England vs India Test Series

Down to Smith to steer us home to a draw!

 

Not when he's thinking of himself batting like someone who is thinking of personal milestones and thinks we can win.

Total brainfart by him when we've a test to try and save.

 

Give over.

 

Tbf he'd been out there a while!

 

Well played India, especially Gill,Pant and Deep! They deserved that first win at Edgbaston!

 

Wiaan Mulder very close to taking Lara’s record.

 

Hope he doesnt do it, i was there when Lara got 400

 

What an experience that must have been. Would have loved to have seen Lara play live nevermind get 400

 

Amazing experience. I'd had a lot of Carib Beer though.

 

Booo! Mulder declares instead of thinking about personal milestones in a test they're going to win anyway. Boring!

 

Bottled it.

 

No draught.

 

Love they fact that he didn't think he deserved to take it. Well played Mulder!

 

The bizarre thing is he’d looked well short of form earlier that series - he hid himself down the order below Ridley Jacobs in the second test at Port of Spain second innings, having been got for a duck by Harmison first innings and not many in the first test either. Out for eight second knock though it was a dodgy lbw decision I recall. Harmison had him on toast all tour. Well, until Antigua.

Just shows how flat the pitch was, plus how great a player and what a brilliant mentality Lara had, for him to go and do that in the fourth test at 3-0 down. He’d got 100 runs from six knocks going into that Antigua game - and had 500 from seven innings with a red inker by the end of it. Incredible.

I was there at Port of Spain for the second test - it was actually the first test match I ever went to, not a bad place to start. It was an early treat for my 21st that was coming a couple of weeks later.

Harmison took five on the first day, and that night was one of the people sent to our hotel as part of the package with Sporting Traveller to attend a bbq: him, Paul Collingwood who was twelfth man, and Troy Cooley the bowling coach.

He went back and got a sixth the following morning to finish their innings - but I’ve no idea how he was awake and standing, never mind running in and bowling at 90mph. A bottle or two of Carib had passed his lips the night prior, let’s put it that way. Bizarrely given he was the non-playing player there Collingwood only had a couple and was propping GBH up on the way out - Cooley was very aloof and didn’t talk to us much but wasn’t shy of the bar either.

It wasn’t all that long ago, or it doesn’t seem it to me yet I accept it was over twenty years ago now - but I doubt that these days you’d be sat talking about football (mainly him whinging that Newcastle hadn’t spent a penny the previous summer or that season) and having a few (many) beers sat round a large table with a test match cricketer who’s in the middle of a game and just taken five wickets that day (and who took 7/12 the week before).

Looking back it was all a bit surreal but I didn’t really know whether that was normal or not at the age of 20 and on my first cricket tour - I just had a good drink and got on with it.

Out host for the tour was Norman Gifford, old left arm spinner - he started by saying we shouldn’t be talking about football on a cricket tour, (to be quite impolitely told “aaah f…ing shut up, Giff” by Harmison) - but ended up leathered on local rum and rambling about how Barrow were conned out of the league in the seventies and that they’d never be back in the league again as ‘they’ wouldn’t allow it! (He was proved wrong years later of course). As well as moaning that the bbq food was swordfish and prawns, not burgers and sausages!

As I say, it was this century - but you’d think the level of professionalism has increased a bit since then. More ice baths than iced beers at the end of day one.

 

Good news that Bumrah will play at Lords.

 

Ha .. figures can say what you want them to say.
I still know I’d rather he didn’t play

 

We'll all be feeling gay after Lords then.

 

Our only change is to take out the leading series wicket taker.

 

Buzzing to see Jofra back in whites.