The Cricket Thread.

[Roger Allott]

Well, that's the first hour of play and the Windies have done exactly what they wanted to do - both Trott and KP are back in the hutch.

Cook and Bell currently at the crease but if one of them falls before lunch, my money would be on a Windies win. I've just looked at the current odds on betfair and an England victory is still the overwhelming favourite, with about an 80% implied probability.

[victor meldrew]

Originally Posted by Greenman

And another odd occurence why do they called David Gower, Lord Gower or Sir David-he's not been knighted yet and this appears to be some on-going joke seemingly because he prefers the better things in life, fine wine, champagne and going to the theatre-baffling!!

The nickname given to him by his fellow Sky pundits due to his upper class relations, who I believe number the Duke of Sutherland, amongst others.

[scoundrel]

I ran my bath in the expectation that Tino Best and Denesh Ramdin would not last long; my bath will be stone cold by now and they are still batting. Tino Best has batted remarkably well, playing some very authentic cricket shots. Some of his early drives against Finn were straight out of the coaching manual. Ramdin has let Best play but has also talked to him almost every ball, curbing Best's natural exuberence and making him play responsibly. Immaturity and impulsiveness have always been Best's fatal weakness; I remember once seeing him dancing and drinking beer with friends in the crowd just after West Indies had been utterly trounced in a really bad performance (at Barbados?), and Michael Holding had some really tough things to say about that. But Best is now 30 and this is usually when we start to quieten down; he is behaving still like a young man, full of lust for life (long may it be so) but also like a man of experience who knows shit from boot polish.

I am critical of England's pedestrian tactics (Graham Onions would have had Tino Best caught at third slip for 20 or for 24 off the very next ball if Strauss had set his field correctly); Graeme Swan, who normally cleans tail-enders up rather well, bowled too flat and too fast and Best played several delighful cut shots. Its a nice, flat pitch and Tino is enjoying himself. The 100 partnership for the last wicket is not far off now. This has been a pleasure to watch, even though England are playing poor cricket, because its a stirring fightback by a team which has had it tough.

[Greenman]

Earlier yet again bad light stopped play, but hang on, what are those odd things on concrete stands and spelling out an e-why of course floodlights! Why the letter e? surely an O spreads more light? Nasser Hussein made a good point about that and Sir Ian Botham mentioned that he thought this bad light nonsense was a thing of the past-obviously people in the ECB need to rethink this as all those people spending their hard-earned on a ticket for this fiasco will not be happy that despite all the lights around the umpires still have light meters and take the cricketers off-it needs to be sorted out otherwise we become a laughing stock in the eyes of other teams. You can't stop the rain, but you can stop this ridiculous idea of stopping a game in mid flow(and let's face it England will need a miracle to win this match now) just because a few dark clouds appear-if there is no rain up there carry on with proper floodlights in a proper configuration not an e for Edgbaston!

[Roger Allott]

A while ago I heard that up to WWII no cricket match had ever been stopped for bad light. It was only when cricket resumed after the war that the Aussies came up with the bad light rule, and the powers that be went along with it.

[victor meldrew]

Anyone who has played cricket will tell you seeing the ball in poor light is more than a little difficult, it is made worse when at grass roots level, grounds can be surrounded by trees and the sight screen could do with several licks of paint. Never a nice experience.

By all accounts the red ball is not easy to see when the lights are on. For me personally, test cricket should be for days and sun light, rather than the pyjama day nighters.

[victor meldrew]

England need some success with the ball during the afternoon session or South Africa might just bat us out of this test match.

Tea.

South Africa 277-2

Some inspired English bowling is now required in the last session.

[Estreeter]

I like cricket, though not a nut for it, unless......it involves

The West Indies


I just finished watching
Fire In Babylon


Apart from loving the West Indies team, I'd say it's one of the best sports documentaries I've seen. A real good insight into the Caribbean culture and their love of the game

Thoroughly recommended viewing

Click

[Greenman]

Having watched England play first and then South Africa I think it is obvious that England MUST up their game to get AMLA out or KALLIS. I don't think they could have done any more against a side that wants to get back its number one status. We know we have the players, we know we have shown we can beat the best, but deep down we also knew this was going to be the BIG test for us. Our bowlers couldn't have done anymore the pitch just isn't conducive to bowling on-at the moment so the batsmen can get runs and build up their scores.

You can level criticism at England for their fielding but sometimes the ball was going so fast it would have taken a superhuman leap to catch it, but along the ground we need to tighten up reflexes and stop the boundaries where possible. It was outstanding batting from Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla and well done to the both of them but with A B DeVilliers and Duminy and others still come we must try harder-Swann has had a real rest and today he was tested for the first time, but perhaps the pitch will get better and spin more. Only the next two days will determine if we win or lose by bowling them out for less than 600 or getting a score they can't reach.
South Africa are up for this make no mistake and to underestimate them is dangerous.

[knobby109]

The two sides are evenly matched and it makes for good cricket. For either side to come out on top will really need the rub of the green.I always felt that if any side would really test England to the limit it's SA.