Robbored

Another 20 runs for another point as well.

Indeed it was. LJ could have played Smith at RB but had faith in Vyner to step up. More first team experience for Zak. I'll bet he's the envy of the younger players....

It's been a good week with the cricket this week. England win the series 2-1 and Somerset beat Warwickshire and Tres bagged a century.

Several of the Windies stars were missing, Gayle and Bravo to name just two. Both have become T20 specialists and are returning for the one T20 game at Durham............ The remains Windies players are improving as the win at Trent Bridge showed but there is lots of unrest within the Windies set up largely because some Windies players feel they're not paid what they think they're worth. Hence several Windies players go where the money is - T20.

Get in! Flint.. Lets hope it's the winner..

9 wicket win. Pretty impressive stuff especially from Stokes and Anderson. 2-1 series win.

7-42 His best ever return. Top drawer stuff,

Atherton just said 24 dropped catches so far...............

England's top order has been fragile for ages. Finding an opener to partner Cook has been a 'mare. The only other world class batsman is Root who likes to come in at 4 so positions 2 and 3 are where the weaknesses are. But.....England do bat way down the order which kinda compensates for the fragile top order. Bairstow and Stokes are capable in the middle order with Moeen after them. Not a bad line up.

I can't agree with you there WttJ. Your comments are very harsh imv. All top batsmen fail at times and yesterday the conditions were ideal for bowling. Both teams struggled to cope with the swinging ball.

Easier conditions. Sunshine, tiring bowlers and the freedom to go for their shots.

Superb from Stokes a sixfer! 3 of them bowled and one caught and bowled. Almost a one man team this innings.

Yeah...........

We'll have to agree to disagree EMB. As for five day tests - ask any test playing cricketer which is the toughest test they face in their professional career and to a man they'll tell you test cricket is the daddy. Its cricket at it purist and finest.

Root wants England to play positive cricket by encouraging a positive mindset in his team. Sure, he could of batted on but with only two wickets left he decided to try and knock off one or two Windies wickets that evening. Unfortunately neither Broad or Anderson could make the breakthrough. Had he batted on and the two remaining wickets had fallen in the next couple of overs (always a possibility) we would not be discussing this now.

When the declaration was made the Windies were demoralised having seen their first inns lead overtaken by such a large margin. With just a few overs left in the days play the last thing the two openers would wanted was to face the new ball. Unfortunately for England they both survived the attack from Broad and Anderson. Had just one wicket fell we might have seen a different result yesterday. No way was Root at fault foe declaring when he did,

Absolutely the right call. The test was lost when England failed to reach 300+ in the first innings.

Windies were obviously badly shaken by their humiliation at Edgebaston and have upped their game tremendously. They bowled well and their fielding was significantly better. Today I was delighted to see England overcome the deficit with just 3 down and if they can get a decent lead of around 200/250 the last day will be fascinating to see both teams battling it out on a deteriorating wicket.

To make a run fest. Unfortunately Somerset are around 25 runs short of par.......

Interesting.........but begs the question as why the leather isn't dyed pink rather than being coated.

So was Andy Roberts.

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.