**Official** West Indies in England Thread

[Richard]

I suppose Old Trafford & The Oval have been known to take spin.

Yeh, in the 1960s and before!
The last time a ball turned dangerously for a fingerspinner at The Oval was probably during the famous 1968 Underwood demolition. With the exception of 1997 and Tufnell, of course.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Giles got some turn at one ground last year - can't remember which one it was though. Still got smacked, mind.

 

[Protea]

How much of this series will get rained out

Seriously though, Dwayne Smith had one sparkling innings against SA then lost it all. Don't know much about Banks, Best or Bravo. I never saw them down here. Big men will be, as usual, Sarwan, Lara and Chanderpaul. Maybe Gayle, although he seems to be more of an ODI player.

 

[superkingdave]

Old trafford will probably turn i reckon

In the FC matches this season, against Worcs Keedy took nine, Batty took 5,
only 22 wickets fell against Middx but spinners took 10 of them and 9 went to spinners against Sussex so while it wont turn square (or at all if you are the King of Spain) it'll probably turn a bit

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

How much of this series will get rained out

Seriously though, Dwayne Smith had one sparkling innings against SA then lost it all. Don't know much about Banks, Best or Bravo. I never saw them down here. Big men will be, as usual, Sarwan, Lara and Chanderpaul. Maybe Gayle, although he seems to be more of an ODI player.

Dwayne Smith has had a couple of very fine knocks for the West Indies since then but largely has had mental issues during his innings. Give him time and he'll hopefully sort it out.

 

[Protea]

He looks like a very good player. I hope he sorts things out

 

[chris.hinton]

England to win 2-0 no sweat

 

[wpdavid]

Yeh, in the 1960s and before!
The last time a ball turned dangerously for a fingerspinner at The Oval was probably during the famous 1968 Underwood demolition. With the exception of 1997 and Tufnell, of course.

You wouldn't think that judging by the number of whinges I've had to put up with about Surrey preparing wickets to suit Saqlain. and how unfair it is that the wicket there takes spin before tea on the final day ...

I suppose I could add Tufnell in 1991, Murali in 1998 and, to some extent, Vettori in 1999 to your list but no, I don't really expect Banks or Giles to take a hatful there either.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

It will be interesting to see how Banks goes. He turns it more than Giles and certainly gives it a lot more flight. That said, I don't expect he'll have any great impact on the English batting.

 

[wpdavid]

Could we have the batting glut predicted before the Caribbean? I wonder if so.

Never like predicting scorelines, though.

I think you're pretty wise not to in this case. After posting my initial 3-0 forecast, I remembered how well WI had batted in SA, although their bowling there was dreadfully insipid. Against us, of course, it was the other way around. If they could get both right, there's no reason why they shouldn't beat us, even though their away form in recent years has been appalling.

Interesting that you didn't include Anderson in your likely side, despite the recent injuries to Jones & Hoggard. I don't know what the fixture list is like over the next 2 weeks, but, unless Jones gets a couple of FC games, I wouldn't want him rushed straight back into the side.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

The reason why the West Indies likely won't win any Tests in this series is Harmison. Not that the batsmen can't handle Harmison (they're all capable of it) but that WI doesn't have a Harmison. We have bowlers at the very least equal in promise, but none who have established themselves as world competing bowlers as Harmison has.

 

[wpdavid]

The reason why the West Indies likely won't win any Tests in this series is Harmison. Not that the batsmen can't handle Harmison (they're all capable of it) but that WI doesn't have a Harmison. We have bowlers at the very least equal in promise, but none who have established themselves as world competing bowlers as Harmison has.

True, but you couldn't have described Harmison in those terms before the WI tour, and who know when Best and/or Edwards wil make that step up? Excuse me showing my age, but I remember Jeff Thomson coming from no-where to terrorise England in 1974/5, and Michael Holding doing much the same in 1976. I'm not saying that England aren't favourites to win by some distance, but it's not impossible that some of your quicks will make names for themselves on this tour.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

I've been very impressed with Best this season. Even today when he was plastered by Fleming, he kept running in and bowling aggressively and came back well.

Edwards won't be fit on this tour. I'm sure he'll play most if not all of the Tests, but I'm also sure he won't be fit.

Collins will be the most interesting to watch as he has improved massively since he played Australia last year. Noballs are still a problem though.

Lawson actually looked quite good in the Natwest series and appeared to be returning to match fitness and form. Very encouraging.

Ideally I would have liked to see Collymore there as I think he bowled very well in the Caribbean and far better in South Africa than his figures showed. His bowling is tailor-made for English conditions.

 

[roseboy64]

True, but you couldn't have described Harmison in those terms before the WI tour, and who know when Best and/or Edwards wil make that step up? Excuse me showing my age, but I remember Jeff Thomson coming from no-where to terrorise England in 1974/5, and Michael Holding doing much the same in 1976. I'm not saying that England aren't favourites to win by some distance, but it's not impossible that some of your quicks will make names for themselves on this tour.

Yeah you've also got to remeber that Alf Valentine and Sonny Ramahdin were vitual unknowns before they destroyed England.They almost didn't play.

 

[Craig]

That was against Zimbabwe, nostrodamus.

Irrelevant.

It is still a good achievement to take 6 on debut and nobody was expecting him to do so against anybody.

 

[Craig]

I've been very impressed with Best this season. Even today when he was plastered by Fleming, he kept running in and bowling aggressively and came back well.

Edwards won't be fit on this tour. I'm sure he'll play most if not all of the Tests, but I'm also sure he won't be fit.

Collins will be the most interesting to watch as he has improved massively since he played Australia last year. Noballs are still a problem though.

Lawson actually looked quite good in the Natwest series and appeared to be returning to match fitness and form. Very encouraging.

Ideally I would have liked to see Collymore there as I think he bowled very well in the Caribbean and far better in South Africa than his figures showed. His bowling is tailor-made for English conditions.

What is the story with Collymore?

A combination of injury/poor form?

 

[roseboy64]

The poor form part is more accurate.

 

[biased indian]

england to win 2-1

 

[superkingdave]

I'm going to go for a 1-1 draw, England to win the first test, second drawn, third Windies and draw at the Oval.

Chanderpaul to be man of the series and Harmison to have a strong (not spectacular) series.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

The poor form part is more accurate.

But when was Collymore actually in poor form this season? He bowled one bad over in an ODI and has never been heard from since. All through the Test series he was constantly beating the bat, getting edges that dropped short and having catches dropped. How is that poor bowling form?