A busy year for England with the World Cup and the Ashes at home in the summer, but starting today with the 1st Test in the West Indies. Windies made a good start after winning the toss, but Stokes has chipped in with a couple of wickets, including Bravo with the plummest LBW you're ever likely to see. 128 for 3.
The collapse of West Indies test cricket is a real shame both for them and for cricket in general. But England have still only ever won 3 series over there and the last time was in 2003/4. If this team really is coming together they need to win this tour conclusively.
I was dipping in and out of this match as the pitch seemed to be a bit flat and not much was happening. I sat down for dinner with Mrs Nines this evening and the score was something like 240 odd for four and decided to watch a pre-recorded episode of The Chase. I've just had a quick check on the score and it's 264/8. That escalated quickly.
I'll try to catch up with the final session of the day and the last four wickets later. I know the selections for this test were a bit of a nightmare for Root as he had so many options but dropping the legend that is Stuart Broad seemed odd.
Ashes will be a joke this year. If you don't win 5-0 I will be amazed as we are crap Sent from my Lenovo TB-7304F using Tapatalk
Good last session for England yesterday but going all Boycottish will have to wait until both sides have had a bat before saying what a decent score on this pitch is...…. But please can we get to 100 odd for 1 wicket instead of 50/4 would make a nice change...
A lot of pressure on our openers, with the wicket seeming to have livened up towards the end of the first day. Burns is unproven, and Jennings, who did well in Sri Lanka, is a much better player of spin than he is of pace bowling.
Hetmyer nurturing the strike and scoring at a regular rate, now WIndies edging towards 300 which is always a challenging score to overcome.....
Hetmyer looks like quite a find, but Anderson has got Joseph now. Another 5-for for Jimmy. Edit....... and Stokes wraps it up, 289 all out.
Jennings gone for 17, I think he's better playing spin than seam or pace and can't see him playing in The Ashes. Bairstow should open instead of him.
I think that, too (see post 10). As you say, it's hard to see him playing in the Ashes, so with Burns (an ugly player, if you ask me) yet to prove himself, we're struggling for openers again. Maybe Bairstow is the answer for one of the places, but we might need another. Jason Roy and James Vince must be possibilities.
44/3 Bairstow gone......ah well so much for hoping to be 100 for 1 (Post 9).....normal service resumed.