WI tour of Eng, July 3-30

[Arthur Crabtree]

Solid day for WI. Nice to see.

New ball in about half an hour. Maybe wait until tomorrow though?

[Arthur Crabtree]

Irving Shillingford scored 120 against Australia in Guyana in the 1970s.

Irvine died last year. Wiki says Grayson was his cousin.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Wasn't expecting Woakes to pick one up with the old ball.

[mikesiva]

Irving Shillingford scored 120 against Australia in Guyana in the 1970s.

Irvine died last year. Wiki says Grayson was his cousin.

Ah yes!

Hodge lbw Woakes for 120.

[Arthur Crabtree]

From his stats, looks like Kevin Sinclair can bat.

[mikesiva]

From his stats, looks like Kevin Sinclair can bat.

IMHO Sinclair is a better batsman than bowler. He should come in before Alzarri.

I can't recall the last time West Indies scored more than 300 in a day's play!

[Arthur Crabtree]

Six overs not bowled

WI day. Should get a decent lead here.

[Durhamfootman]

Wood bowling 14.1 overs doesn't look good

unless it's a scorecard error

[Arthur Crabtree]

BBC report suggests cramp.

[sussexpob]

I'm not a wood fan as everyone will know, but he was unbelievably unlucky today. Beat the bat countless times and served up a historically aggressive hostile spell. Got close to 98moh for 3-4 overs, and every ball was plus 95.

After that he gradually faded to the low 90s and then to fast medium. And the got injured.

Felt very Mark Wood

[Durhamfootman]

I love fast bowling, me. For me, the contest between bat and genuinely rapid, hostile bowling is more thrilling than just about anything else in test cricket

[Durhamfootman]

I haven't watched any highlights since day one of the first test (and I only watched that because I haven't seen Atkinson before), but I'll watch today's

[sussexpob]

I love fast bowling, me. For me, the contest between bat and genuinely rapid, hostile bowling is more thrilling than just about anything else in test cricket

Brett Lee was always guilty of what I call "yorker-bouncer mode"... and Mark Wood is the same. The quickest bowlers need to bowl a fraction fuller, and hit the stumps... most of the time Wood is wasting energy testing air. But as I say, he did beat the bat several times, and was unlucky not to get a wicket or 2

[alfie]

Wood really did crank it up yesterday - and was extremely unlucky not to get rewarded (Beat the bat some 19 times with balls not just fast but very well directed ) Was certainly the pick of the bowlers and ironic he was the only one with nothing in the wicket column. Hopefully just cramp and precautionary halt late in the day as they'll be needing him today - not much for the bowlers in a strip that looked just about perfect for batting on day two.

From a "good for Test cricket " perspective this was a great day : Two West Indian bats playing so well and dragging their team back into the contest , after the dismal performances at Lord's. After the way they shocked Australia at the 'Gabba a few months ago , signs of life in the Islands after a rather gloomy period. Whether the economics will allow a serious resurgence we will have to wait and see...

England's plans to produce a new and youthful bowling attack are obviously in their early stages (although it probably didn't matter much who was bowling in those conditions - was always going to be hard work). Atkinson found the going a lot tougher than that astonishing Lord's debut effort ; and Bashir , while showing some promise , visibly tired as the day went on and you have to wonder if he is going to be able to handle the lone spinner role in home conditions. The fact that he is a batting rabbit also makes things a bit tricky for him ; but will see how he goes in the second innings.

Pitch should remain benign so West Indies have a real chance to get a lead and apply pressure ; but they have to negotiate a new ball first. At least we can be sure the paying spectators will have something to watch over the weekend as long as the weather doesn't take a sudden turn for the worse.

Question for stats : when was the last time an England team won a Test Match without either Broad or Anderson on the field ? If West Indies can continue their good performance we might have to wait a little longer for the follow up to that

[sussexpob]

Question for stats : when was the last time an England team won a Test Match without either Broad or Anderson on the field ? If West Indies can continue their good performance we might have to wait a little longer for the follow up to that

I already read the Wisden article about it in the last few days, so I know the answer. But I leave someone else to guess.

Hopefully just cramp and precautionary halt late in the day as they'll be needing him today - not much for the bowlers in a strip that looked just about perfect for batting on day two.

As he went off mid-over, I am guessing the umpire will impose some penalty time for when he can come back to bowl. I think its 30 minutes that is usually automatically added as a minimum, so he shouldn't be opening up this morning.

England's plans to produce a new and youthful bowling attack are obviously in their early stages (although it probably didn't matter much who was bowling in those conditions - was always going to be hard work). Atkinson found the going a lot tougher than that astonishing Lord's debut effort ; and Bashir , while showing some promise , visibly tired as the day went on and you have to wonder if he is going to be able to handle the lone spinner role in home conditions. The fact that he is a batting rabbit also makes things a bit tricky for him ; but will see how he goes in the second innings.

In fairness to Bashir he hasn't bowled a single over in a month, and before that had hardly bowled all season before going to Worcs on loan for a few games. So I can understand why he may have tired out.

He has taken 7/500 over the season, which is not great. I'd prefer to have seen Bashir working on his game in county cricket then trying to learn in the test team...