England 2012 Cricket Thread

[paul_e]

Look at the player ratings, we're a team built around a fantastic bowling attack (3 of the top 5 in the world and Bresnan will be much higher within the next year, he's getting settled in the side now).

With the bat we look for 2 good partnerships, first innings here for example, we had a great one between Strauss and KP and then an important one between Bresnan and Broad to give us a lead.

The only reason this match is in the balance is because our bowling went cold on the evening session of day 1, which meant they put at least 100 more on the board than they should've, from the position they were in they'd have been happy with 250.

The bowlers have more than made up for it with a fantastic evening session today.

[beness]

The WI will have to go a lot tomorrow to carry this through to day 5. Can't see it.

They are in effect 3-6.

[PaulWinch again]

Great come back and Bres has responded to my criticism.

[Villan For Life]

We're making a bit of a fuck up of this.

Yep. Unless the standard of performance considerably improves, we won't have much hope of beating South Africa.

The Windies, although an improving side are only an apetiser. The Saffers are what this summer is all about and the players will be subconsciously easing themselves into the international summer. When is counts such as in recent Ashes series, the players step up to the plate.

[Villan For Life]

Windies 165 all out so that's a lead of 107.

Marlon Samuels has been immense for them, without his contribution thus far they'd have lost yesterday.

[PaulWinch again]

Got to say Samuels is finally starting to play to his talent. He's having a brilliant tour and if he keeps this up he could be a great batsman in the Windies middle order for a number of years. He's only 31, he could realistically play for another 6 or 7 years.

[Villan For Life]

Fabulous performance by Bresnan. 13 tests and 13 wins.

At the moment his batting and bowling average is better than Flintoff and Botham, albeit after 13 tests. He's solid but unspectacular. As a bowler I liken him to Matthew Hoggard who never let England down. The kind of unsung hero that you don't notice when he's in the side but leaves a hole when he's missing. With Bresnan at 8, Broad bats at 9. How many test sides have a number 9 with a test best score of 169?

We can't drop him even for a wonderful bowler as Finn. Ultimately it's a nice problem to have and it will be a frequent one given the depth of our bowling resource.

Our bowling strength will allow bowlers to be rested on rotation which has to be a good thing.

[Dave Cooper please]

There's a chance one of Broad or Anderson could be rested for the last test now the series has been won, Finn could get a rare outing.

[bilsim]

Just announced on SSN that KP has quit all forms of Limited Overs international cricket. Amazed by that to be honest, his power in twenty20 and One Dayers will be hugely missed.

[TheTimVilla]

The ECB don't seem too happy!

[PaulWinch again]

That's mental, I don't get it at all with the Twenty20 World Cup coming up.

[Villan For Life]

Frees him up for the IPL and other limited over tournaments, test comittments permitting.

[PaulWinch again]

I'd rather he quit one day than Test, but I'm still a bit gutted.

[Dave Cooper please]

He only wanted to quit ODIs but the, in my opinion ludicrous, selection criteria that the ECB set out says that if you rule yourself out of one form of one-day cricket you automatically rule yourself out of both.

[PaulWinch again]

Durham instead of Edgbaston for 2013 Ashes, shocking.