England vs West Indies First test Edgbaston

[Making_Splinters]

Don't know why England have suddenly decided to play like a load of muppets.

[Making_Splinters]

I guess no one wants Cook to get his triple.

[budgetmeansbudget]

Almost 400/3 and Stokes, Bairstow and Ali still to bat.

And they were all hopeless!

[Making_Splinters]

There goes Cook, fantastic innings from him.

[bigfluffylemon]

Seems churlish to complain about a total of 514, but the wheels did fall off a bit in the last hour. From 450-4, England should have been able to get to close to 600 and declared at tea. Now they won't get the new ball under the lights, which would probably have been ideal. Stokes and Moeen both tried to give it a bit too much, too soon - I know they were under instructions to get a move on, but they had another hour or so - that's plenty of time to play yourself in.

Chase 4-fer . Just like England to give it away to a spinner who doesn't turn the ball.

Still, let's see if the pitch is as dead as the West Indies bowlers made it look, or if Anderson and Broad can get something from it.

[bigfluffylemon]

After 11 test matches, Royston Chase has an average of 48 with three hundreds vs India and Pakistan. That's pretty impressive. Unfortunately the next best is Brathwaite with 35.6, and no other WI batsman has a career average of over 32 (K Hope is on debut, but has a first class average of 32).

I hope they bat better than their statistics suggest, or this could just be painful.

[sussexpob]

One gone already

[bigfluffylemon]

Broad being pretty unlucky here. Hope looks surprisingly decent.

[ianp1970]

The wretched singing has started again and it's only halfway through the second session.

This comes across really loudly on TV whereas from the Raglan stand it wasn't too bad at all.

[Slipstream]

Feel sorry for Broad. Two catches dropped. Why is Ali fielding 3rd slip? He is usually hidden away somewhere.

[Alviro Patterson]

One thing I don't get is why day night tests start so early. Surely if ending at 9, for most of the summer you only get dark for an hour? Wasn't the point to get the post work crowds in, so maybe starting 4 to 11 would be far better. Bar would make a roaring weekend trade then

Because it starts to get cold from 8pm and public transport becomes virtually non-existent after 9pm. Anyone who still works 9-5 will want to go home for their tea and their families, not waste their time at a cricket ground for a few hours.

[Arthur Crabtree]

From those who have been at the game, how has the ball been to track from the stands?

[ianp1970]

From those who have been at the game, how has the ball been to track from the stands?

No better than a red one sitting at mid-wicket. Although play was called off before darkness fell, so maybe it would have been better then?

Very easy to see on the big screen though.

[bigfluffylemon]

From those who have been at the game, how has the ball been to track from the stands?

I found it a bit harder to track than the red ball when the sun was out, but very clear to see under the lights.

[Making_Splinters]

I wonder what we'll see today, the pitch has been very flat and supposedly the pink ball stops swinging after not too many overs. The West Indies batting attack is nothing special - to put it mildly - but if one or two of them get in then they should be making tons.

We need early wickets, and Jimmy looked pretty threatening, have to feel that Moeen will have a big role to play.