Edgbaston West Indies test - pink balls

[oldcolner]

Opener Mark Stoneman will make his debut, the 12 th person to open with Cook, Tom Westley and Dawid Malan will hope to grab Ashes places

Jimmy looking for more to get 500 wickets and new pink balls to be used as the game will be day / night starting at 2.

[Altobelli]

England batting are 10 for 0 after one over.

[SERVERNOTRESPONDING]

108 for 2 now 27 overs

[Supersub6]

Cook and Root doing the rescue act ---yet again.

[Altobelli]

I used to watch England when IMO the 3 main opponents were Australia, South Africa and West Indies (now called Windies) Curtley Ambrose and Walsh used to frighten the life out of me let alone the batsman facing them.

Lately the Windies have been having a hard time, ask Michael Holding (whispering death) and he's not a happy bunny putting all the blame on those running them.

I started watching the first few overs but unfortunately it did not hold my attention.

[oldcolner]

Lunch at 4 seems weird!
224-2 is good with Root getting another ton. Stoneman and Westley did little to help their Ashes hopes though.
Cook on 87

[oldcolner]

Close 348-3 so it's looking good.
Cook on 153 Malan on 28
Root bowled for 136.

[exilecanada]

I would think pink balls are better than blue balls.

:D

[Altobelli]

I would think pink balls are better than blue balls.

:D

I suspect your balls will be blue for most of the year living in Canada :)

[exilecanada]

I suspect your balls will be blue for most of the year living in Canada



Admittedly we do have our share of rather nippy weather, along with a plethora of snowfall on occasion. However to put that in perspective, typically we do have lovely warm (in NW England terms, too bloody hot) summers. That beats the h*ll out of constant rain in my book. Not to mention Canada is regularly rated as one of the top places to live in the world. If you’ve never been here, you’re doing yourself a disservice, it’s a great place to live, despite our neighbours south of the 49th parallel.

[oldcolner]

Exile
Have been to st John and Halifax in September and it was very pleasant temp wise. It's constant rain here in Glasgow just now.
Do they play much cricket or is it all baseball.

[oldcolner]

Complaints that colour blind people can't see the pink ball!!
Our players were all checked out first!

[oldcolner]

437-3 Cook gets his fourth double hundred and Malan his first 50
Cook 202 Malan 64
How long will we bat I wonder.

[oldcolner]

Lunch?
449-4 Cook 213 no Malan out for 65. He will be annoyed not to get a ton

Gower reckons we should declare when the lights go on as the ball swung a lot more yesterday in the dark.

[oldcolner]

I'm talking to myself again!
England collapse from 505-5 to 518-8 with Cook out for 243 and declare.

Jimmy bags Braithwaite and thy are 13-1 at tea.

[Altobelli]

Sounds like a mismatch to me Colner.

[exilecanada]

Exile
Have been to St John and Halifax in September and it was very pleasant temp wise. It's constant rain here in Glasgow just now.
Do they play much cricket or is it all baseball?

Cricket is very much a minor sport here, although I understand we do have a national team. I do miss the heyday of the Lancashire League with top end pros such as Gibbs, Hall, Griffiths, Hunte et al. Good days :)

Baseball is popular, Toronto Blue Jays currently lead MLB in attendance, averaging around 45K/home game. Basketball has become very popular, Toronto Raptors home games are pretty well sold out every game……very expensive tickets. Footy is, and always has been very big here among kids and ****agers, Toronto FC draw well. For obvious reasons Ice Hockey is the big winner, just about all Canadian kids want to make it to the NHL. Toronto Maple Leafs sell out all home games at ridiculous ticket prices, they’re a bad team too, haven’t won the Stanley Cup since 1967. Golf’s big here, Southern Ontario is quite Mecca for golf, many pretty good courses. Short season in Ontario though, late March to late October or so. British Columbia has a longer season, problem is it rains a lot out there, very British like weather. We’ve had 2 Canadian winners on the PGA tour this year, Adam Hadwin and Mackenzie Hughes.

I watched the Celtic Champions League game the other night….raining ‘cats and dogs’, no thanks, I detest rain. There used to be saying on Burnley “If you can see Pendle Hill, it’s going to rain, if you can’t see Pendle Hill….it’s raining”. B)

[oldcolner]

Thanks for the info Exile. Celtic were brilliant but the weather has been awful!!
Yes the good old Lancashire League had some amazing players in the 50s and 60s.
I was surprised they played cricket in Aberdeen , but they took it very seriously with Rohan Kanhai their professional at that time in the early 70s.
It's a bit drier there but colder and shorter summers!

[oldcolner]

Windies collapse on a rain interrupted day to 145-8 of which Blackford has 60

Jimmy has three wickets so far and a run out

[Altobelli]

How's this mismatch going ?

[oldcolner]

Not watched much but they got 168 and followed on now it's 42-2 jimmy gets one, ro Jo the other.

[oldcolner]

60-3 Stokes gets Hope ct Root 4

[oldcolner]

76-4 at tea so could be finished tonight. Brathwaite given not out but reviewed and he's out lbw to Stokes for 40.

[oldcolner]

Blackwood stumped for 12 off Ali
102-5

[oldcolner]

122-8 with Broad passing Bothams 383 test wickets. Not long now

[oldcolner]

137 all out more a whimper than a test.

Jimmy gets 2 so needs 8 more for 500 test wickets
He also has 269 ODI wickets and 18 T20