Thetownend.com

Time for the home leg then, and the first with Flower fully in charge. I hope he does well, seems a really genuinely nice guy and the black armband protest (with Henry Olonga, was it?) sticks out as a seriously ballsy thing to do

The first test squad is an interesting one:

England squad: Andrew Strauss (capt), James Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Graham Onions, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Graeme Swann.


No Vaughan, no Bell, no Sideshow Bob and no Harmlesson. And two spinners. Very interesting.

When does it start?

Wednesday, 06 May 2009
npower Test Match Series
England v West Indies, Lord's, 11:00
Thursday, 14 May 2009
npower Test Match Series
England v West Indies, Riverside, 11:00

Only two tests.

Think they should have played these later and got that 20/20 crap out the way first. Hardly great build up to an Ashes series playing the shortest form of the game.

Good to see Jimmy A rewarded for his recent batting form by being given the #2 slot.

Is KP's move down the order a reflection of his awesome form with the ball in the IPL?

Yeah, and we're playing 12 because John Dyson can't count anyway.

And here goes the Soul Limbo.

Meaningless test series it may be, but TMS being on the air again is excellent news.

Really good link here.

http://desi-tv.net/sports.html

Click channel 1.

IPL rubbish now  :cry:

Wanted to see if Bopara can make a century!

He's on 111 not out at the moment. Surely in for the Ashes now.

yeah he will be in the ashes. he is the only english player to come out of the ipl with his head held high. made a brilliant 83 to win the game for the kings xi punjab

I know it switched to IPL at 4.  Found another link!  But its over for the day now.

The IPL is a joke. Still think we shouldn't have let our players go there. It's done KP a lot of good anyway.

Good knock from Boparda...doing it v Convicts is something else altogether mind. Fingers crossed on that one

He's coming into his own to be fair to him. And he's proving he can do it in all forms of the game not just the short 20/20 stuff.

Didnt realise that James Anderson holds the record for not getting a duck....46 tests and hes never been out for nought!

Who ever had Jimbobs' tickets has had a good day  :)Made the Windies follow on thanks to some good work from Onions.

I on the other hand am sat here feeling numb mouthed and in pain  :( Bloody dentists.Fascists all of them.

The Windies are doing their best to play some classic English cricket and it's worked. Yay.

Second test started today.Going well.But then after Chris Gayle decided to go off on one i'm not surprised.Can't imagine he'll be captain for much longer after what he said.

He said he was going to give it up anyway. that bloke is a bit of a loser really. All he's good at is slogging and that's why he doesn't care about Test Cricket. Shame really.

As for the match it's going well. 231-1. Cook has a hundred and Bopara isn't far off one himself.

He won't stop playing test cricket.He just got a bit huffy and said stupid things he will regret.Typical man really,jumped right in talking shite without engaging his brain.

Slight concern that Strauss might think himself some sort of mind messing genius cause he got a bite from Gayle  ;) Hope he realises its a one off and it won't work with the convicts  :D

It's been a nice steady day... I'm wondering why I didn't go.

Bopara past 100 now. Cruising at 272-1.

I know why you didn't go Rich its because its chilly  :)

Not really cricket weather at the moment.I'm looking forward to sitting in the sun at Lords watching Middlesex getting stuffed as per usual  :D

I guess I always assume it'll rain!

Ravi Bopara is sure as hell staking him claim here. Nobody's doubted his ability but his temparament really has suprised me, not really had too much of a slog away. Will be interesting to see if he can do it to the Aussies.

Or maybe like a typical woman, he'll say one thing and mean/do another ;)

Exactly  :D

Five minutes that took. Five.

I'll leave quietly.

Cheerio Bopara.

He certainly can - he's absolute class.

Why didn't we chuck this guy in at number 3 a year or 2 back when Bell has been constantly poor?

He didn't do too well lower down the order, we tried him for a bit. He seems the anti-Bell.

And for goodness sakes, the Windies start bowling nasty balls and roughing a player up for the first time all day and it's the night watchman. Flat track bullies, the lot of them.

Cos he wasn't ready.

302-2 at stumps. Lovely jubbly.

This will be a draw. It'll rain for 3 days now.

And no duck for Anderson again.

Great run of form for Bopara, but he did have a mural  (three ducks in a row) before that, so let's not go overboard just yet.

404-3. Play back under way again. KP on 44 from 45 balls. Cook past 150.