A lively morning. Pakistan put England in to bat and get the 3 wickets which would have been their minimum expectation, but England scoring at 4 an over. Time for Vince and Ballance to come to the party.
Bairstow gone too now,been some really loose strokes played today.We haven't made them work hard enough for their wickets. A good comparison made on the radio between Vince and Ramprakash,they look good for a while then get out,usually to a really poor shot !
So, 297 all out. Might turn out to be a reasonable score. You have to think that England would probably have bowled Pakistan out for less in those conditions.
If the conditions are similar tomorrow that could be a decent total. I'm sure Pakistan put England in to keep Anderson off that wicket.
Good game going on in Kingston. West Indies won the toss and batted, but were bowled out for 196. India declared on 500 leaving Windies to score 304 to make them bat again. Tea on day 5 and Windies are 319 for 6, 15 ahead with a minimum 29 overs left.
Windies did it, sounds like a proper old fashioned Test. Slow but very steady reply by Pakistan, England need a breakthrough or three.
Very costly drop from Root,we don't look like getting a wicket. Anderson trying his best,but the other bowlers look toothless. Ali is just serving up dross,at least Rashid looks like he might take a few wickets !
Or Ali,he simply isn't a Test bowler. It's a criminal waste not to have Rashid in the team,if I was him I'd be seriously pissed off !
It was an amazing backs-to-the-wall performance by West Indies. They started the day on 48 for4 and batted all day on a 5th day pitch for the loss of just two wickets (one of which was a very poor LBW decision - no DRS). A young chap called Roston Chase, in only his second test match, scored 137 not out after taking 5 wickets in the Indian innings. As you say, proper Test match cricket. Didn't see today's play at Edgbaston, but it seems we bowled pretty poorly. We're going to need some favourable conditions in the morning.
Sadly our selectors have a blind spot for certain players who often just don't cut it. Rashid still has the 'bad boy' image of a few years back so always seems to be behind Ali in the pecking order. Ali is the better batsman, Rashid the better bowler. We just have to admit that losing Graeme Swann has left us very short in the spin department. Pakistan always seem to produce quality players out of nowhere and several new names have made an impression in this series. They will top the World rankings if they win this series, so they're no mugs...
Pakistan 100 ahead with their last wicket intact. Anderson barred from bowling for the rest of the innings for repeatedly running on the pitch. If they get the last wicket quickly not a bad couple of sessions for England, but the damage was done yesterday. Need a Windies of this week style rearguard action from the batsmen now, if we do really well let Pakistan bat the last couple of sessions. Unlikely though, the pitch has to turn for the spinners.
