So after all that Pietersen palaver, the arrogant twat, new captain and hopefully a good start... but Strauss has already piled the pressure on himself, out for 7 on the first morning of the series.

Dearie me, we never make it easy do we?

By the way, if anyone ( ) not that I would encourage such behaviour like ( ) if anyone knows of any streams ( ) then I'm sure some people might like to know, by pm, not that I'm mentioning any names like ( ).

Talking to myself here. Cook out now for a frustrated 4. Not a good start from England. Bringing the arrogant git to the centre... expect fireworks.

Bell gone now.

Struass out!

Sometimes this happens on the first morning of the series, we still have a couple of batsmen who can rescue the situation to give us a reasonable score. Well, Collingwood hasn't been too hot for England for a while, Flintoff has been rubbish with the bat since The 2005 Ashes series... Prior, well he seems to get a few runs. Actually, thinking about that, we don't have that many batsmen who can rescue the situation. That batting line-up looks very weak, once you get a couple of men out...

I wouldn't say so. Scored a couple of centuries since he got dropped for a Test last summer. The batting line-up does look very weak though - Flintoff should not be a number six but he has to be because neither is Prior. The bowling looks even weaker...

100-4 now, Collingwood gone for 16

KP still there on 40

KP gone just 3 short of his century

202-5 at the moment (Flintoff on 26 and Prior on 1)

Oh well after all that we probs end the 1st day in a competitve position

well, just got back from a nice night of clubbing to find we're at least in a much better position than when I left off - once again relying on a key innings from Pietersen. Now Prior and Flintoff have got themselves in, I'm expecting plenty more runs from them both.

Watched about half of yesterday's play. Saw Pietersen get his 50 and then accelerate towards the 100, before his ego got in the way.

The whole Pietersen debate really polarises opinion. As far as I can see it there are two opinions:

1) Pietersen is by far and away the best, most talented, most confident and most on form batsman that England have, without him our middle order would be much weaker, and we have him to thank for regularly notching up quick runs that at least give us something like respectability.

2) His ego means that he is not a team player, he too often goes for the grand-stand shots when a little patience would be far better for England's innings. Seems to be more interested in hogging the limelight than winning test matches.

Criticism of the second opinion often takes the form of expressing the first, but as far as I can see, people who do that are missing the point. Yes, Pietersen is talented, performs well, excites the watching public etc. but is it too much to ask that he take into consideration the needs of the England team when he thinks about trying to smash the ball out of the ground four times in four balls? At the time Pietersen did that last night, England were looking in control, the partnership was at 80-odd and they had the possibility of pushing on towards 250 before the West Indies could get into the tail. The ball was 60 overs old, so it wasn't like Pietersen was taking a calculated risk in wringing the most runs he could before the West Indies took the new ball. As far as I can see it he just wanted to make a statement to the England selectors and the rest of the team, a kind of "how dare you sack me? I'll show you" statement. If that's really the case then I'm actually quite glad he didn't make it. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Pietersen can be told to stop being so egotistical, either he won't listen or he'll hoy his toys oot the pram.

Right, rant over.

Other things to say: well, on last night's showing Freddy has actually proven me wrong. He looked shaky at first - Benn in particular went past his bat several times, looked dangerous - but after a few overs (in fairness to Pietersen I think he sensed the danger and monopolised the strike at the beginning of Freddy's innings) he seemed to settle down. If he survives the first few overs of the morning session then he should certainly get 50, hopefully more because I think he played very well indeed, hit one monster 6 but mostly was very controlled, very watchful, formed a good partnership with Prior, lots of good running and generally very sensible play. Prior did well too, that partnership is 50-odd now, gone from a poor score to the possibility of a not great but not awful one, if they add another 50 then hopefully we'll be able to get 350-odd.

Ok, given the start we had, 350 wouldn't be bad. However, the pitch looks lifeless as hell. Panesar will have to be on top form - I can see Pietersen getting a bowl on this surface, it was duller than reality tv last night. Even Freddy would be struggling to cause the batsmen problems. If England don't get out until late afternoon I can see this match being a draw.

Broad gone for 4 now.

256-7.

i agree whole heartedly


pm

Broad seems to have forgotten how to bat since all this "he could bat at nunber six in years to come" came about. Prior is 57* though which is good news, so hopefully he can build on that.

Currently at lunch now and they're doing better than i thought, Sidebottom's doing a good job now being on 20 and good old Harmy is on 7 leaving England at 311-8

On that pitch, i thought 300 would have been a great score, now i dont see why we cant get to maybe 330 or even 350

Infact, scratch that, Windies are already at 100-1 after just 31 overs

The Ashes is going to be embarassing.

Close of day 2:

Windies are 160-1 (Gayle 71*, Sarwan 74*)

This could be a thumping

Oh stop it, everyone. We're only two days into a series in a different part of the world, don't quite look to have got to terms with the conditions, had some rash shots on the first day and then a little bit of bad luck with the ball in hand. You have to understand the West Indies have the sort of batsman that can hurt you if you don't get him out, but they are still susceptible to the odd collapse so this match isn't over. If the West Indies are going to beat us then they probably need to bat all day today, by which time they might have 450-odd runs, which is a lead of 130 or so. If it is to be a "thumping" then they will have to pile up 500+ and then bowl england out cheaply. The first part is a possibility, but I've seen little in the west indies attack to suggest the second is particularly likely.



As for the Ashes, have you not been watching the progress of Australia? They have lost all of their best players, they aren't at all the same australia as a few years ago. In particular, there will be no shit-hot spin attack like normal, and it's spin that England are vulnerable to above everything else.

Exactly. Australia have been dreadful recently and the team is not a patch on that of the 2006/07 series. They have no answer to the departures of McGrath and, in particular Warne, Lee really isn't that good a bowler and Haddin is decent but no Gilchrist.

I know this isn't the 1980s West Indies but the current batsman at the crease Gayle and Sarwan are destructive players on their day (and Chanderpaul is still brilliant also). I am very concerned about both England's batting and bowling, but there's still a while before the next Ashes and we won't have Warne and McGrath to worry about.

Australia are now 2-0 down in the ODI series against New Zealand... no longer the invincible.

England more or less proved me right yesterday. They finally worked out that there's no point on this pitch trying to knock out the batsmen with killer balls - much better to keep things really tight, the new ball is a bit lively but after ten overs that's gone, the only way you can get batsmen out is by frustrating them, by spin, or with reverse swing - and even then it's really tough, you have to work at things rather than expecting to knock the whole team down straight away. The draw looks the most likely outcome now, bar a calamitous England collapse in the second innings.

Funny goings-on with the referral system last night, an unexpected side-effect may be that it prolongs innings.

True

If we can limit them to about 380, then theres still a chance if the pitch deteiorates

Is this referral system thing a perminent or just a one off test?

Permanent, its being used throughout the series

I think they might scrap it though. I know cricket doesn't need to keep flowing like other sports, but the referrals create dead time (sometimes quite a lot of it like Sarwan's appeal that took about 10 minutes to decide), uncertainty and confusion and they highlight the mistakes of the umpire. You could see on the faces of the england players that after they had used their two referrals, there were a few times they thought - he's got that wrong, if only we could go to the guy in the stand. I think it's a good idea, but I don't think it's working.

Then there is the inexplicable lbw that was given (against the WI number 5 or 6, can't remember who) but the West Indies for some bizarre reason didn't appeal. The slow motion showed it would have missed off stump by a good 6 inches. It's all a bit confused, there have been a few decisions that were overturned but the batsmen/fielding side wouldn't have complained that much about them before the referral system came in.

So..... England get themselves back in the game by getting the Windies out for 392. Now... England are 20-4. Shocking.

hahaha what a joke, in pretty much EVERY england test match, they either bowl well, the bat hopelessly or bat well and bowl hopelessly. although its gonna be an interesting ashes, as the aussies are in decline

Collingwood gone now.

23-5.

There goes Prior...

23-6.

and now Broad...

26-7.

what a joke!

Cheerio Sidey... 50-8.

Freddie walks.... 51-9

Monty and Harmy... time to get a 300 stand lads- COMMON!

and it's all over. England lose by an innings and 23 runs.

shambolic perfomance of epic proportions.
bring on the ahses
erm......

51 all out, useless wankers.

Never mind, they still have their million pound contracts, I'm sure they are well worth it

TOTAL DISGRACE






























nuff said

Good grief, that was absolutely pathetic batting from England. There was nothing in the pitch that got them bowled out for 51 - just a typical lack of backbone. That said, credit to the West Indies and Chris Gayle especially - he seems to have given West Indies that backbone they needed and he leads by example.

Also, very similar to the first Test at the same ground four years ago, except England won that one.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sol/shared/bsp/hi/cr...corecard_hi.stm

That is exactly what it was, a calamitous England collapse!

:sound of annoyed footsteps, then door slamming:

The seconf test has just started. Bell and Harmison have been dropped for Owais Shah and Jimmy Anderson. Both understandable . Anderson has probably been Englands best bowler over the last 2 years, just too expensive and inconsistent.

Windies have put England into bat and there is concern about the state of the pitch, that being the out field where it is covered with sand, so players are sliding about. The wicket is also poor where the TV cables have been put underground to link up with the stumps, which is also effecting the bowlers run-in. So should create a good game.

After an over & 1/2 it starts raining. Play is stopped with Eng 6-0.

Now the rain has stopped but the match referee and umpires have cancelled play for the day and will look into what to do regarding the pitch as it is unsafe due to the sand.

May go to another ground...

2nd test anulled due to a dangerous outfield

what will be the 3rd test will start on Sunday at another gorund in Antigua

look on the positive side, we got to 7 without losing a wicket

Impressive stuff. England have surpassed their second inning score from the first test without losing a wicket.

England 92-0 after 30 overs, Geoff Boycott emphasising how good a wicket this is for batting on due to its flatness.

123-1 Cook gone for 52 to Gayle

Haven't watched/listened to any of this and just checked the score online and its 225-1!!! wasn't expecting that.

I assume this is such a good batting serface as they had no time to do anything with the wicket? so it has no pace, bounce, spin, etc...

301-3 at stumps.

Struass out for 169.

I'm expecting fireworks from KP and Freddie today