The England Cricket thread

[Tickers]

Lovely stuff. Great to see Vaughan back in action with a century. Perfect script.

Now, can Pietersen get past 158 this time? And is this destined to be another high-scoring draw, or will the absence of Chanderpaul and (possibly) Sarwan open the door for England to get the win?

 

[DFF]

Strauss out.

I know that won't be popular, but f u all. Especially Bodge. :wink:

 

[kishman]

Good day for England, they finished on 366-5. Great to see Vaughan return with a century. Delighted for him.
I'm a bit suprised by the inclusion of Sidebottom ahead of Anderson. Anybody know much about him?

 

[paulspursman]

vaughan on the classic form we know he is a capable of

another great day for england

lets hope the weather doesnt prevent us actually winning this one

 

[Stoof]

KP 226. :clap:

Legend.

Kurtzen just given the best slow dismissal ever. If you get a chance to see that again, it's comedy genius.

17-1, Sidebottom with an LBW. Just going on to clip leg says Hawkeye. Happy days. :dance:

 

[Tickers]

I love it when Rudi gives a decision. The batsman already back in the pavilion with his pads off by the time the finger finally goes up. Superb.

Brilliant day for England, though. It'll piss it down all day tomoroow, but they should still get a comfortable win some time on day four. Lovely stuff.

Fact of the day. Only one player in history has scored more runs in his first 25 Tests than Kevin Pietersen. And that player was Sir Donald Bradman.

 

[paulspursman]

no play as of yet today as far as i know

should have enough play tomorrow and tuesday though to wrap up the win

 

[Tickers]

Good win, but West Indies are desperately poor.

Such a shame when you consider the players they had even a couple of tours ago. Now they're just embarrassing.

But, as the cliche goes, you can only beat what's put in front of you, and an innings and 283 is pretty comprehensive.

Whisper it, but even Harmison looked like he'd remembered how to bowl by the end.

 

[TheChosenOne]

Biggest ever WIndies defeat, I know they are poor at the mo but praise needed for our boys for a job well done.


We are quick to knock 'em

 

[Tickers]

Biggest ever WIndies defeat, I know they are poor at the mo but praise needed for our boys for a job well done.


We are quick to knock 'em

Yeah, the boys do deserve praise for getting the job done. It's not England's fault West Indies are shite.

But mismatches like that are not great for the game. After watching Australia twat us and us twat the Windies, let's hope the series against India later in the summer is a good, tight series between two good sides. And we win.

 

[paulspursman]

not many beat even this poor windies side by even close to how much we beat em'

well done the england guys

sidebottom is incredible in those conditions

WI i think just couldnt put up with the cold. coldest average temperature for a test match in england lol

 

[rich75]

Yeah, the boys do deserve praise for getting the job done. It's not England's fault West Indies are shite.

But mismatches like that are not great for the game. After watching Australia twat us and us twat the Windies, let's hope the series against India later in the summer is a good, tight series between two good sides. And we win.

the difference is though that we could and should have won at least two tests in australia, we just bottled it. In terms of talent we're right up there , but mentally we're still not good enough. the Windies on the other hand just don't even look like putting us ubder pressure let alone winning

 

[Tickers]

the difference is though that we could and should have won at least two tests in australia, we just bottled it.

Rubbish. We could and should have drawn in Adelaide, and if Giles had held that catch off Ponting we might have had a sniff of a win. Only a sniff, mind.

We were well beaten in the other four.

 

[kishman]

Rubbish. We could and should have drawn in Adelaide, and if Giles had held that catch off Ponting we might have had a sniff of a win. Only a sniff, mind.

We were well beaten in the other four.

In Brisbane in the first test, we were well and truly beaten. 2nd Test we should've at least drawn. In the 3rd Test in Perth when Monty was finally brought into the side we bowled the Aussies out for 250 or so, and we should've bulit a 1st innings lead. If we did we coould've drawn. But we didn't and were battered. And the 4th and 5th Test were then pointless.

As for yesterday's test-match the Windies were poor. Their bowling is abysmal. And their batting was even worse. To be fair they were missing their 2 key batsmen. Sarwan and Chanderpaul. If they were playing they might've had a sniff at a draw.

 

[Tickers]

In Brisbane in the first test, we were well and truly beaten. 2nd Test we should've at least drawn. In the 3rd Test in Perth when Monty was finally brought into the side we bowled the Aussies out for 250 or so, and we should've bulit a 1st innings lead. If we did we coould've drawn. But we didn't and were battered. And the 4th and 5th Test were then pointless.

That was a tricky pitch in Perth. 250 was about par. We didn't fuck that up in the first innings, we did that by allowing them to score over 500 in their second dig.

The fact is we were dicked in four out of the five Tests, and the fella who claimed we should have won at least two of them is talking out of his arse.

And although I see what you mean about the pointlessness of the last two Tests, you'd hope the players didn't view it as such. I'm sure they did all they could to avoid a whitewash but weren't up to it.

Look at the margins of victory:
Brisbane: 277 runs
Perth: 206 runs
Melbourne: an innings and 99 runs
Sydney: 10 wickets.

Looking at it like that, well beaten doesn't go far enough.

 

[rich75]

we should have won in Adelaide, no side has ever lost a test match having posted the score we did in the first innings. the Perth test we were well in it until the aussies 2nd innings when we decided to bowl utter shite at them, and the Sydney test we were also in a position to at least claim a draw until we arsed up our 2nd innings completely.
Realistically we should have won at least one test and drawn another two.
The point is, in comparison to how the windies have played against us and how we played against the aussies, we at least had situations where we could have gone on to win or draw. the Windies haven't had a sniff yet of a win, and frankly dont look like it either

 

[montylynch]

Make no mistake, we were well and truly hammered in Australia, The aussies were up for it big time. They prepared for that series the day they lost the ashes to us the previous summer. There was no way we was going to win a test out there.

This season however should show us how much we've learnt from that experience and how much we can build with Moores in charge. First up should be to get Donald on the payroll to teach our bowlers how to first bowl line and length consistently then to teach the bowlers how to be mean. If we bowl how we did these past two tests against the Indians later in the summer, we'll get hammered.

On the subject of the Windies, even i could of made a hundred against the tosh that they served up. I used to love watching the windies play cricket, i grew up watching curtley and courtney smashing everything in their path, i used to love watching the pair of them take wickets and used to love watching the Windies play. It's such a shame that such a great cricketing nation would now struggle to beat the likes of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in a test match.

However it's a nice warm up for the boys ahead of what will be a cracker of a series against the Indians, that will be a sign of how far we have come since the ashes.

 

[Bill_Oddie]

I agree with that Monty.

At the risk of being laughed out of town, I'd also state that we actually looked to be in a fantastic position at lunch of Day 2 in Melbourne. We then contrived to bowl the biggest pile of shite to Symonds and Hayden, which cost us the game. The former was looking highly shaky early on and if we'd put the ball in the right areas at any point in the next session we'd have not only got a lead by signalled the end of his career. As it was we proceeded to field like errant monkeys and bowl like bell-ends. Plus, the captaincy was diabolical. The difference at the end of the game was this one partnership. I know because I was sat watching it in a freezing cold MCG.

So, while we got trounced, this was possibly the most one-sided test of the series, and even in this we weren't entirely humbled in the Windies, Banglas sense of the word.


Anyway, back on topic, and anyone got a heads up on the pitches for the final 2 tests? And ideas of our likely line-ups if Freddie/Hoggy are fit?

 

[Tickers]

Anyway, back on topic, and anyone got a heads up on the pitches for the final 2 tests? And ideas of our likely line-ups if Freddie/Hoggy are fit?

Old Trafford will by all accounts be its usual self, so Harmy should get a hatful. Dunno about Durham.

Flintoff can only play if he's fit to bowl, and that means England must play five bowlers. So sorry Belly, Freddie takes your spot.

And Flintoff should bat at seven below Prior who is a class above Freddie as a Test batsman on current form.

Hoggard would have to come in for Plunkett to leave us with the longest tail since we picked Mullally, Tufnell and Giddins in the same side.

 

[Bill_Oddie]

Old Trafford will by all accounts be its usual self, so Harmy should get a hatful. Dunno about Durham.

Flintoff can only play if he's fit to bowl, and that means England must play five bowlers. So sorry Belly, Freddie takes your spot.

And Flintoff should bat at seven below Prior who is a class above Freddie as a Test batsman on current form.

Hoggard would have to come in for Plunkett to leave us with the longest tail since we picked Mullally, Tufnell and Giddins in the same side.

Ah, happy days. I reckon Stewie used to strap on the keepers pads when the 6th wicket fell. :lol: