Two Winters and One Summer of English Cricket and Continued Adventures

[Logie66]

Day 2 - First Session

We get to the ground nice and early, crowd not so large today the locals have to work !! Everyone is hoping that KP is going to produce some fireworks and entertain the England masses with a swashbuckling innings.

Play get"s underway and nightwatchman Jimmy Anderson is the early casualty, well done Jimmy you work was completed last night protecting KP.  Paul Collingwood strides out, he needs an innings !!

Colly takes the game to the Windies bowlers and is the more aggressive, KP seems to go in his shell a bit and Colly keeps the momentum, dispatching the bowlers to the boundary at will. KP plays a delightful pull for four, shot of the morning.



Kp and Colly see us through to lunch with no further loss, 90 runs from the session and Collingwoods fifty in the final over, good knock of just 77 balls. He outpaced KP  

[Logie66]

Day 2 - Second Session

Play gets going after lunch and it"s spin from both ends, the England batsmen don"t seem to have any problems and the runs keep ticking over, 400 is passed and KP reaches his 50, a reserved knock from KP today but he"s still contrbuting and playing for the team.

Gayle decides to shake it up a bit and brings the Windies best bowler Taylor back on, first ball he sends KP packing and back to the stands, appeared to keep a bit low but Taylor makes the break through, here comes Freddie, there goes Freddie  



His stumps are everywhere but in the ground, oh well, we"ll have to look forward to his bowling later !! So a mini collapse and we"re 405-6, Matt Prior joins Colly.

Prior and Colly steady the boat, Prior takes the lead and dominates scoring and the strike. Colly takes a bit of a breather and watches from the other end. Prior goes just before tea after a 62 partnership of which he scored 39, good effort that.  Young Broad joins Colly and they see the game through to tea, England are 482-7 and looking in a strong position now.

We expect some fireworks after tea as England are expected to score quickly before declaring, giving themselves a few overs at the Windies this evening.

[APAT]

This is great Don, sounds like the trip has been rescued!  You"ll have to do an honourary APAT live update later in the season, to keep your hand in.  

[Logie66]

Day 2 - Final Session

Broad and Colly resume after tea and once again Collingwood struggles to get much of the strike, it seems that young Broad has been given counting lessons by Boycott as he takes a single on the last ball of the over on a lot of occassions nicking the strike.

He does make the most of it though, hitting some superb boundaries and gets the run rate up once more, is he going to get to fifty before Colly get"s his hundred.  Don"t count on it, Colly takes an age to get to 90, but once there he rushes through and scores his eighth Test century, another good knock, Chris Gayle must be asking himself why he asked England to bat on this wicket !!



As soon as Colly gets his hundred, Broad departs for 44, great looking innings from the young lad.  Swann strolls to the wicket and starts to have a bit of a bish-bosh, England are after quick runs now, a decleration can"t be far away. Another 37 is added by this pair before Collingwood is caught right on the boundary going for a big hit, Strauss delclares and England have notched up 566 runs.

A good total, but not much in the wicket, will the England bowlers be able to fare any better !!

[Logie66]

[Logie66]

Give Don a commentators job -- very well written -- to a man that is not really fond of the game I am looking forward to these everyday -- keep it up

Duke, many thanks for the kind words.  I"m glad yourself and others are looking forward to the updates everyday.  I"m having a lot of fun writing them and with some fortune getting some good pictures at the right time, was chuffed to get Flintoff"s stumps going everywhere today  

[duke3016]

Give Don a commentators job -- very well written -- to a man that is not really fond of the game I am looking forward to these everyday -- keep it up

Duke, many thanks for the kind words.  I"m glad yourself and others are looking forward to the updates everyday.  I"m having a lot of fun writing them and with some fortune getting some good pictures at the right time, was chuffed to get Flintoff"s stumps going everywhere today  

That picture was class - I was thinking you had a camera trained at all times with unlimited memory to get that one

[Logie66]

This is great Don, sounds like the trip has been rescued!  You"ll have to do an honourary APAT live update later in the season, to keep your hand in.  

Thanks Des, it"s great fun completing it so far, enjoying the number of views and comments being made, just hoping I have similar availability of the Internet when I get to Barbados on Thursday !

[tumblet]

Great updates, keep them coming..

and u better sort the internet out in barbados otheriwise dont bother turning up to an apat event...  

[Logie66]

The sun is just rising up over the small hills behind the hotel and it looks like it"s going to be another cracking day weather wise.  The BBC weather site is reporting a chance of showers again, none were seen yesterday so hopefully they will be wrong once more.

England will be looking to take some quick wickets this morning to have any chance of winning this Test match, for me they need to wrap this game up by close of play tomorrow as we"re flying to Barbados on Thursday and will miss the final day.

Patience is the key for the Windies, if they all come out playing shots this will give England a chance, will they be able to curb there natural instincts and bat this game out for a draw, Chanderpaul is definitely capable of this we"ll have to see about the rest of them.

[duke3016]

[Logie66]

That made me chuckle, downloading pictures, quick beer and ciggie and update on it"s way Duke  

[tumblet]

[Logie66]

Day 3 - First Session

As we left the hotel this morning it was very noticable that the sea in the bay was dead calm, the breeze that has been with us since we arrived has gone, the slight wind that is blowing is from a different direction today.

We get in early and for the second day running we are in the Andy Roberts Stand, myself and the Welsh continigent are on the front row of the upper teir, if any of you are watching on telly, look for the Welsh flag and the five red bodies behind it  

Play get"s underway and one thing was noticable, Freddie didn"t do much warming up and it"s no surprise when he doesn"t open the bowling, Harmison is looking a bit laboured as well, is there something going round the England dressing room ??

Devon Smith and Darren Powell frustrate the England bowlers, Powell in particular is riding his luck, especially from the first over by Anderson. Smith starts dispatching boundary after boundary and is starting to dominate the bowlers.  That is until he has an allmighty heave-ho at Swann and he"s bowled, his team mates are going to be well chuffed with that, what an awful shot !! Well done Swann  



Powell continues to frustrate the England bowlers and it looks like they are running out of ideas when bowling to him, Swann then gets his edge and Collingwood takes a great catch at slip.  Tremendous effort by Powell, came in as nightwatchman and then hangs around for another hour and 45 minutes, scoring 22 runs.

Sarwan and Hinds take the Windies to lunch, 132-3, not the early wickets we were hoping for, need a few more after lunch and quickly.

[Logie66]

The Lunch Break

Just before the lunch break was taken, a pulme of smoke was seen drifting across the ground, with the breeze coming from a different direction the smoke and smells from the BBQ"s are being taken into the stands.  What a gorgeous smell it is too, BBQ Chicken, Sweet and Sour Pork, Hamburgers, just a delightful combination of smells that makes you very hungry  

So off it was to taste some of the food being cooked, decided on a couple of burgers, also decided to try the local hot sauce that was on offer. Blimey the sauce is hot !! The temperature in the ground is the hottest it"s been and I"ve just made myself get up to boiling point with the hot sauce !! Wow  

Other observations at lunch time, Monty doing a lot of practice with the England bowling coaches, Otis Gibson and Mushtaq Ahmed, will he get his place back ? Swann picking up the only two wickets of the morning also won"t help.