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The final Test of the West Indies series came to its watery endafter persistent rain throughout the morning although the umpires,Tony Hill and the junior member of the duo Kumar Dharmasena, wereas tardy in bowing to the inevitable as they had been hasty intwice bringing the players from the field in tolerable light onSunday evening. There is a one-day series to contest now and England are sure toreceive a more stringent examination than they have in the threeTests. Then comes the heavyweight contest of the cricket summer, inwhich Andrew Strauss's side will slug it out with South Africa,albeit over three Tests a paltry number for a contest of thismagnitude for the undisputed championship of the world. England's success first at Lord's and then Trent Bridge means thatthey have strengthened their position at the top of theInternational Cricket Council rankings, although it remainstenuous, but against expectation, given the absence from the seriesof high profile West Indies players and continuing stories ofcricketing discontent in the Caribbean, Darren Sammy's side provedworthy opponents who challenged strongly, never threw in the towel,and showed signs that the insistence of the head coach, OttisGibson, on cricketers with character rather than characters whoplay cricket is starting to play dividends. Sammy may be an unexceptional cricketer in international terms buthe is a credit to his region and clearly possesses skills ofleadership which transcend any playing shortcomings. He could verywell lead them to the world T20 title in October. And in the final analysis, at Edgbaston, his team rose to theoccasion when previous teams might have just meandered to theseries conclusion and in so doing gave England a scare. A curtailedcontest it might have been but this was as poor a performance asalmost any under Strauss. These three matches were probably notStrauss's last chance to prove he still had the batsmanship to gowith his undoubted captaincy credentials but, in scoring the runshe did, he conclusively ended any debate. His hundred at Lord's andthe standing ovation that greeted it will remain a highlight of thesummer. But the Edgbaston Test has not been his finest hour. Throughout theWest Indies innings his team were generally lacklustre, with anend-of-termish lessening of intensity, his tactics reactive and, asin the case of him opening the bowling with Tim Bresnan rather thanSteven Finn, quite baffling at times: Finn noticeably was given thesecond new ball alongside Graham Onions. Sealing the series at Trent Bridge, of course gave Andy Flower theopportunity to rest Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad while at thesame time seeing Finn and Onions, along with Bresnan, in a realcompetitive environment. This proved instructive, with Onions,wicket-to-wicket and harrying the batsmen all the time, comfortablyoutbowling his two rivals (which is what they are). It now givesFlower and the other selectors real food for thought before thenext series, for the South Africans rated Onions highly from theirlast meeting: thus far, Finn is probably out of the equation andthey must then decide on whether Bresnan's batting potential canoutweigh the difference in the quality between his bowling and thatof Onions. There were slightly worrying consequences, though, to the omissionof Anderson and Broad, relating to aspects other than theirbowling, although it is blindingly obvious that two of the leadingpace bowlers in the world ought to have had more of an impact thantheir replacements. Anderson has become an integral part of theslip cordon, an outstanding figure at third slip to the pacemen andas the lone man to Graeme Swann. The catches missed by Ian Bell atthird slip show that succession planning, while thoughtful Bellfields at third slip for Warwickshire while Jonathan Trott standsat first, so one might expect him to replace Strauss if necessary is not particularly successful. More pertinent is the impact it will have had on Strauss'scaptaincy. No captain of any consequence does so in isolation.Instead he is a facilitator relying heavily on the sort of input ofideas from his bowlers that cannot come from elsewhere. In thismatch, the absence of Broad and Anderson meant that it was Bresnan,winning only his 14th cap, who was his senior pace bowler. Allbowlers worth their salt will have ideas but those with littleexperience will be more reluctant to commit them in an environmentopen to such scrutiny. This was an opportunity that will arise again over the next 12months with back-to-back Ashes series then following but it may bewisest to ensure where possible that there is always one seambowler of seniority in the side. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Interchangeable Lenses Sunglasses Manufacturer , Eye Protection Glasses, and more. For more , please visit Sport Sunglass today!
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