3Rd And Final Test Edgbaston V West Indies

[choux]

Spoiler alert

[choux]

What a day for English cricket.

Ben Stokes hit the fastest ever Test 50 off 24 balls for an English cricketer

and

Mark Woods took 5 for 40

Superb teaam performance.

[Cloverjo]

Excellent performance 

[choux]

At 6 ft 2 inches tall is Jamie Smith our tallest ever wicket-keeper?

[Buenchico]

^^^ This page is behing a paywall but the headline is visible, suggesting that Jamie Smith is, indeed, England's tallest ever wicket-keeper:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2024/07/11/jamie-smith-england-wicketkeeper-tallest-west-indies/

[Gizmonster]

I don't watch cricket like I used to, but I still follow the results.

This test series has been a bit of a walkover and in my opinion it was so easy it's a bit embarrassing:

1st Test - England won by 241 runs.

2nd Test - England won by an innings and 114 runs.

3rd Test - England won by 10 wickets.

Although it's nice to be on the right side of a thrashing for once  :)

[Cloverjo]

What's happened to the W Indies? 

[Buenchico]

^^^ They're still a good team, Clover, but other teams have upped their game to match them (or beat them) these days.

They had a pretty good team the first time that I saw them play, on a school trip to Fenner's in 1966:
https://i.imgci.com/db/ARCHIVE/1960S/1966/WI_IN_ENG/WI_CAMB-UNIV_21-24MAY1966.html

(Interestingly though, it wasn't the much feared Wes Hall who took lots of wickets on that occasion but a spinner, David Holford, who bagged 12 of them).

[choux]

It is not like the Windies I remember, Gizmonster.

[Gizmonster]

////  It is not like the Windies I remember, Gizmonster.  ////

 

Agreed - I remember watching the likes of Gower, Gatting, Willis and Botham regularly getting their butts kicked by the Windies in the 80's.

I'm enjoying this spell at the mo  :)

[choux]

It always pleased me what excellent pals Viv Richards and Ian Botham were, despite the cricket scores ;)

These days I will celebrate any English/British sporting success that comes our way.

[choux]

Chris, that was an excellent 95 for Smith yesterday - what a talent.

[sunny-dave]

Wood was bowling so well - with precious little reward ... then took three wickets in one ferocious over - just great to watch.

[sunny-dave]

Agree about Smith - whoever spotted him & took a punt on his talent has picked a good 'un.

[Togo]

Great team performace but I can't help recalling that during the first Test "she who must be obeyed" commented that the Windies did not seem to be match fit. She is really pretty clued up with all the cricket formats and I think that she may have been correct. They have faded badly in all 3 games by the 3rd day. 

[choux]

Dave, I just looked up Knotty (or Punch as my father called him) on Wiki - pleased to see he made Wisden's All-Time World Test XI - his top test score was 135. I think Smith could give him a good running, fingers crossed :)