West Indies v England 1st Test - Antigua

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WI win toss and decide to field. Not sure why. This "exploit early life in the pitch" thing is really overplayed. Feel England would have batted had they won the toss. Lot of pressure on Cook now.

West indies need a 300 run day, really. England, from here have to reverse engineer a win. How many runs are defendable? 300. How many overs do they need to get ten wickets? 100. So they need to get twenty wickets and build a 300 lead by drinks day 4.

Please note that the rough work is on the assumption that WI subsequently care about their wickets

Tredwell gets the big wicket of Chanderpaul ! Deserved that...very timely too.

After controlling things for the first 50 minutes of the session, West Indies got a massive blow when Chanderpaul went walking into a trap as he picked out cover of Tredwell. The worst thing about that was the wicket came just on the stroke of the 2nd new ball.....
Ramdin has improved with the bat of late and then there is young holder who is a player with a big heart and decent batting skills, but now it will be very difficult for the West Indies....... Particularly as Blackwood's is a rather adventurous game as such.
Good innings so far from Blackwood, his 4th 50 in his 6th test, hope the young man realizes the need to go beyond these attractive 50s.......

Blackwood had his share of luck, cauthg of a no-ball yesterday on 21, dropped on 43 today, both of Stokes.......

No surprises from Cook, Its the new ball and Anderson right away.......

England squeezing the West Indies nicely. Anderson a little short with the new ball, initially.

Drinks at 197/5 ...still West Indies hour I reckon , though losing Chanderpaul late was a blow.

Everything depends on this new ball and how they handle it ; because I don't think there is much to encourage the bowlers with an old one at present.
Ramdin can play , and as msp says Holder has some courage.

One surprise from Cook : Stokes continuing with the new ball. I approve .

Interesting call from Cook, Stokes and not Broad with the new ball.......

So that's the follow-on done and dusted for the West Indies.

Blackwood a bit too adventurous at the moment, a near run-out, a few risky shots....... Its so very important for his side that he stays focused. The skipper should just tell him to take things easy.......

msp83 wrote:Interesting call from Cook, Stokes and not Broad with the new ball.......

Only bowled the one...but I think it was worth a try ; he'd been bowling quite well , giving him one more didn't hurt. Was unlikely to continue long as he'd had a fair spell , but one was fair enough.
Broad back now.

The new ball not doing much.......

alfie wrote:

msp83 wrote:Interesting call from Cook, Stokes and not Broad with the new ball.......

Only bowled the one...but I think it was worth a try ; he'd been bowling quite well , giving him one more didn't hurt. Was unlikely to continue long as he'd had a fair spell , but one was fair enough.
Broad back now.

Fair call from Cook, in fact I thought he should have got one more......

msp83 wrote:Blackwood a bit too adventurous at the moment, a near run-out, a few risky shots....... Its so very important for his side that he stays focused. The skipper should just tell him to take things easy.......

I guess. But I don't think he should go right into his shell ...looking to score puts some pressure back on the bowlers. And I suspect he will feel more comfortable ...not sure he'd be happy just defending.

Find that happy medium , eh ?

Took a bit of a knock there...hope he's OK...

Blackwood gets struck on the hand, he wouldn't forget that soon.

Been good for West Indies so far ...handling the new ball OK ; no more wickets.

If these two can get through to lunch it will be tough going for the England bowlers later today.

Jordan now...

Cricinfo tells me Broad is experimenting with the bumpers. Decent idea given the fact that Blackwood has just had some treatment. But its only a decent idea at 88mph+, discomfort or not you're not troubling a set batsman with 82MPH bowling

kingraf wrote:Cricinfo tells me Broad is experimenting with the bumpers. Decent idea given the fact that Blackwood has just had some treatment. But its only a decent idea at 88mph+, discomfort or not you're not troubling a set batsman with 82MPH bowling

Had him hopping at 82.5 just then...

But he has been down on pace this morning . Return to his best is gradual to say the least. We shall see.

England need a wicket from somewhere soon , or West Indies will be fancying a lead on first innings...

West Indies ten minutes from an excellent morning.

Think I'm off...can't get a wicket at all ...though I saw plenty of English ones on the first two mornings

Oh ...Ramdin gone . Bit of a surprise , leg side gloved behind...but England will take it gladly...

Stupid, nothing shot from the West Indies skipper, the hardwork of all these while is wasted.......
West Indies 227-6. Broad attacking with a lot of short stuff, and Ramdin playing a nothing shot in the end to give it away. That too, just 10 minutes before lunch.
Now England's session, they would want to stamp the authority be getting one more.
Holder going after the short ball straight away......

Nearly two in the over ! Ballance couldn't hang on at short leg...

Good over Broad

Hmm ...might be interesting afternoon...

But it's rather late here so I will have to leave it to you fellows.

Enjoy the action , msp , raf.

So West Indies go to lunch at 234-6.
Think an even session. Both Ramdin and Chanderpaul playing poor shots to get out, but England had their plans and they did a decent job of executing it.
The West Indies lower order has been rather brittle of late, the ball is still newish. The England quicks will have a bit of time off and should come hard at the batsmen in the next session. So if they manage to bowl the WI out for under 270, then England will be pretty much on top......

so lunch, and the game continues to rather dawdle along with England still in control, but not stamping their authority right on it. New ball strangely didn't seem to swing at all, so England went with the short stuff - a good idea, the harder ball helping them - and were rewarded with the wicket of Ramdin. England have missed a couple of chances though, and on a pitch which isn't doing much you can't really afford that. Blackwood has dug in well, but my gut feeling is that he has a few too many flaws for Test cricket. He'll do OK on these sorts of pitches, but not so well on anything with a bit more life in it.

England could do with knocking over WI fairly cheaply this afternoon, ideally about 270-ish but reallistically a lead of over 100 and they'll feel they still have a decent chance to force a win. WI will want to get past 300, as close as possible to England's score, and hope that they can knock England over. It's possible, funny things can happen in the third innings of a Test, but right now the smart money is on England or the draw...

Unable to watch at the moment, just getting the odd update on cricinfo. So based on the scores alone, I would agree with msp about it seeming an even session. Whilst England would have hoped for better, that's actually good enough for them - still on top, largely due to their day one dominance.

Pleased that Tredwell got another wicket and is continuing to prove the doubters wrong.

Tredwell proving me wrong so far, some good bowling. 

Good morning session for England.

The ECB Twitter account is genuinely the biggest threat to cricket today, especially then awful awful memes

England reviews against Blackwood, he is saved on umpire's call from being given LBW. Stokes the bowler again.......

Edged through second slip ffs

I mean for crying out loud no second slip

Tredwell replaces Stokes, and Holder straight away takes him on with a lofted drive down the ground

Hundred for Blackwood!. Well played young man!.

His first in te cricket, hopefully first of many more to come.
As MFC observed earlier, his technique isn't perfect, but when the West Indies do not have the riches in batting talent, his application and talent would serve them well.......

Tredwell with a big wicket.

Holder holds out soon after though to get England back into the game.
Tredwell with another important strike.
Hopefully Blackwood can now manage the lower order and they would give him some support so that the England lead can be cut down.

Roach ahead of Taylor who has a test hundred. Interesting.......

Think Cook should bring Broad back on. He's their best bet against the lower order.......

Far too many wasted deliveries from Jordan.

Blackwood not trying to doo too much strike management, taking the runs when they are available. He's trusting Roach.......

Benn, who unlike his English counterpart, was totally useless with the ball, playes a stupid shot of the last ball of the over to get out leaving Blackwood stranded as the West Indies are bowled out for 295.
That's a handy lead of 104 for England.

Lots of overs left for the day. If England manage to go pass 130-140 without too much damage, they will have a strong platform the win.
WI would be looking for quick early wickets.......

msp83 wrote:How about the youngster in the squad? Shai Hope? Is he opening material?

Middle order batsman for Barbados this season....

msp83 wrote:Hundred for Blackwood!. Well played young man!.

Why the heck wasn't that four?!

That's another cracking delivery from Taylor

Can you even begin to imagine what Boult/Southee/Johnson/Harris/Starc etc etc are gonna do to this lot

It'll be a massacre

Olly wrote:Can you even begin to imagine what Boult/Southee/Johnson/Harris/Starc etc etc are gonna do to this lot

It'll be a massacre

Pietersen will be back by then

Here's a pretty incredible stat - and one that shows just how good/important Andrew Strauss was

Since he retired (3/4 years ago?) we've only had 3 century opening stands

Is there an actual plan or direction for this team. They look aimless.