Preview
England ambition: to reach 400, to take advantage of the moments of madness in this mostly placid pitch and win a first innings lead. Breakthrough may be down to the Old Firm of James Anderson, 27, and Stuart Broad, 22. West Indies will rely on their old guys Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
To lunch
Everyone on my side of cricket loves Graeme Swann. He is amusing, talkative, media friendly; and as he showed today he can bat as well as bowl a nifty off break. So what's to dislike. Yet for years the selectors ignored him. By choosing him ahead of Monty Panesar, clearly the better bowler, Flower-Strauss have shown the pattern for future Test teams. So far it's England's Test - as you might expect at Lord's in the late spring.
To tea
Now we all like Swann. He is given the new ball. Perhaps I don't understand this game as well as I ought to after a quarter of a century but it was a move from left field if, well, completely bonkers. Still I guess we all know by now that Strauss is not a Test captain. (By the way, I will deny all this if his England win back the Ashes.) Then along comes Swann two overs before tea and takes two wickets, including Chanderpaul first ball; and England are heading for victory or at least a boost for their morale.
To the close
Swann and Onions - it sounds like a Medieval feast - but it was clearly too much for the West Indies, made to follow-on during the second day. Of course as soon as an England bowler has a success - and five wickets on debut is nothing else - there is an attempt to compare him with the best in the world. Onions is already the new Glenn McGrath but lets give the lad a chance to find wickets on a flat pitch first. Phil Tufnell keeps calling him "a little bit special" and for once that is a precise judgement rather than a cliche.
No comments:
Post a Comment