Two Winters and One Summer of English Cricket and Continued Adventures

[Logie66]

Day 3 - Second Session

Play resumes once more, the temperature is still rising, just no real breeze on the gound or in the stands today.  Harmison and Flintoff have been on and off all day so far, rumour is that they had a meal together last night at the Beach restaurant, could it be a coincidence !! Not eaten there myself yet, might stay clear  

Hinds and Sarwan keep the Windies innings going, it"s all gone bit quiet and and not much action, the batsmen are getting on top.



Sarwan is continuing his from from the first test, not in too much bother and accumulating the runs, slowly but surely.  The Sarwan fifty and the Windies 200 almost arrive at the same time, but the crowd have to provide applause twice, too much energy in this heat.

Time for a change of scenery as a couple of us wander up to the back of the stand to find a bit of breeze, and that does the trick, we"ve got a wicket   Flintoff has Hinds caught behind by Prior.  In comes Chanderpaul, I"m sure he"ll bore the pants off us ! Oh no he won"t young Broad sends him back to the pavilion, good spell young man !!



Sarwan and Nash (he"s an Aussie really) steady the boat and see the Windies through to the tea break, 221-5, England still in with a chance of winning this one.

[Logie66]

Day 3 - Final Session

So the final session of the day, England need to make things happen now and go for the win.  Sarwan continues to keep the scorers busy whilst Nash holds up one end, playing very steady is Nash, not taking any risks.

Sarwan moves through the 70"s, 80"s and into the 90"s he"s starting to accelerate, bound to get his 100 sharpish better get the camera out ready and take a few shots. What a pity, he"s just smashed Swann straight to Flintoff and I"ve got it  



No sooner have we sat down, Ramdin is out first ball, full toss and he punches it straight back to Swann, thank you very much !! Windies reeling 251-7, so it"s a hat trick ball for Swann, who has four wickets now, can he make it five and a hat trick to boot ?



A small appeal, but Taylor survives the hat trick ball.

England take the new ball immediately at 80 overs, Anderson and Broad are used as Harmison and Freddie are still under the weather by the looks of it.  Nash and Taylor putting up some resistance and surviving the new ball so far.  Don"t think this was the plan !!

Strauss then summons Freddie, he needs some inspiration and someone to break this partnership, the Barmy Army start singing Super Freddie Flintoff.



With his second ball Freddie gets Nash caught at slip, we needed that. Next over Swann traps Benn LBW, that"s 5 wickets for him, a great effort, Windies 279-9, one more to get.

Freddie wraps it all up as Taylor top edges a pull shot and he takes the catch himself.

England decide not to enforce the follow on, understandable after a long warm day in the field and two of your bowlers not feeling too well !! If only everyone was firing on all cylinders today might have been different !!

England face a difficult 7 overs before the close of play, Strauss goes to Edwards who bowled very aggressively this evening and was even trying to intimidate the batsmen, shame he didn"t try that on the first couple of days.

So tomorrow, all to play for, hopefully Harmison and Flintoff will recover quickly so the bowling attack is back to full strength.  I do know that it will be difficult for us to see a result tomorrow, which is a shame as we are missing the fifth day, should only be one winner, can the Windies hold out for a draw we will have to see what happens tomorrow.

Time for a cool down and a few beers, blimey do I need them  

[duke3016]

I am a convert and it"s your fault -- you bring it alive -- how the feck do you get the pictures at the right time -- awesome

[Logie66]

Looks like it"s going to be another hot one at the ARG, not sure I"ll be able to sit in the front row today as yesterday was so damn hot !!  

Hopefully Harmison and Flintoff will be feeling better this morning and will be able to contribute 100% to the bowling attack when England declare.  Talking of declarations, with a 311 lead I would expect England to bat another 45 overs, pushing the lead out to 500 before asking the Windies to bat again. Whatever Strauss does I"m sure he"ll be criticised, always the case with declarations.

Anyway, better head off to catch the bus for my last day at the ARG today.

[Logie66]

[Logie66]

Day 4 - First Session

England resume on 31-1, Anderson and Cook walking out to face the Windies attack, we wonder what we will get this morning.  The body language of the West Indies team doesn"t look right, are they all concerned with the money that Alan Stanford invested for them  

Cook and Andersen keep the scoreboard ticking over, a few cries from the stands for the batsmen to get on with it, a bit harsh the Windies bowlers and making it difficult for them.  Anderson finally departs, he seems to be hearing the cries from the stands and starts having a few swipes of the ball, he gets a nick and is caught behind, having been dropped a couple of times by Gayle, this one goes to the keeper and it"s snapped up.

Shah comes out and looks to score quickly, he has a brief innings, which includes one big six, a crack on the head and his middle stump out the ground, once again the action shot hero captures a few more for your enjoyment  





Pieterson joins Cook and the pair see England through to lunch, Cook completes his second fifty of the match.  A fairly profitable morning session, 104 runs coming from it, the England boys would have been happy with that at the start.

[Logie66]

Day 4 - Second Session

After lunch we expect the batting to be more entertaining, Pieterson especially should enjoy this, he loves to entertain the crowd.  Cook departs quite quickly after reaching 50, plays a strange shot and the ball shoots up in the air and it"s an easy catch.

Collingwood strides out and once more takes the initiative and out scores his partner once more, Pieterson at this point is playing his switch hit to virtually every ball bowled to him by the spinners, seems he just wants to have fun  



Eventually the switch hit is his downfall as he gets an edge, Prior comes out to join Colly, must be something still wrong with Flintoff.  Colly finally trys one too many swipes at the ball and is clean bowled, quick fire 34 including one big six.



Broad comes in ahead of Freddie and departs quickly run out, Freddie then appears and quickly departs again, getting a pair in this Test, poor Freddie !!  Prior and Harmison then have a who can hit the biggest six competition and Strauss finally declares, England lead by 503 runs, can we bowl the Windies out  

[Logie66]

Day 4 - Second Session (cont)

So, England need to bowl out the Windies in 4 and a half sessions, will they do it.  The opening attack is Anderson and Broad, Freddie and Harmison are obviously still not right, might be a struggle to make a break through, if only these two were firing on all cylinders  

Gayle and Smith play much more cautiously than normal, Gayle in particular is very restrained leaving more than he is playing, are both of these batsmen going to be able to curb there natural instincts, shot playing can be the downfall of the Windies batsmen, so we"d like to see a few more shots gentlemen please  



First hour negotiated without to much difficulty, Windies 32-0 at tea.  The score is rather unimportant now, just the wickets column, need to see it ticking over.

[Logie66]

Day 4 - Final Session

So the final session starts, this will be our last as due to the schedule we are departing for Barbados in the morning and will not be able to watch anymore if the match continues into day 5    

The session commences in much the same vain, not to much shot making from the batsmen and not much help from the wicket for the bowlers.  Harmison is bowling well, but nothing seems to be happenning, he then wraps Smith on the pads and the whole team appeal, Daryl Harper slowly raises his finger, one down another nine to go, come on England !!!



Flintoff comes on to replace Harmison, we could do with some Freddie inspiration right now !! But no, it"s Swann at the other end who get"s the next wicket.  Gayle attempts to sweep him and misses the ball, a big cry from the England team and the umpire gives him out, Gayle doesnt look to happy with that decision and looks back at the umpire as he walks off, the crowd shout Cheerio to him once more  



After three overs Freddie is off, he"s obviously not fit, could be a nail in our coffin that !! Broad comes on to replace him and in his first over he gets Hinds, what an awful shot   Hitting the ball straight down Shah"s throat.  We said we needed more shot making from the batsmen, a few more of those please  

So it"s Sarwan and Chanderpaul at the wicket, the feeling is that we get one of these out and that should just about be enough to win it, will we be able to get one of them tonight.



Sarwan continues his form from the first innings and isn"t giving the England bowlers a chance, Chanderpaul is being Chanderpaul, a scruffy looking batsmen who can hang around and around, we don"t want him doing that for to long !!  They see the Windies through to the close of play, England need 7 more wickets to win.

Might be a struggle but hopefully they can pull it off and level the series after the embarrassing defeat in Jamaica.  Also talk of some rain around tomorrow, let"s hope cricket is the winner and not the weather.

[Logie66]

So the Antigua leg of my tour is nearly over, flying to Barbados in the morning.  What can I say to sum up Antigua.

Well, unfortunately it appears to be an Island in turmoil at the moment, currently an Election campaign is underway and some not too nice confrontations between the party"s being reported in the local papers.  Alan Stanford also seems to have shocked the Island, could this have a dire affect on the Island, we will have to wait and see.

One thing I know, I"m leaving a beautiful Island that had to endure the embarrassment of the "2nd Test" and then pulled out all the stops for the "3rd Test". The ARG what a place to go and watch Test cricket, I hope it sees some more Test matches and that Antigua isn"t punished for the sorry state of the Viv Richards Stadium.  Hopefully things can only get better from here, goodbye Antigua  

[tumblet]

Quality stuff

Thread keeps on delivering..

Enjoy

[Logie66]

Just about to head off for the airport and catch the flight to Barbados, a fair bit of cloud about hopefully any rain will hold off and England will complete the win.  I can"t see the Windies holding out all day if we have a full days play.

Will be hoping for cricket on the TV and Internet access at the hotel later.

England FTW  

[Logie66]

The flight from Antigua to Barbados was delayed this morning, due to a downpour in Antigua, at this point it wasn"t looking good for the cricket, very dark over Antigua and lots of precipitation coming out of the sky !!!!

Flight took about 1 hour 30 minutes, a very noisy two propeller plane, smallest I"ve ever flown in, although not to bad and got to see some great sights of the Islands out of the window.

Landed safely, although it soon transpired that not all of the group have their cases, thankfully mine arrived.  At this point we all had to wait for those without cases to fill out forms, another delay.  Finally got to the hotel and got checked in, not a bad view from the room.



It was then to a room to huddle round a TV and watch the test, oh the pain, I managed to get a wicket everytime I went for a ciggie, well nearly. When Ramdin went we thought we had the win !!



It has to be well played to the Windies for holding out, if only it hadn"t rained !!  Well Internet connection sorted, so regular updates will be seen.  Six days of leisure now to the next test.  Got to rush battery fading fast, till the next post.

[Logie66]

Battery fully charged now and a bit more about the journey from Antigua, two of the Welsh contingent arrived at Barbados without there suitcaes, a couple of others were also affected, all blaming me because I had excess baggage and paid t have my case on the plane, oh well, at least I have a change of clothes.  If any of the Welsh are reading this is, it"s Dave and Tux who have no luggage.

We all took advantage of upgrading to All-Inclusive when checking in, Dave, one of the Welsh contingent negotiated a $40 a day rate, normally $50, so we can now drink and eat oursleves silly for 13 days, probably a lot of drinking, the cocktail list is being worked through  

Tomorrow we will discover a bit more about the place we are staying in Barbados.

[Logie66]

It"s been a very lazy day in Barbados, after a later than usual night tasting the delights of the cocktail list most of us had a reasonable lie in this morning.  The weather has been glorious and I have made most of the beach today.

This afternoon we saw a Virgin 747 and a BA flight come in, a few more English supporters arrived at the hotel this afternoon and a few more All-Inclusive deals appear to have been purchased, apparently the hotel are getting in first so that no more deals can be struck, we did well yesterday  

The missing cases have still not arrived and the two Welsh guys will start to fester soon, having to wear the same clothes for three days won"t be good  

The local brew in Barbados is Banks Lager, to be honest anything cold and chilly is going to go down well   but I have to say again, not a bad beer.

Well, time to get cleaned up and enjoy the delights of the restaurant and pool side bar again, it"s tough waiting for the next Test  

P.S. Duke, any scientific studies required in Barbados