First Test: West Indies v England, Antigua, April 13-17.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Hope's plan made me nostalgic for the time when decisions like that were made quite routinely, in the days of uncovered pitches. Not that I was alive in those days. I think it would have worked. Pretty unorthodox though.

[hopeforthebest]

We have a conservative, scared rubbish captain who has no idea how to make good decisions. He and no doubt his mentor (Moores) didn't notice that WI took wickets in the morning session before the pitch and conditions changed. A decent captain would have been aware that on the morning of the second day there was a rain shower and taken advantage of the chance to give Jimmy the new ball first thing by declaring on 341.
Now they start day three and must wait until after lunch to get a new ball. Of course there's every chance that the WI batsmen will aid England by crap batting but Cook doesn't deserve that to happen.

Not sure any captain in the world would have declared at 341-5 at the start of the second day. In hindsight it may have been a good move, but although you should always be wary of an England collapse, you shouldn't necessarily have expected it in that situation.

It's not hindsight, if you look back on this thread you will find me saying why the on earth are England still batting. By doing so they gave the WI bowlers more wickets that our bowlers should have been taking. In all probability England would now have 10 WI wickets and be half way to winning instead of just 25% there.

We would also have a smaller lead.

I would have exchanged those 50 extra runs for bowling them out and having 10 wickets in the bagany day of the week.

[rich1uk]

We have a conservative, scared rubbish captain who has no idea how to make good decisions. He and no doubt his mentor (Moores) didn't notice that WI took wickets in the morning session before the pitch and conditions changed. A decent captain would have been aware that on the morning of the second day there was a rain shower and taken advantage of the chance to give Jimmy the new ball first thing by declaring on 341.
Now they start day three and must wait until after lunch to get a new ball. Of course there's every chance that the WI batsmen will aid England by crap batting but Cook doesn't deserve that to happen.

Not sure any captain in the world would have declared at 341-5 at the start of the second day. In hindsight it may have been a good move, but although you should always be wary of an England collapse, you shouldn't necessarily have expected it in that situation.

It's not hindsight, if you look back on this thread you will find me saying why the on earth are England still batting. By doing so they gave the WI bowlers more wickets that our bowlers should have been taking. In all probability England would now have 10 WI wickets and be half way to winning instead of just 25% there.

We would also have a smaller lead.

I would have exchanged those 50 extra runs for bowling them out and having 10 wickets in the bagany day of the week.

and you cant say that would have actually happened ...

with stokes on 71 at close to a run a ball and buttler still to come no captain the world would have declared on 341-5 on just the second morning of a test

trying to justify that we should have declared because we got bowled out adding only 50 more runs is nothing more than 20/20 hindsight, and even someone like me who has been a vocal critic of cook and his captaincy would never have expected him to do it

[Arthur Crabtree]

Yes, that's not the choice Cook made. Might have altered his reputation- if it had worked.

[hopeforthebest]

rich. As I said earlier if you'd taken the time to read, there was no hindsight involved as I'd questioned why we were still batting in that morning session when it was in progress.

[Gingerfinch]

rich. As I said earlier if you'd taken the time to read, there was no hindsight involved as I'd questioned why we were still batting in that morning session when it was in progress.

Was that not when we had already lost a few wickets? After Buttler went, a declaration could have been an idea, though I would have still batted on, myself.

[hopeforthebest]

rich. As I said earlier if you'd taken the time to read, there was no hindsight involved as I'd questioned why we were still batting in that morning session when it was in progress.

Was that not when we had already lost a few wickets? After Buttler went, a declaration could have been an idea, though I would have still batted on, myself.

Stokes was just out but I'd been privately fuming that Jimmy wasn't bowling from the start of play. The most that should have done was tell Stokes he had 24 balls to get his hundred as I'm going to declare. Wasting the whole morning session for a few runs was pointless. In almost every game the morning sessions are the best time for pace bowlers not mid afternoon when any overnight moisture has dried out.
The fact is Cook works to the Strauss manual of safety first and a draw is half a win.

[Gingerfinch]

Lets hope we take a few wickets in this morning session.

[Aidan11]

The first two days suggest we should.

[Gingerfinch]

Chanderpaul is only about 100 runs short of Brian Lara's West Indies test run record. Never thought I'd type that about the skinny little player we first saw way back in 1994.

[Arthur Crabtree]

The fact is Cook works to the Strauss manual of safety first and a draw is half a win.

Not sure any draws are going to look good on the record of this series, however unfair that might be. England are expected to win all three games.

My impression so far is that this is a contest between two ordinary sides. There's been little intensity or excitement.

[rich1uk]

rich. As I said earlier if you'd taken the time to read, there was no hindsight involved as I'd questioned why we were still batting in that morning session when it was in progress.

so you knew before we started batting that we would only score 50 more runs given your comment that I replied to said you would have gladly exchanged those 50 runs for bowling them out cheaply ?

just because we lost wickets when we basically had an all-rounder, a nightwatchman then buttler and the tail to come doesn't mean we would have bowled them out cheaply if we had bowled

and as I have said despite being far from cook's #1 fan I think he made the right decision as he would have been crucified if it had went wrong and after one day of a three test series there is absolutely no need to be taking that sort of risk on what has looked a good pitch

[Aidan11]

Chanderpaul is a class act.

Virtually immovable.

[Gingerfinch]

Chanderpaul is a class act.

Virtually immovable.

The Miandad of his day.

[hopeforthebest]

Starting with a ball 66 overs old in prfect bowling conditions is so far not helping the bowlers.