First Test: West Indies v England, Bridgetown, 23-27 Jan.

[Alviro Patterson]

So that all went well, then

Just missing Craig Overton being top innings scorer amounting about 60% of England's runs.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Hetmyer out for 31. He's played an important part in this west indies performance.

Campbell has put a handy number of runs on the board in tough circumstances.

[Dr Cricket]

lol embarrassing performance from england.

[Alviro Patterson]

Hands up if you are shocked?

Not even surprised in the slightest.

England are undercooked and need matches under their belt as a team, especially the batting. Need to play a 3 day First Class matches with 105 overs per day bowled at the very least, none of this 2 day warm up 13-a-side nonsense. Can't go to the Caribbean and rock up without getting a feel for the conditions, the Windies tour is just as prestigious as touring Australia, India or South Africa.

If I was Ashley Giles right now, I would be threatening to tear up No Objection Certificates for the IPL and make all England players available for County Cricket from 5th April.

[Dr Cricket]

Hands up if you are shocked?

Not even surprised in the slightest.

England are undercooked and need matches under their belt as a team, especially the batting. Need to play a 3 day First Class matches with 105 overs per day bowled at the very least, none of this 2 day warm up 13-a-side nonsense. Can't go to the Caribbean and rock up without getting a feel for the conditions, the Windies tour is just as prestigious as touring Australia, India or South Africa.

If I was Ashley Giles right now, I would be threatening to tear up No Objection Certificates for the IPL and make all England players available for County Cricket from 5th April.

TBH it was ECB fault WICB offered a proper first class game and ecb turned it down.
reading the comments from root and the other english player they kind of giving WI more respect compared to other years or tours, so not really the player fault barring being crap so far and root picking the wrong team.

A lot of the blame goes to ECB for the poor schedule and not giving the players the best preparation for the series even when the away board is giving so much better teams and preparation.

at the moment WI players and fans are treating this series as way more important than englands players and administration.

Mike would know more than me but suspect England is the only team vast majority of the people in the Caribbean would love to beat in cricket, probably explained why so many of the WI players in the recent past got a good record against them.

Samuels, Taylor, Roach, Hope, Brathwaite probably many others all perform against england.


if england do lose the series or draw the series which is possible considering WI could go ultra defensive like 2009 and draw the other 2 games, question do need to be asked of how they couldn't win a series in WI since 2004 even when WI have been shambles and pathetic for vast majority of that time.
even WI playing 150% of their ability shouldn't be troubling england much.

when it happens once it can be a fluke, the 2nd time maybe because of chairman comments but 3rd time it becomes an issue.

although the question really needs to be asked by WI is why can't they do this all the time why do their need England to be around for them to actually perform.

[Slipstream]

In the next Test we will look at the pitch and decide if we need 2 spinners or 3 while the West Indies will play the same XI.

[Dr Cricket]

or they play on a turning deck but pick 4 seam bowlers and WI pick Warrican and then england lose the game to spinners.

[alfie]

A remarkable day of cricket

Credit the West Indies bowling - and catching . After a few ordinary overs at the start they all bowled really well.

Pitch certainly quickened up - saw this happening late on day one so shouldn't have been a surprise. Still wasn't a minefield , but far from easy to bat on. Hetmeyer and Dowritch showed late on that aggression is probably a good policy rather than just dour defence but that is easier to do when you are already 280 runs on...( Tino Best says it may quieten down a bit tomorrow and he's been right so far ; but I rather doubt it will be enabling a 350 plus chase

Of course England picked the wrong side : all my instincts said you don't worry too much about spin options in Barbados. But that didn't cause the batting collapse (and with only Denly in reserve there is little they can/could do to change the personnel anyway) . They have been , as has been amply noted , prone to sudden collapses recently. In a sense , this is just one of those days - though it happens too often. Largely because they lack proper Test batsmen. Especially at the top of the order. But unless/until a new Cook , Trott , KP , etc emerge on the scene they will have to juggle what they have...

The preparation was of course inadequate : why boards agree to these absurd virtually-no-real-practice tours is beyond me. Sure the calendar is crowded : but surely one extra week , two three day games , isn't impossible to set up ? Of course all home teams like to win so maybe no-one much cares about producing fairer contests. Not sure the BBL helped those who played recently either.

Hope England can knock over the last four and give themselves a theoretically possible target : they won't get it , of course , even if the remaining wickets fall for twenty ; but at least we might then see them bat with a bit of purpose and hopefully give themselves something to build on for the remaining matches. Once again a test of character as well as skill...and the selectors will need to take note because as this match has already shown they have just as much to worry about as the lately much-mocked Australians...

[The Professor]

Galling though yesterdays shemozzle was...It is good to see West Indies back in contention again.

[meninblue]

WI well on top at 131/6 (leading by 343 runs) after England batsmen did not put up even a T10 score on board. Likely to get over in 4days. England batting lineup should use this second innings to get into some form for the remaining tests.

[Arthur Crabtree]

WI double their score for the loss of one wicket.

Rumours that the pitch is getting easier to bat on.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I hear Boycott was rubbishing the WI before the series started, again.

[andy]

Lead now 368, far too many for england lol, for them its about grinding the bowlers into the ground

[meninblue]

Jason hits 3 back to back boundaries of the last three balls of Moeen's over. Take WI to 179/6. Lead of 391.

[andy]

Lead goes past 400! 50 for Holder