31-2 now



And as for dropping Anderson for Harmison and Sidebottom...doesnt surprise me one bit as the selectors have proved themselves incompetent for years now...get rid of arguably our best bowler these past 12 months for someone who a) is notoriously poor away from home and b) someone who hasnt played for about 4-5 months...excellent stuff

Is Bell still in?

It's come from me, he's not a number three in my mind, not ideally. I'm not disputing that he's played there, he only averaged 30 odd in First Class cricket for Middlesex playing there last year. In my opinion, he's an ideal number five but he's too twitchy & jerky at the crease for a number three. He's so intense, I'm not convinced with the ball moving around when your new at the crease it's ideal for Owais. I have to say, I'd find a place for him to be honest, I think his time is now, if he keeps getting overlooked, it wouldn't surprise me if he drops down the pecking order, as you'll get the clammer from the media for the likes of Bopara to be included if he ups his game.

If It was my England team, I'm a nailed on Key at three, Shah five man. Big thanks to Colly & Bell for their contributions, every time you think this though, Colly pulls a score out of the bag, Bell may well do today, although it's more likely he'll get out for 51-60.

He scored over 1,000 runs at an average of 42.16 last season...whether he got all of these batting at number 3 I don't know.

I know what you mean about him being twitchy and intense etc but I seriously think he'd do a good job for us there if he's given a decent chance...but it seems that Vaughan is more or less guaranteed the number 3 spot if he even thinks about getting some runs next season which would mean Bell would move back down to 5 or 6 and Shah won't get a chance at all.

And if only Bell had got 50-60 today too!!!
He's clearly a talented batsman but the problem is one of concentration and mentality - I've said it before and I'll say it again, I don't think he's right for top class test cricket because of this/these flaws.

Pietersen is just different class, Freddie would be just as good a batsmen if he wasn't a bowler as well

Pietersen gets himself out going for a glory shot.

I'm shocked.

To be fair I think he got carried away after the previous 3

I take it your a KP knocker, and I must admit to having a little groan at his dismissal, but when push comes to shove, he's Englands best batsmen by a billion miles, was looking to dominate a bowler than an hour before looked unplayable and if your creaming your tweeds like I was at the way he went from 83 to 97 in 3 shots, then when he plays that next shot, you can have no complaints.

I just want Flintoff to knuckle down now, he's done the hard work, he should just bat out the rest of the day, finish 45 n.o. and do it all again tomorrow. I always fear when he's been batting with KP, and done the second fiddle thing well, when KP departs Flintoff feels like he has to take that mantle and entertain.

Really impressed with that Benn, lets hope Monty extracts the same turn & bounce. I nice 5'fer for Monty and his poor stints in India will be forgotten and I'll dust off my 'Montys Cricket Madness'.

When he puts himself before the team, then yes.

Last I saw cricket was still a team sport, and the team wasn't in a position where an unnecessary dismissal could be forgiven.

He was dominating the bowler but he didn't have to prove it by going for a 6 from every ball. If we were 400/5 then it might be different.

That's your angle, there's no way somebody like me would sway you from it.

From my point of view, he got to 97 dominating in the main, it's by playing the way that he does that he's got the stats that he has, add to that it's his style that's made him pretty much feared the world over, I just wouldn't want to start giving him orders to curb what he does naturally, otherwise he might not have got say his Ashes winning 156 as he'd have been content just occupying the crease say. He recognised that scoring at 2.15 runs per over in Test Cricket on a spinning track, the game isn't moving along, he decided to change that and to be fair since his dismissal Flintoff & Prior to a degree have kept this up.

I've more issue with the likes of Colly scratching around for 65 balls for 15 then playing a crap shot.

236/5 end of day one it could of been worse. If we can survive the new ball in the morning we could end up in a decent position.

From 96 for 4 too.

It's always bloody dangerous with Enlgand thinking what we could get, we could easily be 260 all out. You'd think, If Prior & Flintoff see us through the first hour we'll be fine, 400 perhaps, they were making batting look very easy towards the end. Looks like a wicket that Broad could get runs on too, stay nice & tall with not too much lateral movement.

On the subject of Flintoff, he rode his luck, but it's probably the most sensible innings that I've seen him play for Engand in 4 years, and one that makes me believe that he can still be a world class all rounder. It was exactly what was needed, fantastic. Prior too, looked very classy.

KP scored more than the rest of the top 5 put together and we still moan about him, sounds crazy really.

Ended up a dect day for England, if we can get to 350ish then it could prove to be a good score. Regardless of how KP got out his knock was superb.

Bell could be gone if he gets no runs in the 2nd inngs.

The thing that annoys me about people knocking KP is he scored almost double the runs that Cook, Strauss, Collingwood and Bell did yet there are not people chastising them for their shots. Without his knock the team would be in trouble and the WI would be in with a great chance of taking the first test.

Okay KP can get a bit carried away at times but in the last few years when a top bowler comes on England fans often moan about how we let a bowler dominate and the scoring rate disappears, so KP does exactly what we want and takes the fight to the bowler and then we moan about him getting out, it makes no sense.

If he wants to be recognised as a great then I agree he needs to go on more when he is in and accumulate the runs for both him and the side as when people look through the record books people won't take into account how he scored the runs but more how many he scored.

Monty would be a world class all-rounder if he could bat like Ricky Ponting

I would say it's advantage England, the slow pitch and even slower outfield add at least 30 on a normal day. It's very hard to score quickly and I'm not sure Windies (bar Chanderpaul) have the patience to build an innings. I Expect at least a 100 lead for England after the first innings.

Flintoff I think silenced a few doubters with his glacially slow unbeaten 43. I didn't think he'd last at all against Benn but fair play to him for sticking around, it was needed.

300 still remains the target with Broad to come.

Hopefully, Broad can continue his good form with the bat. It's good that we have an extra batsman in the side with him.

He has been pretty consistent too so far, he looks very comfortable playing against pace or spin.

Hopefully if the current two can keep going and Broad and the tail chip in too we might be able to post around 350 which could prove to be a decent score.

Well Broad's gonna have to do the business now with a new ball.

Flintoff lashes one out on the on side and gets caught.

242-6

Broad goes and unless the tail can wag with Prior 300 looks distant.

269-7 now - Prior had got his foot down a bit now and reached fifty.

311/8 at lunch.

decent effort from numbers 4 down, could have been a decent total with a contribution from the top 3.

Our attack looks pretty toothless, Broad in particular, and in fact Panesar who isn't extracting the same spin as Benn did. Is the pitch changing or are we just bowling bad lengths & bad lines ?

(Don't reply to this when the W.Indies collapse to 150 All Out)

We're struggling badly here. This is a great postion for Chanderpaul to come in next.