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 wicket.
Day 1: Barbados. Root and Lawrence put the Windies to the sword on yet another placid and uninspiring Test Match wicket.
Thank you for joining me for my review of this, the first day’s play in the second Test Match in Barbados between the West Indies and England. Before I delve into the cricketing nitty gritty of the day’s play, can I point you in the direction of two of my articles from the previous Test Match in Antigua?
Tea and Biscuits in the West Indies
Day 1: Antigua. Jonny Bairstow the centurion yet again as England take the honours on the opening day.medium.com
Tea and Biscuits in the West Indies
Day 5: Antigua. Leach can’t spin England to victory as Bonner bats out a deserved draw for the Hosts.medium.com
MORNING SESSION: England 47–1 at Lunch. (Root 31 not out).
After winning the toss England Captain Joe Root elected to bat first on a wicket in Barbados that seems, at first glance, to be harder and a little bouncier than the soft pudding of a wicket that Antigua had to offer in the first Test Match a few days ago. The Kensington Oval remains as beautiful as in all of my cricketing dreams and whilst the rain lashed the window panes here in England, a sun blazed down upon an England batting order that after winning the toss needed to compile a big first innings total. 15 minutes into the start of the day’s play, one of their three centurions from Antigua had already been dismissed, to be replaced by another.
ZAK CRAWLEY caught Da Silva bowled Seales (0).
Crawley would face just 7 deliveries this morning and his dismissal was a disappointingly limp one as he dangled his bat in neither an attacking nor defensive position and tamely bottom edged a simple catch to West Indian wicketkeeper Joshua Da Silva. England were 4–1 and their Skipper Joe Root was already striding to the wicket at such an early juncture of the day’s play.
By the mid session drinks break Root and opening batsman Alex Lees had rather comfortably reached a total of 29–1 on a surface that seemed to have already lost any pace and the very epitome of a “batter friendly” wicket. In just his second Test Match, Lees looked rock solid in defence with a couple of boundaries on his way to 11 runs with his Skipper at the other end elegantly reaching 18 not out at the break. Root survived a LBW (Leg Before Wicket) appeal from Jayden Seales when on just 5 runs with the TV Review showing Seales’ delivery to be missing the England Skipper’s stumps comfortably, but Jayden Seales had been the West Indies premier bowler in this mini session taking 1 wicket for just 4 runs from his 4 overs.
The second hour’s play was turgid!
Lees scored just 5 additional runs in the hour’s play before lunch and Root just 13, but from an England perspective this was a priceless and solid start on a wicket that was getting slower and slower by the hour. The England Skipper would also get a cricketing “life” when on 23 runs he appeared to get the barest of inside edges onto his pads but with indecision and confusion reigning, West Indian Skipper Kraigg Brathwaite decided against a TV umpire review that had he done so, would have resulted in Root’s dismissal.
AFTERNOON SESSION: England 136–2 at Tea. (Root 80 not out).
ALEX LEES lbw bowled Permaul (30).
Lees scored a further 14 runs in the first hour’s play of the afternoon session and was still in a partnership of 76 runs with Skipper Root at the mid session drinks break. With his Captain just passing 50 and the innings total 80–1, Lees wafted across a straight delivery from Permaul that on a TV replay would’ve hit the top of middle stump had the ball not crashed into his pads. He was as “plumb” as he was “dead” in cricket’s beautiful lexicon but what was also clearly apparently dead was the wicket itself. The West Indian fast bowlers were miserly but unthreatening on a wicket conducive to grinding out slow, and big, runs. Mid-way through the day’s play I marvelled at the attacking fields set by West Indian Skipper Kraigg Brathwaite and his introduction of the spin bowling of Permaul was a great decision rewarded with a wicket. Permaul would bowl from one end for the entire hour’s play after the drinks break with Brathwaite rotating his fast bowlers at the other. There’s no real spin but his bowling creates pressure on this frustratingly dead wicket and a strip I fear will bog down this Test Match into a continuing turgid and slow affair.
On 34 runs Joe Root received another cricketing “life” when dropped by wicketkeeper Da Silva off the bowling of Kemar Roach, passed 50 in his partnership with Alex Lees before establishing an on going and quick fire partnership of 56 runs with Dan Lawrence as he remained 80 not out at the Tea Break. The England Skipper hooked, pulled, stroked and particularly swept his way elegantly on his way to a pleasing 80 runs at the Tea Break and following Lees dismissal Dan Lawrence really injected some urgency into the innings with 26 quick runs from only 38 balls received.
Stumps Day 1: England 244–3 (Root 119 not out).
The final session of the day was all England and for the first time in a very long time they had dominated and “won” every session in a day’s play. And by some distance too. Despite the slow start to the day’s run scoring and even their Skipper’s remarkable Test Match century, perhaps today’s headline grabber should be Dan Lawrence who injected some much needed attacking intent, verve and free spirited gusto when England, and the Test Match, needed it. Both Lawrence and Root had carved out an imposing 164 run partnership since the fall of Alex Lees wicket and whilst Root methodically and meticulously accumulated runs and toyed with the field, Lawrence faced just 150 balls for his brilliantly played 91 before falling victim to the canny bowling of Jason Holder as well as some intelligent field placing from the West Indian Skipper Kraigg Brathwaite. As the final over of the day played out, Lawrence cracked two consecutive and majestic 4’s to the boundary to tiptoe his score into the 90’s before Holder just held back his next delivery, bowling slightly slower and wider and with Lawrence drawn into an attacking shot was just a tad early as he drove a simple catch directly at Brathwaite fielding in the short cover position.
Lawrence deserved the century his Skipper had made but they’ll come in time for a player who is nailing down his spot in this Test team with every attacking innings he plays. He reversed the slow scoring rate of the morning and most of the afternoon session to attack from the off and injecting some severe momentum in the process. Where England had only scored 47 runs in the first session and 89 in the second, Lawrence and Root combined to score 108 runs in the final session to cement a winning day’s Test cricket for England and with only 3 wickets lost in the entire day, an imposing first innings total that is very much a work in progress to be continued tomorrow morning.
But as with the previous Test Match in Antigua, there’s an X Factor, and yet again it’s the slow, stodgy and unexciting wicket in Barbados. It’s far too weighted in favour of the batting side and unless the wicket breaks up and disintegrates badly in days 3 and 4, I can’t see how by the final day any side can win this match. England should go on tomorrow to post a huge first innings total and if they do they’ll then have to bowl out their West Indian hosts twice to win the match. On this wicket, and if the wicket doesn’t dramatically change, rough up and break up and thus making a batsman’s current easy job a dramatically different and difficult one, all I see are huge runs being accumulated by both sides before a tame draw results on the final day.
That’s all for the future. Time will tell.
It always does.
See you tomorrow!