England In West Indies 2015

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Ljp86

Ljp86

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Before the main English summer gets underway, England travels to the Caribbean to take on the West Indies for a three test series.

The tour is already underway with two recent tour games against St Kitts Invitational XI recently completed. England were way too good in the first game for St Kitts with the home side only just holding out for a draw despite the match only being a two-day affair. In the second game, the sides decided to switch things up with several English players playing in the St Kitts side. The second game was a lot closer and again finished in a draw after the two days were completed.

Mon 6 Apr - Tue 7 Apr: St Kitts Invitational XI vs England at Warner Park, Basseterre, St Kitts
Wed 8 Apr - Thu 9 Apr: St Kitts Invitational XI vs England at Warner Park, Basseterre, St Kitts
Mon 13 Apr - Fri 17 Apr: First Test - West Indies vs England at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, North Sound, Antigua
Tue 21 Apr - Sat 25 Apr: Second Test - West Indies vs England at National Cricket Stadium, St George's, Grenada
Fri 1 May - Wed 5 May: Third Test - West Indies vs England at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados


West Indies Squad: *Denesh Ramdin, Kraigg Brathwaite (vc), Suliemann Benn, Devendra Bishoo, Jermaine Blackwood, Carlos Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Jason Holder, +Shai Hope, Kemar Roach, Marlon Samuels, Devon Smith, Jerome Taylor
England Squad: *Alastair Cook, James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Gary Ballance, Ian Bell, Stuart Broad, +Jos Buttler, Chris Jordan, Adam Lyth, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, James Tredwell, Jonathan Trott, Mark Wood



Hopefully we can get a decent series. West Indies will be a real unknown, they still haven't even named their squad and the series starts in three days so who knows what they'll throw up. I expect England to be the dominant side but after their World Cup effort and performances in recent test series they might have some lingering issues.
 
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Has Phil Simmons taken over as coach yet? I'm hoping he can transform WI cricket, make the tough calls and ignore the egos on the board and in the team. The team needs leaders and not just on the park!
 
West Indies have finally announced their squad. The major surprises are the inclusion of spinner Devendra Bishoo who hasn't played test cricket since April 2012. Pace bowler Carlos Brathwaite (no relation to Kraigg) has also been named with wicketkeeper-batsman Shai Hope also featuring in the squad, presumably as a back-up to Ramdin.

futureblackcap said:
Has Phil Simmons taken over as coach yet? I'm hoping he can transform WI cricket, make the tough calls and ignore the egos on the board and in the team. The team needs leaders and not just on the park!
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Yes, this is his first series in charge. Hopefully Simmons can turns things around although I don't think he is going to get results right away.
 
Well West Indies won the toss and chose to field on day one. It looked a great call early on, Trott fell for a duck in the first over while Cook and Balance couldn't get past 11 as England slumped to 3/34 in the first session. However, Ian Bell saved the day combining with Joe Root to add 178 for the fourth wicket before Root fell for 83. Bell went onto get his century and put on another century partnership with Ben Stokes until Bell was out on the last ball of the second last over of the day for 143. Stokes is 71 not out overnight.

Jerome Taylor and Kemar Roach have two wickets each on what an impressive bowling display early but faded as the day wore on.

There's also a few interesting facts to come out of the first day's play,
  • Ian Bell moves into ninth place of all-time run scorers for England.
  • This test match is James Anderson's 100th test, Stuart Broad's 75th test and Jonathan Trott's 50th test.
  • This match is Alistair Cook's 107th consecutive test, equal second with Mark Waugh. Allan Border holds the overall record of 153.
 
England were bowled out for 399 which was disappointing considering the position they were in. Stokes was dismissed for 79 and was part of a collapse of 4/4 before Jordan and Anderson added 38 for the last wicket. Kemar Roach finished with 4/94 and Jerome Taylor snared 3.90.

In reply West Indies are 4/155, every batsman getting some sort of start although the run rate was quite slow during their innings. Kraigg Brathwaite has top score so far with 39 while Marlon Samuels scored 33. A lot rests on Shivnarine Chanderpaul who is 29 not out and Jermaine Blackwood who is not out on 30. Denesh Ramdin is also going to have to play a captain's innings here too.

All single wickets for the England side at the moment, The two James', Anderson and Tredwell, have been the pick of the bowlers thus far.

Day three should be an interesting one for sure.
 
0 and 4, Trott may as well go back into retirement ha.

Keep forgetting this is on to watch actually.
 
Match ended in a draw, West Indies were set 433 to win the game and ended up saving the match by getting to 7/350 when it was called off in the final over. Jason Holder hit his maiden hundred in any form of first-class cricket by scoring 103 not out from number eight in the order.

Holder was named Man of the Match for his all-round effort in the game, 119 runs and four wickets. James Anderson also overtook Ian Botham for the most wickets taken by an Englishman in test cricket.

The second test of the series begins at St George's on Tuesday.
 
England have won the toss and will bowl first in the second test, looks to be a fair bit of moisture around after some rain this morning. For West Indies Jerome Taylor is out with a shoulder problem and is replaced by Shannon Gabriel while Suliemann Benn has been dropped and relacing him is Devendra Bishoo.

For the English side, James Tredwell is out with Moeen Ali to come into the team.
 
West Indies got to 5/188 at stumps from 70 overs. Marlon Samuels was the star for the Windies with 94 not out while Chris Jordan took 2/40 to lead the England bowlers.

futureblackcap said:
Harsh on Tredwell after the last match..
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Yeah I didn't quite understand it either, not sure what was the reasoning behind that. Perhaps they were after the batting that Ali brings to the team.
 
Ljp86 said:
Yeah I didn't quite understand it either, not sure what was the reasoning behind that. Perhaps they were after the batting that Ali brings to the team.
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Yeah Ali is a good player but I'm normally in favour of playing at least one specialist spinner unless it really is a green seamer. West Indies played a leggie so I doubt it was those conditions..
 
Ben_Stokes_Marlon_Samuels_007.jpg
 
Series like this always make me scared that cricket Test cricket will fall back to the bad old days of the seventies and early eighties when so many teams played for the draw all the time. The worst were England, India and Australia. The Windies were on the up and heading into their golden age so were more aggressive, we learned and when SA came back to cricket the Test world blossomed with most teams becoming attacking.
 
Amazing to think that Caribbean pitches have lost all pace and bounce and have become spinners tracks! West Indies need to go back to their strengths ie. fast pitches for fast bowlers. The WI athletes suit fast bowling so they need pitches who support them.

A number of past players and commentators have said similar things such as Tony Cozier recently.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/866787.html

I don't think WI can match nations such as India and Pakistan for spinners and batsmen that play spin well so they should aim to go back to a time when teams feared touring the Caribbean because of the speed, aggression and passion of the WI team.
 
West Indies back in it after running through the Poms top order, should be a good finish to the match now.
 
Great game so far, will struggle to get into the fourth day at this point but it's been entertaining nonetheless.
 
So England smash WI, then the opposite happens? Shows how low England has fallen..

This Jermaine Blackwood guy is consistent for a new player.
 
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