England in West Indies - Page 2

**Ljp86** · 6 Feb 2009, 22:20

Windies made it to 7/352 at stumps, Gayle scored 104 and Sarwan 107 before both were bowled by Broad and Flintoff respectively. Xavier Marshall was out for a duck inbetween the wickets of the centurions. Since then England have got regular wickets but the Windies now have a lead of 34 runs thanks to Brendan Nash's 47 not out.

Stuart Broad picked up three wickets, Flintoff has two with Panesar and Harmison taking one each.

Three wickets in hand so England will be looking for early wickets on day three. West Indies will be relying on Nash and the tail to try and get the lead as close as possible to 100.

**mas cambios** · 7 Feb 2009, 13:51

Arse.

Ripping-LegBreak · 7 Feb 2009, 14:15

lol, what a way for england to prepare for the ashes series which they have been anticapating prematurely. Well deserved win for West Indies and Well Bowled Suleman Benn and Jerome Taylor, By winning today they have at some extent got revenge for what happened 4 years ago when Harmison destroyed the windies batting line up, Now It's the other way round and they haven't been destroyed by a pacer, But a Spinner..... LOL.

gundalf7 · 7 Feb 2009, 15:00

hopefully this is the wakeup call that the selectors need to select the better players, shah for bell, rashid for panesar( 1 for 130 isn't good enough on a spinners paradise) and maybe harmy should be dropped for anderson, though i'd be inclined to give harmy at least another test
well bowled to taylor and benn especially, taylor just tore the order apart in the 2nd innings inspired fast bowling

**mas cambios** · 7 Feb 2009, 15:15

We have to be careful not to make a knee jerk reaction but it is clear that changes need to be made.

Bell and Collingwood have to be on the chopping board, sadly we only have one likely replacement in the squad in Shah, so it looks like one will survive. Panesar will probably lose out to Swann (I can't see Rashid playing).

As for Harmison, then it's hard to say. Personally, I have had my doubts about him and think he should never have come back after being dropped in New Zealand. He has no passion in him and without passion a fast bowler is about as much use as chocolate fireguard.

I have a feeling that the only bowling change will be Swann coming in though, the other bowlers are safe for now.

At the moment I see parallels with the England football team, the management rely on the same trusted few and stick by them regardless. We need someone to come in, shake things up and knock the players out of this malaise they seem to be in.

Loyalty is good but you also have to know when to say enough is enough and bring in fresh blood.

Fair to the West Indies, they may not be the most talented team man for man, but they make the most of what they have. Gayle, Sarwan and Chanderpaul are class but we knew that already. It seems that the addition of Nash has added a bit of steel to the lower order, which has been lacking in recent years.

Jury is still out on the bowling overall but the signs are promising.

the_socialite · 7 Feb 2009, 17:27

wow, Jerome Taylor really seeming to come of age lately.

DoubleO7 · 7 Feb 2009, 19:13

Um, wow, what an insipid performance from England. Out played in all departments of the game.

England batted well in the first Innings but threw it away towards the end.

Their bowlers lacked the fire power to run through the West Indies batting. I think the England bowling needs an injection of pace; Simon Jones?

England's batting in the second innings was absolutely disastrous. Their third lowest test total overall.

West Indies on the other hand had everything going right for them. Their openers batted superbly with both of them registering century's, the lower middle order gave some resistance which was nice to see.

Their bowlers bowled within their limitations and used the pitch to maximum effect unlike the Englishmen.

Suleiman Benn I thought was the pick of the bowlers. A good find by the West Indies. Jerome Taylor had the spell of his life destroying the England batsmen in the second innings.

England need to look at other options at number 3 because Bell IMO is not up to it. He gets into the 20's and 30's only to throw away his wicket. May be drop Collingwood for Shah and make Bell bat lower in the middle order preferably number 6.

D.K · 7 Feb 2009, 19:39

I know you can't really pinpoint a moment in the match and blame it for the rest of the game's outcome but I will have to say K.P brain fade on 97 really cost them the game. He could of batted the rest of the day out and been on 130 and England only 4 down and a good bit more runs on the board.

Well bowled to the couple of West Indian fellers, Taylor really finding his straps at International level

**Ljp86** · 7 Feb 2009, 21:01

51, geez that's pretty bad. England's third lowest total ever. Taylor's starting to find himself at this level, maiden test ton against New Zealand and now 8 wickets in this ganme, including that devastating second innings spell.

Well done to West Indies, did enough with the bat and then Benn and Taylor just destroyed England. England need to make some hard calls on this tour, especially with the Ashes coming up.

**Biggie** · 7 Feb 2009, 21:09

51?

Ouch.

Go Windies.