Two Winters and One Summer of English Cricket and Continued Adventures

[Logie66]

I have arrived safely in Trinidad, took an absolute age to get checked-in to the hotel.  One bonus I have complimentary Internet access for the whole of my stay, nice little bonus !!

Weather pretty atrotious and Port of Spain is not the most beautiful place in the world, you would only come for the cricket   Very industialised although surrounded by some hills that have been covered in mist all afternoon, we will be lucky to have a Test match without any rain delays.

Hotel has a revolving restaurant on the 14th floor, allowing a panoramic view of the industrial areas spent the afternoon on the 14th floor having a few drinks waiting for our rooms to become available, finally got them about 5 o"clock.

Looks like we will be keeping safe in numbers tonight as we will attempt to go out as a group for those that are interested.  Have already risked crossing the road without using a taxi and it"s been ok  

[Logie66]

Woke up to a bit of sunshine this morning and Port of Spain certainly lloks more appealling with a few rays coming down.  It is surrounded by tree covered hills and is much nicer on the eye than yesterday.

A day of leisure today and after breakfast, in the revolving restaurant, I made my way down to the pool and have been laid out chilling for most of the day. 

So the final test starts at the Queens Oval tomorrow and England need a result ! Otherwise my first tour will be a defeat.  I can"t see any other selection than the five proper bowlers this time as England need to win, the local talk in the papers is that the pitch will deliver a result, so England need to go fo it and lose 2-0 if they have to.

My team for the test:

Strauss, Cook, Shah, Pieterson, Collingwood, Prior, Broad, Swann, Anderson, Harmison, Panesar

So five front line bowlers including two specialist spinners.

England FTW and a tied series, please  

[Logie66]

[Logie66]

Weather looking promising this morning, nice and sunny at the moment. Let"s hope today stays like this, looking forward to finding out the team and enjoying the days play.

[Swinebag]

My team for the test:

Strauss, Cook, Shah, Pieterson, Collingwood, Prior, Broad, Swann, Anderson, Harmison, Panesar

So five front line bowlers including two specialist spinners.

not a bad prediction Don

lets hope Khan gives us a chance of getting those 20 wickets.

It is harsh on Bopara and Ambrose, but I think England have the right side for this particular match

[Logie66]

Slight technical hitch yesterday with the day 1 update for Trinidad, I met a friend of a friend at lunch and then we had a couple of cans of Stag.

Ok, I admit it I was drunk and in no fit state to do the blog   Atmosphere at the ground was superb yesterday.  Weather looking ok this morning so hopefully another full days play.

Full updates on 1st and 2nd day will be posted tonight  

[duke3016]

FTW

[Logie66]

Trinidad Day 1 - Pre-Match

At the start of this test the players marched out on to the pitch followed by an entourage for Brian Lara, the main pavilion was to be renamed after one of Trinidad"s favourite son"s.  A small speach was made by Lara followed by a brief minutes silence for those that lost their lives during the terrorist attacks in Pakistan.  Once complete, Lara and the President of Trinidad unveiled the new name on the Pavilion.



We were now ready for the start and the Queens Park Oval looked beautiful in the sunshine with the surrounding hills for a back drop, another glorious ground to watch cricket  

[Logie66]

Trinidad Day 1 - First Session

England one the toss and decided to bat, the fifth time that England had batted first in the series.  Strauss once more continued where he had left off, stroking the bowlers for a couple fours.  Cook wasn"t looking as confident as he had in Barbados and got an early snick on a delivery from Powell, the earliest we had seen a wicket in each of the tests.  Does this bode well for a result ? England 26-1.




Shah strides to the crease and takes an age to get of the mark, once he gets a streaky single off about the nineteenth ball he had faced, he opens up and strikes two lovely fours that should boost his confidence.



Strauss continues his good form and starts to build a partnership with Shah taking the team to lunch without any more mishaps, altougth a run out is always possible with Shah at the wicket, he"s not the best judge of a run !

Lunch England 74-1.

[Logie66]

The Lunch Break

Meet up with Lou a friend of an ex-work colleague who is in Trinidad for 3 days, we have a quick photo with Tuffers and then head off with her friend Klaus to the grass in front of the stands for a few beers.



The beer and sun during the afternoon would be my downfall  

[Logie66]

Trinidad Day 1 - Second Session

Having moved down from the stands to the grass, the angle of view was square to the wicket and much closer.

Strauss and Shah continued to build the partnership, moving past 50 in the first over after lunch. Strauss again looking in fine fettle and reaches his 15th Test fifty.



At this point some entertainment arrived, the Digicel girls, dancing and prancing around in front of us accompanied by a band of drums and symbols.



After being entertained by the girls and a few of the crowd who tried to wiggle there booties, but weren"t quite as sexy to look at   We noticed that Shah was having some treatment and eventually wandered off hurt, apparantly with cramp in his hands, better go and have some salt tablets matey !

KP wandered out and was quickly given out LBW, the decision was challenged and KP got a reprieve, would he make the most of it, well actually he wouldn"t.  Upon reaching 10 he was bowled by Hinds, you can"t challenge that one KP !



England 156-2 and that"s tea.

[Logie66]

Trinidad Day 1 - Tea Break

So being sat in the sun we have been knocking back the beers and have now consumed a fair number.  I go off to buy some more and struggle to navigate the steps correctly coming back down the stand and complete a dive head first down the concrete steps.

I manage to save the cans without them being damaged   but have a few grazes for my fall, laughing at myself rather a lot along with a few of the locals.  More beer required to numb the pain  

[Logie66]

[Logie66]

So after taking it easy on the beers today   I"ve managed to get the day one update on, off out to dinner shortly and will be completing day two for the morning.

Been a glorious day today and a few more action shots bagged  

[Logie66]