Third Test: West Indies v England, 1-5 May.

[Dr Cricket]

Anyway back to topic it would be a good result for West indies if they win.

[yuppie]

Anyway back to topic it would be a good result for West indies if they win.

Yep sorry for the detour

It will be a great result for WI.

But if they do pull of the win then England will be sinking to a new low. They will be hoping that Anderson does not get injured for the summer, otherwise it could be a very painful few months

[alfie]

Blimey I just can't go off and get some sleep thinking England are going well ...leave them out of sight for a couple of hours and all hell breaks loose

Extraordinary day of cricket. Some good bowling from Taylor to wrap up England and Anderson to quickly destabilize West Indies. If not for Blackwood chancing his arm successfully - and , it must be said , some poor bowling from England's spinners , Moeen in particular - England would have been out of sight already.
But that late collapse has handed the home team the advantage , I think. Not as negative as Boycott (who reckons England need a miracle to get out of jail) , but I am surprised so many on here are confident of an England success. They really need one or two of these young guns to stand up with the bat tomorrow to get the lead up to 200 ...I am not sure we can guarantee that will happen . Looking at this series alone , the batting depth seems more impressive on paper than on the pitch...
I am certainly hoping Stokes or Buttler can do a Blackwood. Think it needs someone to counterattack ; by which I don't mean just swing at everything ! But some selective aggression is called for.

Not getting into selections at this point : plenty of time after the match. Except to say that is surely "it" for Trott. Can't continue with him as an opener ; and despite Bell's pair in this match there just isn't a middle order vacancy. In any case , he looks shot - wouldn't matter whether he batted two , three or seven. Been a fine career , and credit to him ; but it's over.

Regardless of how this ends up , West Indies can take some heart from this series. Chanderpaul may be on the way out , and they have several weaknesses ; but they have unearthed some handy players , and shown a lot more resilience than of recent times . Might not be all gloom for Caribbean cricket after all...

[Dr Cricket]

problem is people been saying this for a while now.
West indies need to be consistent and do this all the time and not just against England or when their feel like it.

2012 people were saying the same things after 12 months of good cricket but that was pretty much followed by 3 years of bad cricket.

From what I seen from west indies in this series quite hard to see them being competitive all the time, they just haven't got the players to compete all the time.

[greyblazer]

If England put up a collective effort in the second innings, they should bowl out WI for 150 on this pitch. Of course, can't keep depending on Anderson all the time.

[budgetmeansbudget]

If Swann had been playing in this game, he would have picked up a stack of wickets. If they are going to stick with Ali as the main spinner then he is going to have to up his bowling considerably. Give him a bit of leeway as he is back from injury I suppose.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I'm not sure it looked like he was just rusty. He seemed to be trying to bowl as flat and as fast as possible.

There was a lot of responsibility resting on him too, as the main spinner on a pitch that would be expected to help him most. That wasn't the case in the summer, when his wickets felt like a bit of a bonus.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Really poor shot to get out from Moeen. But I think they should persist with him as a bowler. He takes wickets, and is usually accurate (he did well in the WC, though again, he bowled a little too quickly). And there isn't a really credible spin candidate.

[Aidan11]

As Nasser Hussain would say...this next session will be crucial.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I'll guess WI will be chasing about 180-220 and will score 120-150.

A 1-1 result isn't going to go down well at the ECB HG. Though I guess Moores' job will be assessed by Strauss/Whoever when appointed, and I doubt any decision will be made before the NZ series.

[Aidan11]

I'd be happy if the target was around 140-150.


It's just one of those pitches where any score of 150+ is a good 'un and had it not been for Cook and Moeen in the first innings, we'd have struggled too.

[Making_Splinters]

England a little bit up the creek at present. If the pitch doesn't settle down though 200 could be a winning target to set.

[shankycricket]

Regardless of what happens in the rest of this test, West Indies have been far more competitive against England than India were last summer.

India were competitive for Lords.

And Trent Bridge. Thats 2 Tests out of 5. West Indies have been competitive in all 3. Could've been in with a realistic chance to win the series had it not been for the inexplicable collapse on Day 5 at Grenada. Still think they'll lose 2-0 though. But its not quite been the walkover everyone was expecting.

Australia would've loved what they've seen in this series.

[shankycricket]

In my eyes their were actually decent in the 3rd test considering the game went to the 5th day and their was a genuine chance of that game being a draw.

Which Test did you watch? They lost almost each and every session in that Test (and in the last 2 of course). It was one of the worst performances I've ever seen from a top ranked side.

[captaincolly]

Geoffrey Boycott in fine form on the TMS podcast lambasting Mooen and Root's spin bowling as the worst he's ever seen from England spinners. A new member of the Boycott batting dynasty was mentioned as someone who would enjoy batting against them-his daughter and her fellow members of the school hockey team!