England v West Indies 2012

The first test match starts today at Lords. Johnny Bairstow is making his debut for England and Tim Bresnan gets the nod ahead of Finn and Onions.

England: Strauss, Cook, Trott, Pietersen, Bell, Bairstow, Prior, Bresnan, Broad, Swann, Anderson
West Indies: Edwards, Barath, Powell, Bravo, Chanderpaul, Samuels, Ramdin, Sammy, Roach, Edwards, Gabriel

England won the toss and West Indies will bat first.

West Indies close on 243/9 with Chanderpaul 87 not out. Broad has been England's big success with 6/72.

strauss gets his ton, the tms comentators are saying that he has silence his critics and is in form. not quite if he got another big score in the next couple of innings then yes he is in form and the critics would be silenced. one ton in a few test matches does not mean a batsman is in form.

broad is in form, 7-77, hat trick ball when he balls next in this game. jimmy bowled well without the rewards.

England 398 all out today with Strauss 122, Bell 61 and Trott 58. The first innings lead is 155.

England are currently 83-4 in a chase to get to 191.

There could be a few questions asked if they lose this test as they had a lead of 151 after the 1st innings.

Makes you wonder why they ommitted England's current best bowler, Finn from their starting lineup.

Edit: after this mornings lose of Trott and Pietersen, Bell and Cooke saw England on to victory.

(21-05-2012 12:23 )Charlemagne Wrote:  Makes you wonder why they ommitted England's current best bowler, Finn from their starting lineup.

because the wicket was slow, dead thats why finn was not playing. he should be in for the trent bridge test on friday where they think the wicket will have pace and bounce. it will be finn or onions in for bresnan.

Just catching up with the cricket as I could scaresly follow it at work.

Great work by Cook and Bell. A great partnership. They had to dig deep but played some good disciplined cricket to get England over the line. I know when I was able to follow it earlier on today Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen both went very early and I thought England might collapse. However they batted out the new ball and now lead the series

Well done England

england are unchanged. what a mistake, finn should be playing.

England: A Strauss (capt), A Cook, J Trott, K Pietersen, I Bell, J Bairstow, M Prior (wk), T Bresnan, S Broad, G Swann, J Anderson.

West Indies: A Barath, K Powell, K Edwards, D Bravo, S Chanderpaul, M Samuels, D Ramdin (wk), D Sammy (capt), K Roach, R Rampaul, S Shillingford.

Well done to both Samuels and Sammie who have put on a large partnership. And they are not finished yet.
England are having to live with the decision of not playing Finn.

West Indies are 370 all out (Samuels 117, Sammy 106, both out to Bresnan who finished with 4/104).