Robbored

I appreciate that there are no definite explanations to how/why a ball will swing or not but surely the colour shouldn't make the slightest difference and yet we saw the pink ball doing all sorts as the lights kicked it. The Sky commentators were as amazed by its antics saying that it must be because it's pink.....

At Edgbaston under lights the pink ball is behaving differently to a red or white ball would in the same conditions. My question is - why if only the colour is different do they vary so much? Surely any cricket ball of the same make should react the same regardless the colour?

No they're not and seemingly unable to offer any serious challenge to England. Leaderless as well. Its a sorry state of affairs.

Well they don't seem to know what they're doing. New ball available, lights on and they don't take it but continue with their fourth seamer who gets injured after three deliveries to be replaced by spin............ Windies are a bit of a shambles.

Broad was saying on Sky Sports how much he's looking forward to playing with a pink ball but says that it goes soft quicker than a red one. This might be a dumb thought but if it's only the colour of the ball that's different why should it go softer more quickly? And.........why do we need day/night test matches in England? We have a long dusk compared to other countries. Our test matches are very well supported so attracting crowds isn't so important as other test match countries.

England have struggled to find an opening partner for Cook so why not give Stoneman a chance? The Windies arent the force they once were and England should beat them despite the introduction of the pink ball under lights.

Lets hope so. He was a half pissed and mouthy git and blocking people's view which led to him getting the shotgun verbals from the women behind me. Fair play to her.

A 3-1 series win. Where are the England critics now? Moeen bags another 5 for.......25 wickets in the series. Well done England!

Great innings from Bairstow shame about him not reaching his hundred...........

Michael holding said earlier about Jimmy hitting a six from his own end...............

Just arrived home from Neville Rd. Somerset at least 25 runs short of a competitive score. Glos got there easily. We unfortunately had a bunch of pissed up gasheads sat a bit further down and one of them, a big fat guy was a bloody nuisance by standing up and showing off to his mates. Eventually some women behind me gave him both barrels of verbal. That shut him up.

I didn't know that. My buddy got the tickets and I was expecting to be in a temporary stand. I'm wondering where we'll be now........there's five us so I hope we can all be in same area.

There was me thinking I'd come up with an original...............

Why was my thread merged? The title was the funny bit!

Gotta be worth its own thread.....

Maybe it's just the Somerset media that are speculating............ Ive certainly not seen anything on local tv or in the Post.

Very impressive win by England especially after the second test defeat. They bounced back tremendously. Cook first innings of 88 set the game up perfectly and Roland-Jones five for created the massive first inngs lead. The Moeen Ali hatrick on the 100th Oval test match to win the game was magical. The first hat trick for a spinner in a test since 1938. Truly remarkable.

SA 117-4 at the close. Good performance from England after losing the las test.. Elgar the crucial wicket tomorrow. Get him early and it could be over by lunch.

Shortage of negative remarks during this test.........

He did get out to a top, low catch. That said he should have left the delivery.

Cook was left out of the one day side because it was felt he lacked the instincts to play aggressive shots. He took umbrage at that decision. No doubt that he's a top opening batsman tho but unfortunately he's the only one currently that can open. Trying to find someone to open with him is a real issue for England. From memory - Compton, Trott, Ballance and Jennings have all struggled in one way or another. There maybe others that I've forgotten as well. Any team will struggle if they find themselves 2 or 3 down before lunch.

Just said on Sky Sports that England have lost 7 of their last 10 test matches.......... I didn't realise it was that grim.

Add to that a deterioration of the wicket and you have a SA levelling the series. If England can scrape a draw I'll be amazed,

That could apply to the City of last season................

I have split views on this post..... I agree with the first comment but not with the last one. In the Rabada case - his ban is quite right in my view. The "send off " he gave was an abusive one and he has a history of similar antics in other first class cricket. The ICC can't be seen to be inactive and had to act and send out a clear message to uphold the "spirit of the game".