England’s travails here in bowling out this paltry West Indies team is great news.
Its a dead pitch that any bowling attack would struggle on, but you’re half right. Anderson & Broad are shadows of their former selves, they have no worthwhile third seamer and no spinner.
Really hope Windies get the draw. Ramdin & Holder have been truly heroic. 306/7, 14 overs to survive.
338/7. 3 overs left. Holder 93 n.o.
Windies bat out the last day and a half - 129.4 overs in 350/7 to save the test.
Superb. Most compelling sporting action I’ve seen in 2015. Nothing to beat test cricket.]
Jason Holder 103 n.o.
[QUOTE=“Manuel Zelaya, post: 1125142, member: 377”]Windies bat out the last day and a half - 129.4 overs in 350/7 to save the test.
Superb. Most compelling sporting action I’ve seen in 2015. Nothing to beat test cricket.]
Jason Holder 103 n.o.[/QUOTE]
I’m sure I once asked you what was the best drawn test match you’ve seen. This must surely be one of the better ones?
Been some good ones involving England. The 3rd Ashes test at Old Trafford in 2005 is probably the best I’ve seen. Mike Atherton’s stand at Wanderers in 1995 also up there as well as the last wicket stand by Graham Onions and somebody else (Anderson?) at Newlands in 2010.
[QUOTE=“Sidney, post: 1125162, member: 183”]I’m sure I once asked you what was the best drawn test match you’ve seen. This must surely be one of the better ones?
Been some good ones involving England. The 3rd Ashes test at Old Trafford in 2005 is probably the best I’ve seen. Mike Atherton’s stand at Wanderers in 1995 also up there as well as the last wicket stand by Graham Onions and somebody else (Anderson?) at Newlands in 2010.[/QUOTE]
This was most unexpected because the Windies have shown such lack of resilience over the last number of years. You’d have felt the only two with the mindset and the discipline to dig in for the long haul were Braithwaite and Chanderpaul. Both were out for 5 & 13. Then Devon Smith & Jerome Blackwood who had batted well in the test, threw their wickets away with truly horrible 20/20 type shots. It was Ramdin & Holder batting at 7 & 8 that saved the day and the test. Kemar Roach deserves a mention too. Saw off 55 deliveries and finished on 15 n.o.
Funnily enough, in the corresponding Antigua test (albeit at the Recreation Ground) in 2009, Windies were 9 wickets down but Daren Powell and Fidel Edwards saw out the last 7 overs to save the test and the Windies went on to regain the Wisden Trophy with a 1-0 series win.
England are rubbish though. That needs to be factored in.
Currently ranked #3 in the test format of the game.
That could jump to #2 come the summer as I expect them to win back the Ashes.
The Caribbean is still not an easy place to go and win a test series. England have only won one of their last 8 series there since 1968, Michael Vaughan’s class of 2004 and lost their last series there in 2009 (four months before going on to regain the Ashes in a series they went into as underdogs, Australian cheerleaders might be intrerested to note).
It was a flat enough pitch that was always going to be very difficult to take 20 wickets on. There was quite a few positives for a rusty England team playing their first test match in 8 months. Ballance, Bell, Root & Stokes all had big knocks. Buttler his a 59 n.o. as well. Anderson and Broad showed glimpses, but both still a bit from top form. The big concern for England are their openers.
[QUOTE=“Sidney, post: 1125238, member: 183”]Currently ranked #3 in the test format of the game.
That could jump to #2 come the summer as I expect them to win back the Ashes.[/QUOTE]
Yes, I don’t really get all this pessimism about England’s prospects for the Ashes and the talking up of a moderate Australian side. As I’ve constantly said, this body of Australian players have consistently been found wanting outside of their comfort zone of hard bouncy wickets. Pakistan destroyed them in Dubai before Christmas with a 2-0 whitewash. England beat them 3-0 in the last Ashes series in England in 2013 and just before that they were whitewashed 4-0 in India. They don’t travel well.
There just seems to be a lazy assumption that because they’ve just won that pyjama nonsense that this current body of Australian players are in the same mould as Hayden, the Waugh’s, Gilchrist, McGrath & Warne.
A drawn test that always stood out for me was England in Bulawayo back in about the mid 90s. Last hour was epic. Nick knight was run out on last delivery of the five days with the scores tied.
England have never won in Antigua
They never played a windies team that poor on paper there before either.
Test matches are played on the pitch not on paper.
The Windies strike bowlers of Jerome Taylor and Kemar Roach are the best pairing they’ve had in a long number of years.
Really?
Remember it well. One thing that sticks in my mind about it is the last day of the test when Nick Knight was famously run out was the same day (or maybe the day before) Sophie Toscan du Plantier was murdered.
It was the only test to have finished in a draw with the same number of runs scored by both sides until a similar result occurred between India & the Windies in Bombay in 2011.
[QUOTE=“Sidney, post: 1125162, member: 183”]I’m sure I once asked you what was the best drawn test match you’ve seen. This must surely be one of the better ones?
Been some good ones involving England. The 3rd Ashes test at Old Trafford in 2005 is probably the best I’ve seen. Mike Atherton’s stand at Wanderers in 1995 also up there as well as the last wicket stand by Graham Onions and somebody else (Anderson?) at Newlands in 2010.[/QUOTE]
Jimmy Anderson and Monty Panesar batting out the last 12 odd overs after Paul Collingwood’s heroic 74 in the 1st Ashes test in Cardiff in 2009 springs to mind also.
Rain affected first day and a half in Grenada. Windies have gone from 223/5 to 246/8. Marlon Samuels brought up his his 7th test century and was promptly dismissed two balls later without adding to his score. That’s the fourth time he’s been dismissed between 100-105.
England posted 464 in response to the Windies 299. A superb 182 n.o. for Joe Root.
Windies 22/1 second time round. Devon Smith out with a 2 to go with his first innings 15 completing a miserable test for the first native Grenadian to play in a test in Grenada.
Windies finished 200 odd for 2. Looks like a draw. Not much in the pitch. TMS crew very critical of decision not to play a second spinner or just with Rashid as the one spinner. Big ton for Root to end England’s first innings. Class player.