Tea and Biscuits in the West Indies
Day 2: Barbados. The hosts are under the pump after a spectacular century from Ben Stokes.
Day 2: Barbados. The hosts are under the pump after a spectacular century from Ben Stokes.
England started the day’s play in a dominating position on their overnight score of 244–3 and with their Skipper Joe Root on 119 not out after batting for all but a handful of overs all day yesterday. By the end of the day’s play they had racked up a further 263 runs in double quick time and on this slow, low, pudding of a wicket that remains batter friendly, for now, but is beginning to show signs of wear and tear and variable bounce and spin.
In between these headline numbers came some more cricketing statistics, some of the highest possible calibre indeed as well as halcyon cricket totals last seen by an England team many, many new balls ago. Despite their Skipper reaching the milestone innings figure of 150 not out at the end of the morning session today, it was his batting partner and vice captain Ben Stokes who took all the rightful plaudits for an incredible two hours of batting. Whilst his Captain added 31 runs to his overnight total, vice captain Stokes crashed, caressed and cajoled 89 quick runs in the session and from just 92 balls faced. Smashing such a total, from so few deliveries and in a single session speaks volumes for Stokes and for the vaunted “All Rounder” position he holds in the team. Stokes is a whole hearted bowler who’ll often unfairly be lumbered with either a long spell of bowling or a shorter spell of the “ugly stuff” as he tries to bounce and intimidate batsmen into surrendering their wicket. With the bat he can be incredibly circumspect and patient.
But not this morning.
The plan between the team’s two senior players was clearly to advance the game as quickly as possible and score as many big runs on the way to a huge first innings total that the bowlers, Stokes included, could endeavour to defend later in the Test Match. The reasoning was simple: the wicket is soft paced, batsman friendly and if this dreadful, unattractive and not up to Test Match standard wicket doesn’t crumble or deteriorate badly, it will take a monumental effort, and an immense amount of game time, to bowl out their West Indian hosts twice to force a win. With Stokes leading the way with his incredible 89 runs from just 92 balls faced and Root 150 not out at the end of the morning session, England had scored a rapid 125 total runs in the two hour session and keeping all their remaining wickets intact to take their lunch time innings total to 369–3.
Two hours and 40 minutes later, the rather pleasingly rhyming couple of Foakes and Woakes left the field at the Tea Break with 27 and 30 runs respectively, a growing partnership of 58 runs between them and with their side adding a further 113 runs in the afternoon session. With England now standing at a mammoth 482–6 at the session break they had already added 238 runs to their overnight total of 244 and if the plan was to add quickfire runs to move the match along, they had surely succeeded. The 3 wickets to fall in the session were fairly inconsequential to the match position, but worthy of note:
JOE ROOT lbw bowled Roach (153).
After facing 315 deliveries for his fantastic and archetypal “Captain’s Innings” of 153, the next ball Joe Root faced was a brilliant in swinging delivery from Kemar Roach which crashed into his pads and despite being “plumb” in front of his stumps he was given not out. His opposite captaining number Kraigg Brathwaite reviewed the on field decision and the TV replay confirmed what we’d all seen with our very own eyes, Root was “trapped in front” and resisting temptation to use yet another cricketing cliché in just one short paragraph, he was simply out. Top run scorer in the 2021 calendar year, the England captain appears to be setting his sights on repeating the feat in this calendar year too.
JONNY BAIRSTOW caught Bonner bowled Joseph (20).
One Yorkshireman replaced another and the effervescent Bairstow appeared to be dealing only in boundary 4’s as he raced to 20 runs before he hooked impetuously at a high bouncing delivery from Alzarri Joseph straight into the safe hands of Nkrumah Bonner on the boundary edge. Running with the spirit of the innings, Bairstow was chasing quick runs but visibly angry with himself as he trudged back to the pavilion, no doubt bemoaning the fact that quick runs are on offer against the old ball on this placid wicket.
BEN STOKES caught Brooks bowled Brathwaite (120).
Of the 128 deliveries faced by Stokes in his incredible innings, perhaps 4 consecutive balls from Alzarri Joseph sum up his sumptuous, almost run a ball score of 120. The first 3 of these 4 deliveries were dispatched to the boundary for consecutive 4’s as he expertly caressed or simply bludgeoned boundary after boundary. For the 4th ball he “danced” down the wicket and lofted the ball akin to a firmly struck 9 iron arching way over the boundary rope for a 6.
It was simply either faintly ridiculous or poetry in motion! Perhaps both.
England have long been plagued with tagging all rounders as the “next Ian Botham” but I can’t help but draw the comparisons with Botham and his mighty six off the bowling of Terry Alderman in the 1981 Ashes series with Australia. It would also draw the most pleasing of all commentaries from the late and great Australian Captain Richie Benaud at the time as he dismissively told an enraptured live television audience:
“Don’t bother looking for that, let alone chasing it!. It’s gone straight into the confectionery stall and out again”.
A dozen boundary 4’s and half a dozen 6’s. Stokes’ innings was simply magnificent.
England would score a handful of runs and lose 3 further quick wickets at the beginning of the final session before declaring on an impressive first innings total of 507–9. The West Indian reply before stumps were drawn to end the day with their score on 71–1 was notable for a number of reasons, here are the three most important as to the remainder of this Test Match:
(1) England debutants Matt Fisher and Saqib Mahmood bowled impressively in their short spells before the close of play and Fisher was rightfully elated as he snagged John Campbell with only his second ever Test Match delivery and the only West Indian wicket to perish in the final session. Both will have heavy workloads in the Caribbean sunshine tomorrow and it’ll be intriguing to see how they both fare.
(2) Jack Leach too will have a lot of bowling to do tomorrow, and that rather pleases this particular cricketing correspondent and lover of the art of spin bowling. Leach bowled 9 wicketless overs in the evening session but there were signs of spin. If the wicket begins to crumble, the self nicknamed “nutter” will have a huge part to play, and not just tomorrow.
(3) With the score on 54–1, West Indian Skipper Kraigg Brathwaite was given out by the on field umpire but immediately challenged the decision and was rightfully reinstated but the rub is two fold: The ball simply didn’t bounce and scuttled along the wicket, thus a prime example of the varying bounce we could expect to see tomorrow and throughout the remainder of the Test Match. The second is Brathwaite rightly survived an atrocious umpiring decision and remains 28 not out at stumps. The wristy and doggedly determined West Indian captain will be a prize scalp whenever and however England dismiss him.
At stumps on Day 2 England are in a prime position to dominate and dictate the course of this Test Match, but do they have the firepower to knock over their hosts twice in the space of three days if the wicket doesn’t deteriorate?
Time, as it always does, will tell.
Thanks for reading. Below is a link to my daily recap of the first day’s play should you require any further cricketing reading. Plenty more contained within my archives here too!
Tea and Biscuits in the West Indies
Day 1: Barbados. Root and Lawrence put the Windies to the sword on yet another placid and uninspiring Test Match…medium.com