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Looks like a right shambles.

I bet it's called off.

Shah and Jimmy A back in, not sure about Shah at 3 though, should have dropped Cook, stick Belly in at no 2 and bump the others up and bat Shah at 5 imho.

Play stopped after 1 over.

Boycott going apoplectic, ace.

The West Indies Cricket Board couldn't organise a piss up.

Apparently they were warned months ago by the ground staff, that the ground would not be ready for the test match, so that's the second time they've had a match abandoned in 11 years.

haha, cool old white bearded west indian guy digging it up. the ground appers to be built on a beach

Hotel will be there in a couple of months, what a farce.
Surely the match ref/umpire should be checking on the state of the pitch days before the game.

When I was a lad we used to play on concrete, with rocks and a plank with a nail in, against a garage wall. If you went out first ball you got nail-planked.

When I was a lad we played against an old dustbin for a wicket and a tennis racket for a bat, we used tennis balls, and would keep averages throughout the summer ... oh the innocence of youth in my days, now I think back oh so lucky to have lived in an era when games were fun!!

Isnt the sir viv richards ground the one they used for stanford millions thing/stanford 20-20, and is only a couple of years old. the recreation ground ground staff are just about as useful as those planks of wood with nails in shoved in your eyes.

even though theres no cricket,its more exciting than last time we played in antigua and lara bored everyone to death getting that 400n.o.

This ground was built for the ill fated World Cup....Stanford has his own ground which he originally built for his employees to use.

Back to the ARG on Sunday then. Even though all the stands are condemned and the pitch is just as shit as the other one.

If the ICC had any balls, they should make the Windies forfeit the game, as it was their incompetance which caused the game to go ahead, when anyone with half a brain could see the outfield was not fit for purpose, unless you were playing beach cricket!!

But then again we are talking about the ICC, who themselves are not fit for purpose.

The Stanford ground is the one at the airport entrance

That would be only England's only hope of actually claiming a win in this series. Let's be honest the ICC wouldn't be that kind to us.

Just afer tea 223-1 (Straus ton)

600 plus before tea tomorrow anyone.

Bloody hell we managed to get over 200. I'm impressed. 300 all out i reckon.

Well done Straussy,real captains innings there,had hoped he would carry on in the same vein tomorrow,
but he's now out  :doh:

300-3, not bad, sounds like it's good for batting out there.

Any bets against 425 ao ?

Historically the ARG is a batsman's pardise....nobody is quite sure though how the wicket is going to go, which is why Gayle put England in.

Previously if it's a belter, it stays a belter, but it may just deteriorate as the game goes on, so England could be in a decent position....then again Chris Gayle scored a triple century last time he played here.

And they batted for 2 and a half days. This has got draw written all over it.

Indeed. We could do with a quick fire innings from KP to really put us in control. I'm impressed for a change.

:eek: Bloody hell!

Not so impressed now. 427-6 another amazing innings from Freddie.

It rolled along the floor. But don't let that detract from your usual bollocks.

Prior flying along, 462-6, 500+ still going to be no problem so fuck knows what yours is?

flintoff was unlucky, jesus iffy, i bet he fucking tears them apart with the ball, go matty go, at last hes showing his sussex form at international level.

hellomy name is iob, and i will attribute to be possibly the most negative perso nyou shall eever meet on the whole entire internet.


jeez, lighten up. we'ev had a good sday, for once just imaginbe the cup as half full. please.

Been at the toilet duck again Dave?

Dave, remember that little chat we had about staying away from the keyboard when you've had a few.....?

Not at quarter past two in the morning i didn't. Whoops

250 odd for 7. I reckon we should win this but i always shudder when i hear the words "England should win" because more often than not it never happens.

278-8. Flintoff gets Nash.

279-9 swanny again

EDIT. Windies 285ao

All out for 285.

Whoop.

Much better!

will straussy make them Follow on? i think yes.

We've chosen not to follow on. 11 more overs today so we'll see if we can whack some runs on the board in quick time.

31-1. Strauss went for 14.

Windies 98-3 chasing 500.

3 down but we have to break this partnership first thing tomorrow or else it will filter out to a draw. They are the only 2 decent batsmen they have left.

both Sarwan and Chanderpaul out.

Oh yippie. Was starting to concede the win already. Game on again but only just.

This is entertaining.

Viv's loving this

Match drawn. Darn it.

Fantastic stuff, fair play to Edwards and Powell

Well i'm hardly surprised. We must have had an hour to get that wicket but we bottled it. Pathetic stuff again. No doubt Flintoff's injury will be the excuse. Series gone now.

I hope you fall down the stairs.

Can we ban IOB from the cricket section, he is doing my fucking head in.

He's the Bart of Cricket :)

Done.

hahahaha ace :)

you have secured my vote ben

I've never even really followed cricket and don't claim to really get it, yet he's still managing to piss me off somehow.

You might get an exchange though, if bart starts posting regularly again I might banish him to the cricket section.

Like a cultural exchange programme?

Haha, superb.

Think Straussy should probably have told the bowlers to suck it up and enforced the follow on tbh.

i was surprised he didnt take the follow on, but you have to applaud the windies backs to the wall batting. Fair play to them. Strauss looked totally gutted.

I'm not completely up on my cricket, but at the time i remember moaning that we should have declared earlier... would this have helped?

not seen the last two days as i've been away but it does strike me as though strauss may have left both declarations a little late, particularly in the second innings and didn't give the bowlers enough time to bowl the windies out. to be fair, you can't blame anyone for harmison and flintoff only being able to bowl short periods due to unforeseen illness/injury.

i think we've seen the last of monty for a while. shame shah didn't cash in, this test was his big chance.

In India we left what seemed a reasonable declaration and got blown away..OK WI are not as good as India, but the world record run chase was achieved on this ground by the WI....hence the caution.

The one obvious mistake was sending in Jimmy A as a nightwatchman on Tues evening...he hung about for an hour next day when we needed quick runs.

It was all a bit nervous wasn't it?

They don't enforce the follow on because they're scared of batting on a last day pitch, even though it showed little real sign of seriously breaking up, and they're facing a limited WI attack. And then once they're back in to bat and need to score quickly to set a target and get the opposition back in they put Jimmy Anderson in as a night watchman so that the first hour or so of the next mornings play is pissed away with him prodding about scoring fuck all.

It doesn't look positive and England don't deserve to win as long they're approaching games in that fashion.

Agree with that Lumps.Need to be more agressive if we want to win.

Having said that it was fun,very nervous and exciting.Great game in the end.I loved all the shots of the crowd,the reactions were most enjoyable :)

Bit harsh banning IOB though!!Personally i always enjoy his depression and moaning about the England cricket team,makes me laugh  ;D

hehe yeah. I'll unban him in a little while.

has he kicked up a fuss about it? :)

or just fucking moaned to you?

I didn't even know i was banned. Ace. I just like to piss DMR off really.

Haha, cop out, just cos everyone else thinks you're a cock as well. You don't annoy me that much IOB, I think you're one of lifes no-marks.

Bless you Dave. I'm touched.

Sweet.