only he averages 25 with 1 century after 30 tests and can't play finger spin to save his life. All this and he is keeping an 18 year old prodigy out of the side who averages nearly 50 in FC cricket.

Smith looks terrific against pace and swing most of the time, just like this match. He was very impressive as a teenager and dominated youth cricket. We thought he would be a test class batsman but he has a mental block that he just can't get over.

Everybody on this forum knew he would get out when well set even when he was looking a million dollars.

Fair do's ... I guess he falls into the Bellhop category then!
Flatters to please ...

The two stalwarts digging in now so the game might go into Saturday !

Prior to the rescue................

and Onions drops the easiest chance so far and that really is saying something.

Onions can take 10 wickets here!

Allan D,
Who was the last bowler to take 10 wickets on his debut?

For Ramdin to get a 50 is good news at least. His batting has been improving in the last 3 tests.

And a bit of perspective being put on the prematurely-vaunted new England attack.

Woop woop England have to bat again.

Fantastic session for Windies and about fuggin time. It has to be said that we had blue skies for that session which cannot be a coincidence.

WI can still win this thing!

remember 51 all out?

Yes I remember 51 all out but a target of 25 is pushing it a bit

Superb innings by Nash though, what a start to his test career.

Basil wrote:

skully wrote:This Onions chap, what's he do, then?

Right Arm, quite nippy, not an out and out speed merchant. Not the tallest bowler,so makes it skid on to the batsman and he's got a fast bowler's temper!

Officially 6' 2".

I think he just looks short because all of England's bowlers over the past five years have been giants.

WIFAN wrote:Yes I remember 51 all out but a target of 25 is pushing it a bit

Superb innings by Nash though, what a start to his test career.

well NZ were once bowled out for 26 so there is still an outside chance.... :|

Gonions, less impressive today. Bit scattergunions.

Broad's bowled funny as well. Line and length steady Eddie appears to have been replaced with Harmison-lite bouncers and shit.

Don't think that's really his game.

Ah well, it's gone okay thus far...

There we go - my motivational gee up works wonders, Broad takes his third wicket, England chase 32.

I know it'll be Bopara or Onions that snaffle the MoM, but for me Swanny's been the star turn in the match.

33 wickets @ 25 from his first 6 Tests. An orthodox offie! What?

Well all done and dusted bar the 32 runs required.

Nash batted very nicely indeed, and fully deserved a century, but then he is an Aussie so not to much pity here for him.

A lot of hustle and bustle etc from our bowlers, but when the sun come out and there was less movement those 90 mph bowlers didn't cause too much trouble which is worrying.

I think Athers got it right about Onions when he said he would be useful but not Exceptional, and I feel the same about the rest. Broad seems to be trying to be the hostile, get bounce quick bowler we need, and it just doesn't work at all.

Well this is going to be a 3 day trouncing but at least we batted pretty well this afternoon with Nash and Ramdin playing excellent knocks.

The big three scored 46 runs between them in this match and we dropped 7 catches when we were on top. A recipe for disaster if ever there was one.

Having said that England bowled spectacularly well yesterday and they will clearly be a threat in the Ashes if they get a cold and overcast day. IMHO the Aussies are not exactly great against the swinging ball either so that is England's best chance.

holcs wrote:
I think Athers got it right about Onions when he said he would be useful but not Exceptional, and I feel the same about the rest. Broad seems to be trying to be the hostile, get bounce quick bowler we need, and it just doesn't work at all.

Following Onions' FC career, he's been a bit of a hot-streak kind of bowler. When the force is with him, he dices the opposition like an onion, takes a bag of wickets. But the rest of the time, when he's not quite at it, he looks a bit naive and raw like an onion, and takes a bit of clout.

It's all gravy, though.

This is disappointing. I've been busy the last few days but was hoping to catch some of the cricket over the weekend. Seem the match will be over before then and we also have returned to our collapsing ways. At least I don't have to physically watch us hand back the Wisden trophy a month after we won it.

WIFAN wrote:
The big three scored 46 runs between them in this match .

Hmm, you have to sort your batting out. I was sure that Sarwan would get no runs in England but I'm a bit surprised by Crystal's double fail. Shiv and Gnasher are both batting too low - they should be at #3 and #5 respectively.

Sarwan and Gayle score runs in England when the sun is out, when it is cold they have always gone missing which is unacceptable.

Nash is needed at number 6 IMHO, he has made a huge difference at that position. Shiv really needs to bat at number 4.

The End.
Comprehensive.
Decisive.
Three day KO ...

A repeat of the dose up at Chester Le Street ought to make up for missing out across in the Carribs last winter.

Played Bopara; Onions; and Swanny in particular.

As for us....... Well played Fidel, Nash and Ramdin, everyone else can go fugg themselves........

- We don't need a specialist spinner at Chester Le Street so replace Benn with Bernard Jr who is a swing bowler who can bat.

- Replace Baker with Richardson who is a tall pacer and offers something different. If their feeling really daring they could play Pascal for his pace like fiyah approach.

- I would ditch Devon for Dale Richards but I doubt they will do that.

So....

Gayle
Smith
Sarwan
Simmons
Shiv
Nash
Ramdin
Bernard
Taylor
Fidel
Richardson

Dello wrote:There we go - my motivational gee up works wonders, Broad takes his third wicket, England chase 32.

I know it'll be Bopara or Onions that snaffle the MoM, but for me Swanny's been the star turn in the match.

33 wickets @ 25 from his first 6 Tests. An orthodox offie! What?

Leading wicket-taker in 2009 Test cricket to date - 25 wickets @ 20.48!

And quite rightly he got the MoM award.

Big_Bad_Bob wrote:

Dello wrote:There we go - my motivational gee up works wonders, Broad takes his third wicket, England chase 32.

I know it'll be Bopara or Onions that snaffle the MoM, but for me Swanny's been the star turn in the match.

33 wickets @ 25 from his first 6 Tests. An orthodox offie! What?

Leading wicket-taker in 2009 Test cricket to date - 25 wickets @ 20.48!

Let's not get carried away - all 25 are against WI.

But I like his confidence and all-round skill. I'm glad that Flower is going for confident, agggressive types (Bops, Swanny, Onions) instead of bottlers and mentalists (Bell, Monty, Harami).

Rob I wrote:

WIFAN wrote:
The big three scored 46 runs between them in this match .

Hmm, you have to sort your batting out. I was sure that Sarwan would get no runs in England but I'm a bit surprised by Crystal's double fail. Shiv and Gnasher are both batting too low - they should be at #3 and #5 respectively.

I was thinking - as Nash tried once again to dig in and grind England's attack down with 9, 10, Jack, and got left high and dry on the slog at the end - it should be:

3. Sarwan
4. Shiv (4 is traditionally the place for your technically and temperamentally best bat)
5. Nash (he could grind away at leisure, hopefully with a bit more batting support)
6. Simmons

This would also put Simmons on notice to consolidate. Still high enough for him to show his mettle, without giving him the responsibility and weight of the prime slot.

Shivvers is looking a bit hit-and-miss these days.....

20, 1, 55, 70, 147*, 6, 0, 4 since the beginning of the last series.

he has dropped to #3 in the world on the ICC table, after Younis Khan and Sangakkara...