England Cricket Thread 2011

[pooligan]

Bresnan for me to.

[Villan For Life]

I think that it will come down to which of Bresnan or Broad is more suited to the conditions on the 1st day of the test.

The dropping of Broad for the last ODI has perhaps given him a stark reminder of what's expected. He strikes me as pretty immature and so giving him the T20 captaincy may have made him complacent. His exclusion from the last ODI will have hurt. He's gone back to Notts with his tail between his legs and started with a 5-fer. Hopefully the kick up the backside will have worked.

It's a difficult one to call. Bresnan deserves a run in the side but potentially Broad offers more with the bat. Over to you Mr Flower!

[UK Redsox]

Tendulkar's maiden century

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/14192094.stm

[Villan For Life]

Great programme on BBC2 tonight about Sir Beefy. The '81 Ashes will live long in my memory and it was great to see the footage again.

[Dave Cooper please]

Yes, enjoyed that.
The Edgbaston Test was my first ever Test match, can't knock my Dad for his judgement in taking me to that one then!

[Villan For Life]

Yes, enjoyed that.
The Edgbaston Test was my first ever Test match, can't knock my Dad for his judgement in taking me to that one then!

My dad's judgement was a bit flawed. We were on holiday in Devon! Sorry dad!! I remember that we were playing cricket in a park when some random bloke came across to tell us that Beefy had pulled off another amazing victory.

Wonderful 1st test to see Dave, were you there for the 5 wickets for 1 run? I bet the atmosphere was something else.

[Dave Cooper please]

I missed the first two of the five, was queueing for food for us both, I certainly heard them though!
There was a strange sense of confidence in the ground even when all looked lost, don't forget a lot of us in there were also Villa fans, we thought absolutely anything was possible that year.

I was also at all four days of Edgbaston 2005 so I've been to two of the greatest ever.

[TheTimVilla]

Not a good toss to lose. Bugger.

[Dave Cooper please]

Just need to hold out for an hour or so.
But yes, could have done with winning that as we have much the better swing bowlers.

[PaulWinch again]

Cook gone, that's bad news. Not happy batting in this.

[PaulWinch again]

Looks like Zaheer Khan has pulled his hamstring.

[taylorsworkrate]

127 for 2 in pretty ideal bowling conditions represents a very good, albeit shortened day.

Shame to lose the toss as Anderson would have been a nightmare to face.

[Villan For Life]

If Zaheer has done his hamstring then their attack will be considerably weakened. He looked short of match fitness today but was still getting some great movement.

KP looked out of sorts but I think that he may play his way through it. Trotty was solid. The first hour tomorrow will be testing and if we can survive that then we should build a decent first innings total. The weather forecast for the next few days is much better.

[Dave Cooper please]

50 for KP, his slowest ever!
This is like a proper old fashioned test match, scoring rate well below 3 runs per over.

[andyaston]

I was thinking that. It really is the sort of scoring rate you would get at a Test before the Aussies changed the style of Test cricket.

All you need now is Peter West wearing a brown suit in the studio with Ted Dexter.