West Indies in England (2012)

Originally posted by spin wizard Wow, Windies have named a very good squad for the limited overs leg to England.  Gayle and Lendl Simmons is back.  Simmons seem to still be in good form after coming back from injury, smashing a quick fire 50 against India A.  England's bowling will have to be spot on during those games, a lot of fire power in that side with Gayle, Simmons, Dwayne Smith, Sammy, Russell, Pollard, Dwayne Bravo.

Sam, weather patterns around the world have gone off target.  There is no longer a dry season in the West Indies.  It rained throughout the whole dry season.  One Island where we play T20 cricket, the pitch has been damp on every saturday due to all the unusual rain during the week.  For the last few seasons, the Hurricane season has been quite generous to us.  Not as much rain/storms as people expected.

No posts on the carnage from yesterday !  You either love or hate Tino Best , but you can never ignore him!  He's arrogant and yesterday drove the English attack crazy. In fairness , he played some splendid shots , especially down the ground. Why they decided to bowl short was mystifying and allowing him and Ramdin to put on almost 150 for the final wicket was seriously annoying. Twas a pity that Best didn't crack three figures , but 95 after having a top test score of only 27 was mightily impressive.
                  One day to go and the Windies have an outside chance of a stunning victory. Realistically England should get the 51 needed to avoid the follow on - but daft things have happened already in this match!

                   Maybe Flower and company will think twice about leaving out their two best bowlers in future. Well done to the visitors , that decision by Flower smacked of arrogance and could yet come back to haunt them.


Edited by Sledger - 11 June 2012 at 8:07am

I have always maintained that Ramdin is a fine talent, I don't know what the issue was and why he was out of the team for so long, because this lad always had the ability to play big knocks. That note was unnecessary though, but then I think he got a little carried away.

Sledger, place was cold, Windies will never win in these sort of conditions.  I'll excuse them for this one.  

Darren Bravo goes back home, no big loss really, wasn't in the best of form.  In a way, i'm happy, as it meant that Lendl Simmons can get another chance to continue his good form before he got injured.

Foremost the ODI series, the Poms will have a large quantity of self-belief with them as they played out of their skins. One can be unsure that the calculation of KP Pietersen went grand with according to his motto, posted on twitter; he said “Hope Cookie & the boys go one up today!! Hope Belly is fit & collects the MOM at end of game!! Good luck guys.”

Having a dreadful test team, the table-toppers of T20 cricket and Test cricket have a very physically powerful and unquestionable team in the 50-over layout of the game too. Their assurance will be sky-high as they showed proven performance in the 1st ODI. Well, it was certainly a faultless comeback from the player. Be expecting the ‘Gayle Storm’ to pull through quickly and damage his enemy. The bowling of both the teams looks high-quality, even though the Calypso kings unsuccessful to betray the rulers of Test Cricket. Ravi Rampaul has the capacity to move the ball vigorous as he gave a dazzling start before Ian Bell rang the bells of the West Indian cricket team. Dwayne Bravo also provided fine start but Ian Bell blew gone the impatience of the bowlers. Andre Russell, although gave a load of runs and will look to get better himself. The batting looks wounded with Lendl Simmons and all others batsmen too failed to carry out with liability excluding Dwayne Smith who although tried to take some responsibility but also fail.

The batting at one stage fell like a house of matchsticks, although both teams are in search of wins as it will be a great contest to watch.

Prediction: Expect the West Indies to fight back and square the series 1-1

Edited by Sherlock - 19 June 2012 at 9:19am

Openers are always vital to top teams.  Australia had Hayden/Langer in tests, Hayden/Gilchrist in ODI's.  SA had Kirsten/Gibbs, Smith/Gibbs and other good combination which is why they've always managed to be a top team for over a decade now.  England got Strauss/Cook in tests, India Sehwag/Gambhir in Tests, Sehwag/Tendulkar/Gambhir ODI's.  Simply put, all the teams that are in the bottom half of the table only have one or no good openers.  Pakistan once had Younus, Yousuf and Inzimam in the middle, but couldn't crack the top 3 rankings.  It's also why I always credit a lot of India's rise to #1 to the contribution of Gautum Gambhir.  Sehwag was always good in tests, but having guys like Chopra, Jaffer etc meant Dravid/Laxman was always in too early.

Cook ton seals series win for England over Windies To seal something playing a child man invented sports game-- isn't much of a seal! To seal up some of the misery the poor humans on earth have, would be a well appreciated action game!

Very very good knock by Hales, great find for ENgland in T20's at least. WI lose again but they looked dangerous, some heavy hitting in that game, I refuse to lose hope in this team, I think in Sri Lankan conditions they be much more dangerous, esp that their bowlers will back their batsmen there... WT20 and I still back WI to be the favorites.