Off Topic England in the West Indies

Terrible stuff again. Talksport commentary really good, Goughie is much better actually talking about something he knows about. Grew up watching a great West Indies team so good for them for finding form all these years on.

 

To be fair to England some very good bowling on what looks a terrible pitch. We haven't played well but at least we haven't collapsed to 77 all out. This is a much worse pitch than the last test match.

Our traditional problems aren't any closer to being solved unfortunately.

 

172-6 at tea. Moeen and Foakes have turned it round a bit, 200 could be a good score if the pitch stays like this.

 

We can blame our batting and our bowling sometimes but today the boys have bowled brilliantly but they have been unlucky. I can't remember a day where Broad has been so unlucky. I think he could have had five wickets on another day. They just keep going though which I love, we might not win but they just keep going thats what you need to do.

 

Broad was superb, but why the hell have we not picked other really tall bowlers on a two paced wicket? We've picked Curran at 5.5 ish ft, bowling at less than 80 mph, because he can bat. Will get wickets in England, but he's gentle at this level.

 

And Calypso caribeans are showing us how to bat in a test match

 

I agree with this first post, but I think the West Indians have had a lot of luck we did not play and miss anywhere near as much as this.

Personally I would go for Woakes over Curran, he is a better batsman and bowler. He scored a test century and although isn't much taller than Curran but he bowls about 86mph and is a lot more consistent which you need on this pitch.

I would love to have this pitch for my cricket team!

 

I agree. Curran was a 4th seamer who could also bat. Cos of his runs and nothing to do with wickets, he was the next Ian botham and so opening the bowling at 80 mph. He will never get wickets outside of England

 

It looks a reasonable batting pitch with a bit of bounce, we need to get their tail out cheaply and then the openers do what openers are supposed to do, build a platform for the innings.

 

“Hull are ‘ere. Hull are there. Hull ...”

 

How many did he get?

 

well, that's taken a long time coming.

 

for those interested in cricket in general, sri lanka just set an unlikely record in the third test in south africa. set 304 to win, their tailend fell away and they lost 4 for 20 to reach 226 for 9. wicketkeeper perera was 86 not out. they needed 78 to win. 95 deliveries later, perera hit a 4, taking him to 153no and sri lanka to 304/9. at the other end, fernando had scored 6 and survived 27 deliveries. perera scored 67 off 68.

the 78 partnership beat the previous best test match winning tenth wicket partnership of 57, set in 1994. not only that, the previous highest tenth wicket partnership to win any first class match was 77, set in 1936, when the australians beat madras during a tour of india, and the australians had been skittled for only 47 in their first innings.

in the last ten years, south africa have played 9 tests in durban; they've won one, drawn one, and lost seven.

 

Is that you Bill Frindall?!

 

bearded wonder to you, sunshine!

 

I watched every ball of it down the cricket club as we had our season planning meeting. No planning got done, it was just an amazing match to watch.

 

Incredible result and illustrates why there is very much room for test cricket in the modern game