WI tour of England, July 8-28

[yuppie]

Tough few overs here for England. the next 40 minutes could well cost them the match. No pressure then.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Umpires will have them off well before then.

[yuppie]

Umpires will have them off well before then.

[mikesiva]

England will bat better the second time around.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I can imagine WI failing to chase 150 in the last innings.

[sussexpob]

England openers being tested here

[alfie]

England will bat better the second time around.

Would be difficult not to ! All credit to Holder and co , they bowled very well , but some of the batting was pretty feeble.

The West Indies bats showed a lot more steel when it was their turn - albeit batting looked a bit easier in brighter conditions today.

Match remains alive anyway : England basically need to match WI first innings effort to give themselves a decent chance of winning with a fourth innings bowling performance. Not easy , but not impossible either. Weather set fair for last two days ?

[sussexpob]

How is Sibley still there

[yuppie]

I would think England feel pretty confident that they could win from here.

Interruptions and time could be the only issues.

[alfie]

Reckon West Indies are marked favourites at this point.

England will be happy to have survived that mini-session , and if they can get a start again and one or two of the stroke players turn up some sort of a lead could eventuate...but after that dismal first knock I'm not overconfident that it will be a big one.
They've defended small fourth innings totals at home a few times in recent years. But whether this bowling group (significantly lacking noted "burst" bowler Broad this time) is good enough to do a job remains to be seen. One plus is that Stokes did a decent job as skipper and it didn't seem to adversely affect his bowling.

How pitch conditions change might play a part in this I guess. Certainly not saying it's over yet , and hoping at least for some exciting cricket over these last couple of days. Never mind that neither side is packed with top class proven Test players , they've given us some interesting action already and we should all be grateful for that.

[Durhamfootman]

Reckon West Indies are marked favourites at this point.

England will be happy to have survived that mini-session , and if they can get a start again and one or two of the stroke players turn up some sort of a lead could eventuate...but after that dismal first knock I'm not overconfident that it will be a big one.
They've defended small fourth innings totals at home a few times in recent years. But whether this bowling group (significantly lacking noted "burst" bowler Broad this time) is good enough to do a job remains to be seen. One plus is that Stokes did a decent job as skipper and it didn't seem to adversely affect his bowling.

How pitch conditions change might play a part in this I guess. Certainly not saying it's over yet , and hoping at least for some exciting cricket over these last couple of days. Never mind that neither side is packed with top class proven Test players , they've given us some interesting action already and we should all be grateful for that.

England chose to bat and included a specialist spinner because they believed batting on the final day would be very tough. They just stuffed up the batting in a difficult opening couple of days. They were a hundred runs short and were very lucky to get 200 in truth. It could have been much worse. It is a truism of England cricket that whenever the batsmen completely bollox everything up, the focus immediately falls on the bowling selection, as if a change of selection would have automatically caused the opposition batters to offer their wickets up as easily as the England batsmen did...... hey ho. England have been notoriously slow starters in a new series for decades now, particularly in 3 match series. I have no idea why. I've lost count of the number of times they've thrown away the first match and piled pressure on themselves to have to come with something extraordinary just to avoid losing the series 1-0

[Durhamfootman]

They just stuffed up the batting in a difficult opening couple of days.

and I wouldn't bet on them not doing it again today

[Arthur Crabtree]

Slow going. Maybe the draw has just loomed into view.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Loose shot from Burns gives WI something to show for their labours this morning. Only 35 behind though. England probably ahead in the game.

[alfie]

A few balls misbehaving today. You'd think a lead of say 180 might be quite challenging. Still a lot of work to get that though.

Session of two halves : first hour quite busy scoring - then Chase shut the runs down and eventually brought about a rather careless dismissal probably through a bit of impatience on the part of Burns. He and Sibley make a fairly solid - though not always comfortable looking ! - pairing. But Sibley's inability to rotate the strike against spin puts a lot of pressure on his partner at times.

95/1 now so only 20 adrift. Might see runs come a bit more easily once they get the nose in front : psychological shift often in that situation.

Think England should be happy with events so far today. But always remember to add two wickets etc - if you'll pRdon me channelling Boycott