Summer!

Where the hell did the last month go?  It’s 17^th May, the official start of summer and  although the weather feels more like November it’s definitely summer as the First Test started today at Lords.  England won the toss and put the West Indies in with bowling conditions overhead.  Jimmy swung the ball around first up and nicked a couple of wickets.  Then for most of the day the WI batsmen dug in and survived whilst accumulating runs, when many would have expected England’s bowlers to rip the batting apart.  Youngsters Bravo & Barath scored runs in a useful partnership as did the older Samuels and the veteran Chanderpaul who batted as he always does.  Then Broad came up and ripped the middle & lower order to shreds, taking 6 in the process.  England finished the day taking nine wickets, Shiv contributed 87 not out to WI’s 243-9.

I think today will be typical for this series.  Probably the best West Indian team for a decade will battle hard and perform better than most people expect but ultimately England will prove just too good.  I’m looking forward to watching Bravo bat this series and the other young players will be interesting too.  Roach and Edwards are probably their best pair of bowlers since Curtley & Courtney retired.  Should be a good series but only the weather will prevent England winning 3-0.

It was hard to follow the match today as it’s impossible to get a radio signal where I’m working and I can only tune in at break times.  This inspired me to have a fiddle with my phone and managed to find a free download thingy giving ball by ball updates.  It’s called Cricket companion & might prove useful to somebody somewhere?