*Official* West Indies Tour of England 2020

[Daemon]

What a great match. Fitting return to cricket.

Not to be a ***** but there must’ve been a hell of a lot that went on behind the scenes to make this series happen so kudos to the administrators.

Blackwood motm for me. There was great bowling throughout the game but nobody played an innings quite as good under the sort of pressure he was under. Fabulous performance from Gabriel as well though.

 

[trundler]

It was an uphill battle once they decided to bowl first

 

[honestbharani]

Amazing win for Windies and what a great way for cricket to come back. A wonderful test match, that could have gone either way till the last 30 mins actually. Windies showed the kind of discipline and mental strength that I have hardly ever seen from them since the days of Lara, Ambrose and Walsh. To keep coming back to a game when England kept nudging and chipping at their advantage and threatened to take control shows they are really maturing as a test side. I hope they go on to greater things.

And England played well too. Some unfortunate selection did not help their cause but they gave it their all and made this one of the most memorable test matches of all time for me. Sure, the events outside of the game makes it so but the fact that the game was this good just adds so much to it.

And yeah, Blackwood's innings the very definition of what a match winning knock in test cricket is. My MOTM for sure.

 

[chris.hinton]

Glad that Test Cricket is back

2 changes i would make to the 2nd test

Root, Broad in
Denly, Wood out

 

[vcs]

I would argue that they won the match in the last session yesterday when England were scoring freely with the new ball and threatening to put up a big target.

 

[Gremlin]

Agreed. Although I think a few want to change the keeper too... but can't see England doing that somehow.

 

[Pothas]

I think I'm still confident of England winning in Manchester but they're going to have to bat convincingly better.

I think a lot of people will point to the missed chances this afternoon but it was always an uphill battle after how the first two and a half days went.

Yep England messed this match up from the very start, yesterday afternoon was absolutely crucial as well though, Stokes getting out when he did.

Root and Broad in for Denly and Wood a pretty huge upgrade so that in itself should make a big difference. Still perfectly capable of losing to an attack of this quality of course, England usually react pretty well to home defeats though.

 

[a massive zebra]

I've already stopped watching, will not be watching last 2 sessions. Result is a foregone conclusion

Nice prediction

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Glad that Test Cricket is back

2 changes i would make to the 2nd test

Root, Broad in
Denly, Wood out

This.

Though i'd also have Foakes in for Buttler but that won't happen.

 

[Howe_zat]

It was an uphill battle once they decided to bowl first

You mean bat first? I think that they picked an attack to bat first and so it was largely the correct call a week out, especially given what Southampton is normally like. But they had no intention of changing it even when conditions changed.

 

[Spark]

I would argue that they won the match in the last session yesterday when England were scoring freely with the new ball and threatening to put up a big target.

Nah that really only put them in a strong position to win, a position that seemed lost at 27/3 (/4 de facto).

 

[Pothas]

Looking at those figures Burgey's point is a good one: 10 overs for Bess on the last day is weird at best.

This is a match where Moeen Ali at his best would have made such a difference, could have hit a quick 50 yesterday afternoon or this morning and would have been a big threat with the ball in the chase.

Of course the bad version of Moeen would have got out to Roston Chase and have offered no control first innings which Bess did really well.

 

[Neptune]

Great test match. Top marks to the Windies. We made many mistakes that test starting from team selection and then the toss. We never seem to start series’ well anyway, lost 1st test against South Africa, New Zealand, Australia etc etc and now Windies. Looking forward to Thursday (?)

 

[grecian]

Well done Windies, in the end the second day decisive, think we may have edged the rest, but one hugely bad day is hard to come back from.

I'd drop 3, but I do understand that it may make sense to keep with buttler as he has now had game time. Old trafford should be a good pitch for us, generally is, apart from last year.

 

[Beamer]

I think this is our best win in a long time tbh. We controlled it for 70/80% of the game imho and were the better side and deserved winners.

Even Headingly in 2017 was a come behind win after England had been on top. This was a proper test match win where we set the tone early on and fought to come out victorious.

Still, for the next test I'd drop Hope and bring in Rakheem the dream. If Campbell doest make it, Da Silva comes in.

Good times!

 

[harsh.ag]

Surely Brooks is worse than Hope

 

[wpdavid]

I would argue that they won the match in the last session yesterday when England were scoring freely with the new ball and threatening to put up a big target.

Agreed. England would have expected to be able to take advantage of a tiring attack with Stokes and Crawley well set, but WI bowled too well to allow them to do that; first containing them, then inducing the mistakes. Which sums up the match really. WI were the better team for most of it and the result doesn't flatter them at all. England have been here before of course, so we'll see what happens next time. Given the paucity of resources at our disposal, we can't afford to be getting the selection so wrong again.

 

[Bahnz]

Well done to the Windies. That excellent bowling attack of theirs always gives them a puncher's chance in the right conditions. Just a couple of top order bats away from being a top side again.

 

[Gremlin]

Looking at those figures Burgey's point is a good one: 10 overs for Bess on the last day is weird at best.

Finally caught up with the highlights and I was really impressed with Bess's bowling, the body action has been worked upon since I'd last seen him bowl. He was under used for sure, I wonder if the skip was concerned about Blackwood creaming him around the park?

 

[Beamer]

Surely Brooks is worse than Hope

On current form in tests I'm not so sure. I'm looking forward to seeing what they do at Old Trafford.

Btw I thought Jofra was superb today. Totally owned our top order with pace and skill.