WI tour of England, Aug 1-Sept 29

[mikesiva]

END OF OVER:50 | 12 Runs 1 Wkt | WI: 356/5 | RR: 7.12

Great effort after the first the initial 3 outs.

Holder last man out for 77 from 62 balls.

Powell 28 not out from 15.

West Indies 356-5.

[badpepper]

Sounds like D/L may be looming. That could hurt WI.

[mikesiva]

Finally a wicket!

Roy out to Joseph for 84.

Joseph gets a second! Bairstow out for 39.

Joseph gets his third. Root out for 14.

Joseph gets his fourth! Morgan continues his poor run. Out for 19.

That's his five fer! Gayle takes a great catch! Billings out for two.

[badpepper]

Looks like England will win by D/L.

[howzdat]

I have lost all interest in the remainder of matches on this tour; the sooner it is over the better as far as I am concerned. In my opinion the ODI leg has been emblematic of why West Indies will remain wallowing amidst the also rans in any of the longer formats of the game. The continued inclusion of the lame Chris Gayle, a self-obsessed, media darling and self-proclaimed "Universe Boss", smacks of indulgence to the detriment of the team moving forward not to mention preferential treatment.

A while back I had opined that West Indies ought to pick the captain from the best eleven cricketers available to which I will add that politically motivated exclusions should no longer hold sway! While I do not think that this will be a certainty to produce better results it will definitely signal that players will be picked on the basis of performance. Once in the team consistency, ability to deliver when it matters and ongoing development ought to be de facto criteria for continued inclusion.

Finally, to whip up a hornets nest, I can't help but be appalled by the blatant different criteria for selection and dropping there appears to be for players not of visibly African descent. in my opinion Chris Gayle, irregardless of how many more runs he will score in a West Indies shirt, has long outlived his usefulness as a cricketer of substance ... but I guess it all depends on one's standards! I don't see how he has a place on a team intent on developing a winning mentality. Marlon Samuels too may also put in the occasional stellar performance but his star has been on the wane for a long time. Continued selection of these players smacks of irresponsible over -indulgence .... or pandering to commercial interests at the expense of moving the team forward.

One day to go!

[mikesiva]

That said, batting wasn't the problem...the guys made 356-5. However, the bowling was absolute crap...and they don't have Bishoo to blame it on this time!

Cummins was once again the worst offender, going at an economy rate of 8.16. They dropped Bishoo, and retained Nurse, who only bowled three overs, and went for an ER of 13!

It's beyond me how every spinner in the region gets a shot, but Nikita Miller continues to be ignored for the 'C' team....

This 'B' team is crap...the only good WI side is the T20 team.

[howzdat]

For me the problem is that the team can lose a game with both bat AND ball and as you point out there hardly appears to be a brain amongst the lot of them. Can't they do mental maths pon the field of play in order to understand the prevailing trend in terms of runs per over?! I agree that on stats alone it is a mystery why Miller can't get a game ... he ain't been out drinking somewhere was he?!

[MarcusGarveyLives]

I would like to commend Evin Lewis for a heroic display of strokeplay and maturity.

He deserved to be on the winning side.

How strange that the England team were aware of the expected arrival of poor weather and increase their run rate accordingly, while our team, apparently with almost as many support staff as players, were not, and brought on a hittable spinner.

It would be useful if someone could explain Marlon Samuels' contribution to the team effort in this match.

[MarcusGarveyLives]

"Much has been made of the return of Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels to West Indies' one-day side but, while they give the batting line-up a stronger appearance, there is one aspect in which they don't improve the team: running between the wickets ..."

Windies dot matrix struggles to keep up with the times (click for analysis)



"Neither of them are keen to put their body on the line to scurry up and down the 22 yards to put pressure on opposition fielders ..."

I note that Samuels' scores to date in he series are: 17, 11 and 1.

[MarcusGarveyLives]

I have lost all interest in the remainder of matches on this tour; the sooner it is over the better as far as I am concerned. In my opinion the ODI leg has been emblematic of why West Indies will remain wallowing amidst the also rans in any of the longer formats of the game. The continued inclusion of the lame Chris Gayle, a self-obsessed, media darling and self-proclaimed "Universe Boss", smacks of indulgence to the detriment of the team moving forward not to mention preferential treatment ...

I think it is now fairly obvious that he was brought back to satisfy the British media and / or the ECB marketing department.

... A while back I had opined that West Indies ought to pick the captain from the best eleven cricketers available to which I will add that politically motivated exclusions should no longer hold sway! While I do not think that this will be a certainty to produce better results it will definitely signal that players will be picked on the basis of performance. Once in the team consistency, ability to deliver when it matters and ongoing development ought to be de facto criteria for continued inclusion ...

Earlier this evening, Professor Hilary Beckles pointed out that for many years West Indies have had to pick their team from the best players available rather than their best players.

...Finally, to whip up a hornets nest, I can't help but be appalled by the blatant different criteria for selection and dropping there appears to be for players not of visibly African descent. in my opinion Chris Gayle, irregardless of how many more runs he will score in a West Indies shirt, has long outlived his usefulness as a cricketer of substance ... but I guess it all depends on one's standards! I don't see how he has a place on a team intent on developing a winning mentality. Marlon Samuels too may also put in the occasional stellar performance but his star has been on the wane for a long time. Continued selection of these players smacks of irresponsible over -indulgence .... or pandering to commercial interests at the expense of moving the team forward.

One day to go!

The selection of Gayle and Samuels for the one-day element of the tour is hardly with a view to the future. Gayle's selection is discussed above. Quite how much he and Samuels are mentoring anyone is anyone's guess. The extent to which selectorial incompetence and confusion is racially motivated is, as always, debateable.