Second Test: West Indies v England, April 21-25

[sussexpob]

Either way, even Ballance seems to have got bored and is playing some shots

[Aidan11]

Well they had to get a move on at some point. Might as well go up a gear now.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Theslowest bats in the top three positions in the past ten years (to have scored at least 1000 in those positions) are, in batting order:

Cowan (Aus)
Brathwaite (WI)
Azhar Ali (Pak)

If you were looking for three from one country, Taufeeq, Salman Butt and Azhar Ali are your men. As a three, Strauss, Cook and Trott (Strauss is slower than Ballance) are also behind a notional India three of Jaffer, Vijay and Dravid.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine ... pe=batting

[Arthur Crabtree]

Root is the second slowest having scored more than 500. Maybe suggesting that for England, scoring slowly is either a policy, or a pre-requisit of selection. Unless you're Compton, in which case you'll be dropped.

[andy]

things seem to happen when Root is batting, so hopefully things will kick on soon..

[Aidan11]

Defecit below 100 now.

[yuppie]

Root hangs around for a few hours then England might well have a good lead tonight.

I guess its up to the batters now to make the most of the platform built for them by the openers.

New ball will be interesting though

[Aidan11]

I hope Stokes gets a score.

He didn't have a good game with the ball.

[Aidan11]

New ball due now.

[shankycricket]

He looked fairly comfortable but gotta wonder if Cook's runs against this WI attack are a false dawn, merely delaying the inevitable, a bit like Strauss' back to back tons vs the same opposition at home in 2012 before being torn apart by Morne Morkel for the umpteenth time.

[shankycricket]

New ball might actually be the best time to bat on this surface. Nothing in it for the seamers and it won't swing around unlike the first 2 damp, cloudy days. Not sure if Ballance is the man to exploit it though. Bell could've been a game changer in this situation.

[shankycricket]

I hope Stokes gets a score.

He didn't have a good game with the ball.

I thought he bowled really well except to the last wicket pair. Was England's best bowler on Day 1 by some distance. Criminally unlucky.

[sussexpob]

England ideally want a lead tonight and then let Buttler and Stokes try to quickly add to that lead..... cant see a result unless England have to bat once

[Aidan11]

50 partnership.

[KipperJohn]

Bell walks off again shaking his head all the way back to the dressing room. Does he think he is the unluckiest person alive? He always walks off shaking his head in disbelief.

Is it disbelief? Perhaps he's saying 'stupid boy Pike'? Or a nervous habit - as you say he always does it whatever his score.

Anyway, trying to force the pace on this pitch just isn't going to work - it's about timing and working the ball around. Reminds me of Trent Bridge the last couple of years.