England V West Indies 2nd test At Edgebaston day 1

[Ernest]

Yes I agree,they should have let his county get him sorted,I wish him well.but he does not even look like he is enjoying his cricket.

[Victor Frankenstein]

interesting day, poor batting gifting the windies wickets on what looks like a decent enough batting wicket but one that requires patience. I do like this 4 an over stuff but sometimes i feel we can't switch back to more timely test cricket and feel the need to score a boundary every over.

I thought vaughan was the only one that deserved the benefit of the doubt, he got a good ball that stopped off the pitch, just one of those things, but the others all got themselves out with unneccesary shots, i was most dissapointed with tresco and especially thorpe getting out, both should have gone on to get much bigger scores and put the game beyond the windies, now we've let them back in the game and forgetting they scored 700 runs against our attack last time despite some of their best batsmen not doing all that much, the 400 we look like getting now will be no problem.

It all comes down to jones and flintoff, the way they were batting last night they could both get hundreds, but today is another day. It was good to see jones back in touch again, he looked like the player he was when he got the hundred last time so who knows, and freddy was playing it sensible again, we could still get to 550+ if they concentrate and play well.

[Kirsty Harris]

I didn't think things went too bad yesterday - some silly shots to get out, but not a bad postion to be in overall. Hope that Flintoff and Jones can push on past the 400 today. 450 would be a good score, I think.

The most intersting moment for me was when Flintoff hit the ball back over the bowlers head - as the commentators pointed out very similar to Vaughan's dismissel, but Freddie got away with it because he had the courage of his convictions - might be a little lesson there for Vaughan (although, to be fair he doesn't have quite the power of Flintoff).

[Oliver]

Originally Posted by Kirsty Harris

I didn't think things went too bad yesterday - some silly shots to get out, but not a bad postion to be in overall. Hope that Flintoff and Jones can push on past the 400 today. 450 would be a good score, I think.

From my traditional pessimistic stand point, I'm afraid I cannot see us raising the 400 today.
Can't remember whether they've taken the "new" ball or not, but either way we will almost certainly lose one of the overnight batsmen this morning in which case 375 is about as good as it gets.

[Kirsty Harris]

Originally Posted by Oliver

From my traditional pessimistic stand point, I'm afraid I cannot see us raising the 400 today.
Can't remember whether they've taken the "new" ball or not, but either way we will almost certainly lose one of the overnight batsmen this morning in which case 375 is about as good as it gets.

You may be closer than me with your predication, but I'm a born optimist!!!

Anyway. new ball wasn't taken (much to the annoyance of the WI commentators!!!). I suspect it may be because although (clearly!!!) the new ball will be more dangerous, there is always the risk that it will be smashed harder and further due to it being nice and fresh! I think lara felt tired bowlers/Flintoff&Jones/New Ball did not mix. If this is the case, it sghows how little faith he actually does have in his bowlers...of course that's just my rubbish idea!!!

[Victor Frankenstein]

i'd agree with that idea kirsty but i wouldn't say that shows he has no faith in his bowlers, i expect we would have done the same given the circumstances you described, and i think he would have used it for the last two or three overs but wasn't expecting the batsmen to be offered the light when it was perfectly bright enough to play.

[Kirsty Harris]

Originally Posted by Victor Frankenstein

we would have done the same given the circumstances you described, and i think he would have used it for the last two or three overs but wasn't expecting the batsmen to be offered the light when it was perfectly bright enough to play.

Not sure I agree that we would have, Victor...but I agree the batsmen being offered the light was a puzzler...I think there was only one light on the board, wasn't there. Mind you, you can't really tell how good the light is from the television, but it looked good enough to me!! Certainly better than the light the last day at Lords, which was pretty dark at times..