Tea and Biscuits in the West Indies
Day 4: Grenada. Brathwaite leads the Windies to a fully deserved and dominant victory over a sorry England.
Day 4: Grenada. Brathwaite leads the Windies to a fully deserved and dominant victory over a sorry England.
It was highly appropriate as well as some beautiful sporting poetic justice that West Indies Captain Kraigg Brathwaite was not only at the wicket at the denouement of this Test Match but in fact scored the winning runs that gave his side a momentous victory and a 1–0 triumph both today and across the 3 Test Match series. 90 minutes was all it took in this morning’s session as England doggedly extended their overnight lead of just 10 runs to 27 and for the West Indian openers Brathwaite and John Campbell to rattle off the 28 runs required for victory. Chris Woakes gained a “life” when he successfully reviewed a catch against him but 1 run later was miraculously caught at leg slip by Jason Holder. It was a ridiculous catch, with Holder grabbing it one handed and seemingly behind him! 6 runs later and Jack Leach’s 55 ball stay at the crease ended with another wicket for Kemar Roach and another catch behind the stumps for Joshua Da Silva. Just 28 runs were required and Brathwaite and Campbell clobbered them in double quick time.
Brathwaite was rightly named as the “Man of the Series” and the official stamp applied for the series top run scorer and far and away the most impressive player across all 3 Test Matches. He’s seemingly batted all day, every day! The stories are as legion as the statistics he’s posted throughout the series and he’s truly led his fledgling and much changed side to a thoroughly deserved series victory.
And what of the England Captain Joe Root? Second top run scorer in the series and leader in this series of a much changed side too, he publicly acknowledged in the after match interviews of his determination to remain as Captain but the 2 Test series across the winter have seen 5 defeats, 3 draws and 0 victories. But despite these particular statistics, Root remains England’s best player, a future legend of the game, and must lead the team in the future. As I penned following England’s defeat in Australia earlier this year, they are a team in transition and in need of a spine around Root and Ben Stokes but it’s a long process and they have to be honest enough to acknowledge that they’re in the second tier of Test Match cricket.
With England cricket always seemingly in a state of flux, chaos or the more politically correct “in transition”, it may not be Root’s decision as to whether he remains as Captain. Time will tell.
It always does.
Thanks for reading my final article of a long winter’s cricket following England from the comfort of a sofa and the home comforts of a piping hot cup of tea and the occasional packet of biscuits. More elongated dissections of the previous days play are linked below and my archive contains all day by day articles posted during the Ashes series with Australia across Christmas and New Year 2022:
Tea and Biscuits in the West Indies
Day 1: Grenada. Leach and Mahmood to the rescue after yet another England batting collapse.medium.com
Tea and Biscuits in the West Indies
Day 2: Grenada. Joshua Da Silva’s precious half century nudges the hosts ahead.medium.com
Tea and Biscuits in the West Indies
Day 3: Grenada. It’s the “Da Silva and Mayers show” as England collapse to certain defeat.medium.com