WI tour of Eng, July 3-30

[mikesiva]

Pope finally caught in the slips. But only after making 121.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Stokes out. They are going to get enough runs, but losing wickets regularly. I imagine the England batting lineup of the late noughties would have racked up something like 600-5. With Matt Prior posting a quick 50 at the end.

[Durhamfootman]

nearly 5 an over pace all day

[Arthur Crabtree]

Presume Wood will have a swing.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Maybe not.

[mikesiva]

England 416 all out

Pope 121
Duckett 71
Stokes 69

Alzarri 3-98

[Durhamfootman]

we actually got a day's play in

without having to play until 7.30

[Durhamfootman]

England weren't bowling, of course

[sussexpob]

Decent fightback in the end by Windies, when Pope and Stokes were going you felt 500 plus was on.

Good for England to see Pope make a score finally this season, and Stokes played well and got some runs under his belt

[Durhamfootman]

2 innings for Pope and he already has a half century and a century to his name

[Arthur Crabtree]

Bloody hell. England aren't putting a high price on their wickets! Not the best bowling from WI either. Or fielding.

Not a quality day of Test cricket.

[alfie]

416 seems at least 100 less than they ought to have made , with all the pies delivered and dropped chances. But England won't mind as you'd also think it will be more than enough to put this fragile West Indies batting group under pressure. And for any neutrals watching it makes for a better game if the tourists do put up a show with the bat - 500 plus first innings scores tend to make for less than thrilling games.

Pope rode his luck but also played some lovely shots ; Duckett was at his lively best even though he didn't go on (at one point I thought he might be going to threaten that Jessop record for a century) : and Stokes got back some batting form after a sensible measured start - though he will probably be annoyed at throwing it away from a rank long hop !

Have to say West Indies not blessed with good fortune : Motie withdrawing ill , and S Joseph - who looked much better than at Lord's - then cramping up. But at least we got to see the Sinclair back-flip celebration

[andy]

Frustrating for me from England....this score and situation is probably enough against the Windies but against better opposition we can't throw it away like we did yesterday...yes quick runs are a bonus but we should have been looking at 500+ there needs to be an element of common sense as well as quick runs and moving the game forward....TB tends to get flatter so if the Windies top order can show similar application but also find a way to score runs then it could be some hard graft for England with the ball....and if the Windies could catch then yesterday would have unquestionably belonged to them

[sussexpob]

Obviously Bazball is a way of gaining efficiency in batting output by getting players with inadequate defensive technique to fighting using their strengths, but yesterday was certainly an example where that efficiency balance fell on the wrong side. I guess I wont complain too much about it, England scored 400 plus so its not a disaster, and the tactic has completely u-turned our batting from worst ever type levels to rising averages across most of the team. But you did also see yesterday why this increasingly dogmatic "we must hit everything" approach has to be fine tuned.

I don't have much of a problem wit Duckett never leaving the ball, nor playing drives on the up outside of his offstump. Very few players can play drives on the up like him, as he gets the makers mark pointing at the ball and has that movement of the feet bringing his weight into the ball. He plays those shots generally so well, that 95% of the time it feels like there is little risk involved. But then anything that is shorter and in the body feels like he is strapping meat to himself and jumping into a shark tank. I flat out hate that swivel pull/hook he plays, he has zero control on it. Just sort of twists into it throwing everything at it, and hopes for the best because he plays it at lengths too full to get properly on top of the ball and to roll the wrists over it... they fly off in the air, or like yesterday, he popped it over the slips he'd after wildly miscuing. Someone needs to tell him to shelve the shot.

Similarly with Pope, if you want to play that punchy back foot drive on a tight line, be my guest. He does it well, he gets lots of runs from it, and it doesn't feel that risky. It then forces bowlers a bit more into 5-6th stump lines to him, which he then punishes. But like Duckett, he also takes on anything at the body with wild strokes of a similar nature, but the real problem is he plays at balls outside of offstump that are wayyyyyy too wide to get at. Both would be instantly better players with letting the ball go a few more times.

My worry for Duckett is, someone is eventually going to work out that bowling those classic outside of stump lines to him is pointless. If I were captain id have my bowlers come round the wicket, I'd have two back for the skier and in the no mans land for the pull he doesn't connect with, I'd have a short leg and leg slip, and I'd tell my bowler to put it on leg side into his body on a length that most people would consider not short enough to pull, but short of a length....

And with Pope, id just tell my bower to put it outside off very wide and pack the offside, because he's so into bazball mode nowadays, he will take you on.

[sussexpob]

Ball not doing much so far. Maybe a tiny bit of movement off the seam, but nothing to suggest West Indies should implode like last week.

Lets hope they can make a few and make a match of this....