England V West Indies, Lords, 1st Test Thread

[Duty281]

First topic message reminder :

Just a little under 15 hours now until the English Test Summer gets underway with the first of three tests against the lowly West Indies. This is seen as little more than a tune up for England, with the bigger obstacle of South Africa to come later in the summer.

Indeed, England are seen as overwhelming favourites for the series despite a disappointing Winter campaign in the UAE and Sri Lanka which saw them just about hold on to their World no.1 ranking. In the red corner, the West Indies are coming over to England on the back of a 2-0 home defeat to the Australians but their captain Darren Sammy remains hopeful of an upset.

Teams

England 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Ian Bell, 6 Jonny Bairstow, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Tim Bresnan, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 Graeme Swann, 11 James Anderson

West Indies 1 Adrian Barath, 2 Kieran Powell, 3 Kirk Edwards, 4 Darren Bravo, 5 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 6 Marlon Samuels, 7 Denesh Ramdin (wk), 8 Darren Sammy (capt), 9 Kemar Roach, 10 Ravi Rampaul, 11 Fidel Edwards

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Enjoy!

[Mad for Chelsea]

two left-handers: get Swann on sooner rather than later?

[alfie]

In fairness to Broad , that was a muchbetter over anyway...

Still can't trust Broad's judgement of when to review though ...OK that one ended up working out , sort of , but he is always wrong Y

[Fists of Fury]

Broad's pace seems down.

[Biltong]

could someone put the score up every now and then please

[Mad for Chelsea]

95/3 biltong

[Mad for Chelsea]

dicey drive from Chanders there, slicing it just wide of the point fielder away from his body. An unusual shot for him. Bravo in danger of getting stuck at the moment, barely scored since lunch...

[alfie]

Hundred up ...

West Indies probably would take that , for three , when they lost the toss this morning.

This partnership will be the key , one would assume : if one of these goes early it could go downhill quickly...

[Mad for Chelsea]

Swann drops a pretty easy one at slip

[Fists of Fury]

Swanny you clown, what a nightmare.

[alfie]

Oops! Bad miss by Swann - good bowling from Jimmy again goes unrewarded...

Chance for Swann to make up for it as he's on now for Broad. Good move I think.

[Fists of Fury]

run out, oh dear Windies, you really do know how to arse things up!

[Mad for Chelsea]

not a costly miss as the mother of all mix-ups sees Bravo run out in the next over. I think that's Shiv's fault, Bravo's call you'd think there.

on the catch, I think Lords has a reputation as a very tough place to see the ball, particularly that end?

[alfie]

And how's that for comedy cricket : horrible mix up in running , and even though Prior did his best to save them with a truly awful throw to the other end , Swann had five minutes to remove the bails ...

So Bravo doesn't gain from his let off at all...

100/4

[trebellbobaggins]

Windies gave a freebie there. No cost to the drop then.

[Fists of Fury]

I'd still rather have seen 'b Anderson' next to Bravo's name, but I'll take the run-out.

[Mad for Chelsea]

Samuels in all sorts of trouble against Swann, but nothing doing from Aleem Dar there, three of those could have gone either way. Jimmy gets Chanders, will he review?

[Mad for Chelsea]

he does, and survives, the ball not doing enough says hawkeye! England haven't had much luck with these LBWs so far

[Mad for Chelsea]

I just wonder whether that clipped the front pad first...

[alfie]

Jimmy gets the Big Wicket !

...pending review...no , not out .

Good review Chanderpaul. I did think it wasn't doing quite enough...

More good bowling though.

[alfie]

Chanderpaul looking well set ... Can't say the same for Samuels.

Reckon a wicket is coming soon at his end. Bresnan bowling tidily.

[Mad for Chelsea]

England have bowled much better since lunch, much more control. The run of the ball hasn't favoured them though.

[alfie]

Actually looks like it may end up another fairly even session. If no more wickets fall in the next ten minutes or so...

So the last session will decide bragging rights for the day...and it may be the new ball that makes the difference.

Aha ... Trott (the secret weapon) into the attack

[Liam]

Funny how England always seems to have that one bogey player from their point of view in the oppositions batting line up that always seems to score runs against them:

Sri Lanka: Jayawardene avg 65
WI: Chanderpaul avg 64
SA: Smith avg 50 (?)
AUS: Hussey avg 62

All seem to score against England, funny how people seem to get as good run, in the end I think its all psychological in the end, once one get's in they concentrate on the batsmen at the other end, leaving their nemesis to reap the rewards, as we are seeing again today with Chanderpaul.

All are superb players in their own right, but all seem to score big against England damn them

[Liam]

Funny how England always seems to have that one bogey player from their point of view in the oppositions batting line up that always seems to score runs against them:

Sri Lanka: Jayawardene avg 65
WI: Chanderpaul avg 64
SA: Smith avg 50 (?)
AUS: Hussey avg 62

All seem to score against England, funny how people seem to get as good run, in the end I think its all psychological in the end, once one get's in they concentrate on the batsmen at the other end, leaving their nemesis to reap the rewards, as we are seeing again today with Chanderpaul.

All are superb players in their own right, but all seem to score big against England damn them

[Fists of Fury]

Ruddy annoying isn't it, Martyr? :p

[Mad for Chelsea]

bit of a bonus there for England, wild slash from Samuels and Broad has his second, WI now 5 down and England have a small opening here.

[Fists of Fury]

Many saying it is the Windies day so far, but I wouldn't say 180-5 is overly impressive on such a flat deck.

Speaking of which, isn't it about time the Lord's curator started spicing pitches up a little? Far too many draws at HQ in recent years.

[Duty281]

Just as I was getting a bit worried about that 5th wicket partnership, Samuels patience got the better of him and Bairstow takes a good catch. 181/5 on a pretty flat deck, I'll take that. Chanders showing his class yet again though, well done to him.

[Mad for Chelsea]

and one brings two, lovely delivery from Broad getting it to bounce and nip away a bit from Ramdin who nicks straight to Strauss at slip. 187/6, England on top now...

[Fists of Fury]

Yes Broady!! Ramdin gone.

[Duty281]

And another! Let's get 'em all out before stumps, still got 20.3 overs!

[Mad for Chelsea]

Had England referred that, it would have been overturned. Looked a bit high to me live, you can see why they haven't gone for the review though...

[msp83]

Wonder why Samuels keeps getting all these chances. He has been far too inconsistent throughout his career. And if you talk about love of playing for your country, his past record suggests he's open to making a few easy money through even cheating. wonder what is it that Captain Superb and Coach Sky Ego have seen so great in him.
Anyone from WI here? Is there any upcoming WK who can bat decent in the islands?
Baugh and Ramdin are so inconsistent and neither are good enough to bat at 7 for an international side.
And if you haven't already checked out the IPL match scorecard, between RCB and DD. See how a West Indies Reject with a 'Terrible Attitude' has done!.

[Mad for Chelsea]

jeez Aleem Dar's been in a not out mood today, that's about five decisions which could have gone either way.

[msp83]

Shiv should now look to score a bit more quickly, never in the world is he going to play rah shots, but may be he should just look to score a bit more faster, England bowling might just be far too good for the lower order to stand along side him as they so often do. Like VVS Laxman, Chanders has this ability to get the best out of the lower order, but he should just to look for every scoring opportunity as well, against this England attack in these conditions. Well he's just doing, hitting Swanny back over his head for 4!.

[msp83]

I just hae a feeling this pitch will really go flat particularly if the factors above doesn't come into the frame. The WI might just miss their spinner in the attack, particularly as England might have to bat last.
If Rampaul wasn't availablem they just should have gone with Shillingford. And should have played Deonarine who could at least offered some balls that would turn a bit unlike Samuels who doesn't really turn it as much.

[Duty281]

Well done Broady! 219/7, 8 overs to go and Chanders never does bat well with the tail...

[Mad for Chelsea]

Broad has a review against Chanders wasted (though it wasn't a bad shout to be fair, pitched just outside leg). However he gets Sammy a few balls later, trying to turn one to leg and getting a leading edge to Bresnan in the gully. England in among the tail early with the new ball!

[msp83]

Duty, Chanders doesn't score quickly batting with the lower order, but they almost always stick around when he's at the other end.
another underwhelming contribution from Sammy, how long will this last? Hopefully, the english conditions would provide some edge to his otherwise average bowling and he would be able to make a meaningful contribution to the side.

[Guest]

5 wickets for broad

[Mad for Chelsea]

the ball after England have a shout for caught behind against Chanders turned down (hit the back thigh pad, good decision), Broad gets Roach caught and bowled, and that's five for him

[msp83]

Broad didn't bowl as well as Anderson did, but he bowled well enough to start the season with a fifer!. Roach the last man gone. Anc Chanders, well, he's still out there in the middle!.

[msp83]

Rampaul would hae been much better in this suation, but alas. In facct even Shillingford could swing a few runs at times. Have the WI really missed a trick here by not playing him particularly as Rampaul wasn't available?

[Mad for Chelsea]

I agree msp, WI should have picked Shilllingford I think, esp. with Rampaul out. The pitch isn't really doing all that much (there's been some swing, but nothing extravagant, and it's quite slow).

[Guest]

Chanderpaul is so good..

averaging over 50, over 10,000 test runs, 9th in the all time list, legend of windies cricket, playing another class innings for his side here.

[Mad for Chelsea]

I'm sorry but that's poor from Chanderpaul. Takes one off the first ball of the last over, exposes Edwards, who duly nicks it. Prior takes a brilliant (and un-needed) catch (it was going straight to Strauss). Broad has 6, and England end the day with 9 wickets.

243/9

[msp83]

Broad should not get carried away with the short stuff to Chanderpaul, or even the lower order batsmen. Bowling full has made him a so much better, and we all know pretty well the situation when he was so cot up with short length.
Henry B is going all firing at Chanders for taking a single of the first ball of the over. But he has done it time and time again, and mostly he has been able to make the lower order bat with greater responsibility and thus stretch the team score. But Edwards isn't having any of it, gone of the last ball of the day!.

[Duty281]

Comfortably England's day. Broad will be delighted with his figures of 6/72, although Anderson probably deserved more than 2 wickets. As predicted, Chanders was the only real resistance with a good knock of 87* - without him, WI may not have made 200.

England will probably wish to make 450+ and that is very possible with the track and the poor Windies attack. Weatherwise, there may be a few stoppages tomorrow as rain is predicted.

[Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler]

Hugely predictable day?
Windies batting lacking any real test class aside from Chanderpaul. England as through the winter fail to really hammer the opposition when they have them on the ropes though.

I got a quid at 12-1 on Broad as MOM yesterday, looks like a swish bet so far.

[Mad for Chelsea]

so the main talking points for me:

1) WI did OK, in the sense that they've at least put a score on. England's day, comfortably so, but it wasn't a disaster for the WI. Of course, with the pitch likely to be at its best for batting over the next two days England have the chance to amass a big lead.

2) The pitch. Didn't do as much as expected. Sure it swung a bit, but not extravagantly, while the pitch itself was very slow (due to the moisture). Strauss made a bold call to bowl first, and it paid off with 9 wickets.

3) England's bowlers. They were ordinary before lunch (particularly second hour), but much better afterwards. I thought Jimmy was very unlucky to finish with only two wickets. Broad bowled really well after an ordinary first session. Great lengths. England in general bowled very good lines (there were very few boundaries clipped off the legs). Bresnan bowled tidily without being that threatening, while Swann was perhaps unlucky not to pick up an LBW or two.

4) WI's batsmen. A familiar tale really, with a few of them (Barath, Bravo and Samuels, but also Sammy I guess) making starts without going on. Of the three, Bravo was unlucky (Shiv's fault that) but the other two threw it away with careless flashes at wide balls. Shiv as expected the main (only?) real resistance.

5) Shiv himself. People say "that's the way he plays", but they're a few things I'd like to pull him up on. First, should your best player (by a mile) really be down at n°5? Shiv isn't that adept at moving through the gears so too often finds himself stranded with the tail. While this doesn't seem to bother him, is it really the best thing for the team? Next, Bravo's run out: poor from him, wasn't his call and there was a pretty easy run there, he seemed unaware of Bravo running. Finally, the single taken off the first ball of the last over was pure selfishness. While I apreciate all great batsmen are selfish, it cost WI a wicket here, and smacked of "I don't care, come what may, I will be at the crease tomorrow".

Having said that, he's still a mighty fine player, and it was a very good innings today against some quality bowling.

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