England A are starting their tour with a three day game against an Antiguan XI.

Side is as follows:

Antiguan XI: S C Joseph, A C L Richards, W W Cornwall, A Sanford, A E Prince, K I Tittle, B G Baltimore, J Athanaze, C L Simon, G C Tonge, G L Skepple

England A: V S Solanki, A N Cook, M H Yardy, O A Shah, E C Joyce, R Clarke, C M W Read, Kabir Ali, A G R Loudon, G J Batty, J M Anderson

No surprises in the choices IMO. BBC Scorecard

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James May

Good to see Cook get some runs.The lad looks a very good prospect.

Also Louden, he scored 95 and brought back the favour the the side when the middle order collapsed. If he bowls well surely he should be seen as a good prospect now for the test side?

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James May

Good batting performance, maybe the last two wickets can get the first innings total over 400? Great scores from Cook (105), Loudon (95), Yardy (47) and Read (40*), with only Joyce and Solanki really failing. Keep it up guys.

You never know, if Read can keep hold of his bat long enough. Kabir Ali is no slouch and can hit the ball pretty well. Although Jimmy is a little more hit or miss but you never know.

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James May

Ali is an excellent bat for a tailender, and Jimmy has hung around for a bit in CC games before, so you never know.

Gareth Batty took 7-23 as the West Indies were bowled out for 157, with Alex Loudon taking 2-12 from 2 overs and Kabir Ali taking 1-40. Amazing performance from Batty, but I don't know how good the West Indies batsmen were, as I have seen Batty bowl and never thought he was anything special. Anyway, latest I know is that England finished on 116 for 1 at the end of say two, with Joyce being out for 50, and Solanki (62*) and Shah (1*) not out and England about 300 ahead by my reckoning, having made 341 for 8 declared in the first innings.

Not a bad day for Batty, I reckon the pitch must have spun a bit for the batting order to collapse in such a way. I still think the picks of the game are Louden and Cook so far. A century for Cook and he's yet to bat in the second innings. 95 and 2-12 in 2 overs for Loudon is great and I think the selectors should take note. Batty isn't exactly doing anything wrong also.

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James May

England A won their opening tour game by 262 runs after a century in the second innings from Vikram Solanki. Seems like everyone got to play some part in the game which is okay I guess. Noteably from the game Jimmy Anderson returned 18 overs for 0 wickets. The spinners played less of a part in the second innings with the wickets being spread across with Dalrymple taking 3-26.

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James May

Excellent result.Don't really know the strength of the opposition though.

Maybe Ninjaman could let us know through the tour how many regulars are playing for each team?