West Indies v England

1st Test, Day 3: And Now For Something Completely Different

January 25^th 2019

 

After 26 wickets fell for 493 runs on the first two days, 344 were scored on Day 3 and not a wicket fell. There was much about the day’s cricket that Monty Python, who immortalised the phrase “and now for something complete different”, would have approved of.

The West Indies started the day at 126-6, 337 ahead. Most pundits felt that the West Indies had more than enough and would be all out in the morning, leaving a target somewhere in the range 360-400. England’s only remote chance was to knock over the last four wickets very quickly. In fact, there was every chance that the match would be over by Tea. That was the theory. The practice was that Dowrich and Holder first consolidated and then, let rip. And as they let rip, England’s performance in the field disintegrated. Anderson and Stokes did beat the bat, but when a ball flew into the air, it did not go to hand. One particularly embarrassing error was Jos Buttler failing to see a ball flying almost straight at him and making no attempt to take the catch: the hapless Monty Panesar would have done better, even if Monty Python might not have. Holder reached a run-a-ball century before Dowrich had reached 40 and then continued onwards and upwards. Would he declare when Dowrich reached his century? No! At a lead of 600? No! He finally hit the boundary that brought up his 200 and turned for the pavilion. It was an exhibition of grinding the opponents into the dirt that Viv Richards would have approved of. Holder was ruthless and brilliant.

So, chasing a modest 628 to win, in a nominal 200 overs, England had 20 overs to survive and take the game into a fourth day, on which, clutching at straws, some rain is forecast. How many wickets would they lose? 4? 5? Jason Holder tried six bowlers, with Campbell getting prodigious turn, albeit from misdirected deliveries but, with Jennings blocking-out one end, Burns put bat to ball at the other. A 50 partnership in 18 overs and England reached the Close on 56-0, needing another 562 runs to win and without having suffered any major scares. The assumption that, once again, the wicket would behave differently for the West Indian bowlers with their extra pace, was confounded, at least for the moment. However, there is a long, long way to go to attain any kind of respectability. So far England have only got as far as avoiding the second largest margin of defeat by runs in Test history:

Team	Total	Overs	Run rate	Margin of defeat (runs)	Opponents	Ground	Date
Australia	66	25.3	2.58	675	England	Brisbane	30/11/1928
England	145	63.3	2.28	562	Australia	The Oval	18/08/1934
South Africa	171	40.2	4.23	530	Australia	Melbourne	17/02/1911
Australia	119	46.4	2.55	492	South Africa	Johannesburg	30/03/2018
Pakistan	72	31.3	2.28	491	Australia	Perth	16/12/2004
Bangladesh	158	49.2	3.20	465	Sri Lanka	Chattogram	3/01/2009
England	126	63.5	1.97	425	West Indies	Manchester	8/07/1976
Sri Lanka	236	106.2	2.21	423	New Zealand	Christchurch	26/12/2018
England	186	78.1	2.37	409	Australia	Lord's	24/06/1948
Australia	165	50.0	3.30	408	West Indies	Adelaide	26/01/1980
England	103	37.0	2.78	405	Australia	Lord's	16/07/2015

Defeats by more than 400 runs in Test cricket. There have been eleven so far: will this match provide a twelfth?

Just 11 sides out of 588 who have lost in the fourth innings of a Test, have lost by a margin greater than 400 runs. To avoid becoming a twelfth, England have to almost treble their first innings total. It is a tall order, but Burns and Jennings can do their self-confidence and England’s self-respect a lot of good, if they can hang around for a long time on Day 4.