England vs West Indies (3 Tests)

[jle101]

BTW, what's the best site to see Poms wallowing in misery losing their sh*t? I'm all about watching the aftermath of a good car wreck.

YouTube is your friend here. A fair few old-school Test series reviews are currently online.

Ashes '93


Wisden Trophy '94


Ashes '97


Ashes '98/'99

 

[Damon_3388]

Windies pace attack has been elite over the last four years:

 

[PhatBoy]

Windies pace attack has been elite over the last four years:

View attachment 912080

If the icc didn’t distribute money the way they do, they’d actually get a legit chance to improve further by playing more matches too but that ain’t happening any time soon

 

[Doss]

Here's a rather incredible factoid: WI have been set targets of 200 or less 61 times in Test cricket. They have won 55 of those, and the other six occasions resulted in draws.

They have never lost chasing 200 or less. In fact they have never lost chasing less than 214.

That is incredible.

 

[frankrizzo]

Yeah I remember them talking about that when England were eight down, crazy even in the early years of windies cricket or the more recent down times they never had a fourth innings collapse chasing those totals.

We had plenty of those even in our last great era.

 

[PhatBoy]

That is an absolutely ridiculous stat.
I actually did think to myself as bleak as it looked at 3-down that they’ve had a habit in my lifetime of surprising me when I go to bed with the game seemingly gone. Never had any idea they’ve been THAT good with low-moderate chases though.

 

[Fudge Nuggets]

No doubt West Indies have elite bowling, but they need to get the top order batting to tighten things up to be a really solid side. Their performance last week was a million times better than the absolute s**t show they put on against India in the Caribbean last year.

I have been very impressed with the progression of Holder as a captain. Three years ago (give or take) he looked completely lost, but he has been making solid moves the last year. A lot of that is probably the selectors finally giving him a good side to work with for a change.

 

[jle101]

Yep, Holder has been a complete revelation to the Windies' setup. Finally after many years they're a competitive Test side again, and their form in the shorter formats is starting to cross-over.

Fingers crossed they can continue to improve their domestic setup & unearth some talented young batsmen to help out the bowlers heading forward.

 

[PhatBoy]

The batting will improve if they continue to put energy into the surfaces in the Caribbean. One of the things that held them back was poor quality, overly spin friendly pitches that made mediocre spinners into match winners and stunted the growth of their batsmen.
watch out for a kid called Joshua De Silva.

made a century and a 60, both unbeaten, in the second warm up game, and scored a domestic hundred in his first few games. He’s 22 and will improve significantly as he gets more experience.

 

[jle101]

Yes, I remember reading over the past year or so they've been trying to produce less dustbowls, which in turn might help most batsmen over there averaging more than 25.

I suppose the spin-friendly pitches in the Caribbean would have played a part in the Windies doing so well in T20s over the past 10 years or so, not so much in regards to First Class cricket.

Anyone know when Australia is scheduled to face WI again? Or is it impossible to tell in the current climate? Gonna be a bumper series if Holder/Roach/Gabriel keep firing.

 

[PhatBoy]

Yes, I remember reading over the past year or so they've been trying to produce less dustbowls, which in turn might help most batsmen over there averaging more than 25.

I suppose the spin-friendly pitches in the Caribbean would have played a part in the Windies doing so well in T20s over the past 10 years or so, not so much in regards to First Class cricket.

Anyone know when Australia is scheduled to face WI again? Or is it impossible to tell in the current climate? Gonna be a bumper series if Holder/Roach/Gabriel keep firing.

I wouldn’t suggest that we could pinch a test off Australia in Australia but Holder and Gabriel in particular should do well here.

 

[jle101]

Will be a big ask of them. If anything there'd be plenty of fast bowling action to enjoy from both teams.

 

[corbies]

Joe Denly has been dropped and it's hard to picture that not being the end of his test career. He's an indicator of how barren England's batting stocks have been that he was able to get 15 tests averaging less than 30.

 

[Cainozz]

Looks like the end for Joe Denly as Root returns for England. 6 fifties in 28 innings at a tick under 30 just doesn't cut it.

Given the common arguments by English commentators that Root doesn't like batting at 3, it probably means either Pope or Crawley move up the order to that position.

Broad returning as well which will help England hold up an end while Archer and Wood attack from the other end.

 

[Seedsfan]

Looks like the end for Joe Denly as Root returns for England. 6 fifties in 28 innings at a tick under 30 just doesn't cut it.

Given the common arguments by English commentators that Root doesn't like batting at 3, it probably means either Pope or Crawley move up the order to that position.

Broad returning as well which will help England hold up an end while Archer and Wood attack from the other end.

Pope from memory has batted more middle order in county and Crawley opens

 

[jle101]

Denly was probably more of an ODI specialist anyway.

 

[Kyptastic]

Naughty Boy

Wonder if they’ll bring Wood back in now

 

[toml]

Pope from memory has batted more middle order in county and Crawley opens

Pope mostly bats 6 for Surrey, sometimes 5. I think it's inevitable that he will eventually push up the order, but at this point they seem pretty content to ease him in at 6. Crawley will bat 3 for sure.

 

[HBF]

That is seriously dumb from Archer.

 

[eddiesmith]

Naughty Boy

Wonder if they’ll bring Wood back in now

Has never seemed the sharpest tool in the shed, but this time he’s done the team a favour

 

[PhatBoy]

Has never seemed the sharpest tool in the shed, but this time he’s done the team a favour

yes the lone bowler who actually looked capable of winning you the last game not being there is a massive plus.
Seriously your team is picking players like Buttler - who’s spot there is so baffling that someone rightly questioned if chief selector Ed Smith wears Buttler pyjamas - Denley, who’s looked as likely to make a big score as Chris Martin, and Mark Wood who has one of the worst home averages for an England seamer in 143 years of test cricket.

but it’s Archer, the guy who reduced the opposition to basically 4-27 in the previous test, who needs to cop the blame.

 

[Kram]

Will be good to see Broad back.

 

[PhatBoy]

Will be good to see Broad back.

kind of why, contrary to my normal view, I hope we bowl first.
Batting first on a cloudy day against a Stuart Broad with a bee in his bonnet and a point to prove would be less than ideal

 

[eddiesmith]

yes the lone bowler who actually looked capable of winning you the last game not being there is a massive plus.
Seriously your team is picking players like Buttler - who’s spot there is so baffling that someone rightly questioned if chief selector Ed Smith wears Buttler pyjamas - Denley, who’s looked as likely to make a big score as Chris Martin, and Mark Wood who has one of the worst home averages for an England seamer in 143 years of test cricket.

but it’s Archer, the guy who reduced the opposition to basically 4-27 in the previous test, who needs to cop the blame.

One spell in the game, where was he when needed in the first innings? Completely useless as he has been in the majority of his test bowling innings.

 

[Kram]

kind of why, contrary to my normal view, I hope we bowl first.
Batting first on a cloudy day against a Stuart Broad with a bee in his bonnet and a point to prove would be less than ideal

England without Broad is like Star Wars without Vader.