Ladies and Gentlemen. We have a deciding Test match on our hands. It’s all we could have hoped for pre-series. Are you looking forward to it? This final match of the series could be a good old fashioned humdinger – although I expect much will depend on the fitness and general energy levels of the Windies fast bowlers. If Roach, Gabriel, and Joseph are raring to go then it could be another close contest. If, however, their morale is low and they’re collectively knackered after...
England Bounce Back
Here’s Cam with his gut reaction to day 5 and his feelings about the Test match in general. Many thanks to Cam for filling in for James today … I’ll be honest. This is my first one of these. And as I sit at my kitchen table, scratching my head for the searing insight I’ve been entrusted to deliver, I’m coming up short. England won, yes. But in reality, what have we learnt from this Test match that we didn’t know before? Ben Stokes, who is very good at cricket, was very good at...
England Must Go For The Win
When Joe Root weighs up the timing of his declaration this morning (and we certainly hope it’s this morning!) he must ask himself this one fundamental and all-important question. Is drawing at home against the West Indies an acceptable result? Because if England don’t win this Test match then a draw is the very best we can hope for in this series. If I was answering this question then the answer would be “no”. In fact, it would be a firm “hell no”. The...
If Sibley’s Slow, Then Archer’s Even Slower
Right then. Let’s get the Jofra thing out of the way first otherwise it’s going to reside in the corner like a huge elephantine distraction. What on earth was he thinking? I imagine the players were given strict instructions but he either didn’t understand or wilfully ignored them. It’s not good enough really. However, we all make mistakes. Many of us make big mistakes. But we inevitably get a second chance. What’s more, going home for an hour isn’t the...
Beaten By The Better Team. So Where Does That Leave England?
There’s no shame in losing to the better team on the day. It’s frustrating but that’s life. The Windies were excellent throughout and England came up short. Kudos to them. What’s worrying, however, is that England didn’t play particularly badly. We certainly weren’t at our best; but we weren’t at our horrifying worst either. Therefore, when you think about it, this defeat is actually quite hard to take. The bottom line is this. England picked the best...
Only 170 Runs Ahead – Day 4 at the Ageas Bowl
This time yesterday I asserted that the performance of England’s batsmen on day four would tell us an awful lot about where we stand as a team. So what did we learn? The expression that springs to mind is ‘close but no donut’. For periods it looked like we were going to press home a strong advantage. This was especially the case at 113-1 and then 249-3. But typically we blew it. England have some useful batsmen, who might be good one day, but they’re not quite there yet...
