West Indies v England, 2nd Test, Day 5: An Extraordinary 24 Hours for Test Cricket

 

West Indies v England, 2^nd Test, Day 5: An Extraordinary 24 Hours for Test Cricket

August 29^th 2017

Over the last twelve hours the cricket world has been turned on its head. First, the West Indies pulled-off an astonishing chase against England: the twentieth highest ever successful chase in Tests. Then, Bangladesh completed a win against Australia when, at 158-2 chasing 266, only an Australian win seemed possible.

Both results were earth-shaking: the West Indies had not won in England since the epic tour of 2000 when Walsh and Ambrose had their swansong and England finally lost their fear of the West Indians. Bangladesh had never beaten Australia in a Test. Australia have played Bangladesh 29 times in all formats and previously lost just once – in an ODI in Cardiff in 2005 after Andrew Symonds had been dropped on the morning of the match for partying the night before and a certain suspicion exists that Australian minds were not exactly focused on the game. It is a measure of how little Australia rate Bangladesh that in 14 years there have been just two previous series between the two sides and, in one of those, Australia famously tried to win a Test in a single day.

If, for a few hours, Australian fans could laugh at England, the manner of the Australian surrender, highlighting one of the topics common to both sides – their vulnerability on turning wickets and the paucity of their spin-bowling resources to respond – was every bit as poor. Australia’s response has been to give themselves the option of going into the must-win 2^nd Test with just one seamer. Now this was a tactic used with success by India in the 1970s and by Pakistan in the ‘80s, but they could count on extraordinary spinners of the quality of Bishan Bedi, Prasanna, Chandrasekhar, Venkat, Abdul Qadir and Iqbal Qasim; Australia simply do not have the same quality in depth. It is the same as if England had played Moeen, Batty, Dawson & Ansari together in India: four spinners, yes, but not four of any quality or threat. Last winter England learnt the hard way that it is not how many spinners you play, but how much quality that they have that counts. It is true that for a must-win match on a turning pitch in Port-of-Spain in 1974, England did play four spinners and won, but the spinners were Greig, Underwood, Pocock and Birkenshaw: all class acts (Geoff Arnold shared the new ball with Greig, who turned to spin as soon as the shine was off the ball).

England’s response to their own humiliation at Headingley has been to name the same XIII for Lord’s, but one suspects that Toby Roland-Jones may play instead of Chris Woakes – more of that later. “Same players, better play” might have rasped Essex’s legendary Tonker Taylor in response to the squad announcement.

England turned up on the fifth morning to conditions that normally would have guaranteed a win not long after Lunch: overcast skies, dim light and perfect seam-bowling conditions. The script seemed perfectly prepared for Jimmy Anderson to take his 500^th Test wicket and, despite not playing T20 since 2009 and ODIs since 2015, get close to his 800^th international wicket (he is now on 784).

In reality, England had lost their way not so much by a poor batting performance on the 1^st day (their total was short of what it should have been, but not so far short), but by a collectively horrible bowling performance on the 2^nd day. Apart from Jimmy Anderson, the rest of the attack was very poor. In fact, it is probably not unfair to say that the decision to replace Toby Roland-Jones with Chris Woakes probably lost England the game. Chris Woakes desperately needed the game, but responded with a terribly rusty performance and the rest of the attack took their cue from him. Stuart Broad was inaccurate. Ben Stokes as ineffective as he has ever been and Moeen Ali just had an awful match with the ball. If he has shown anything, Toby Roland-Jones has demonstrated an ability to provide control and nip in with crucial wickets when they are most needed; it was an ability that England sorely missed here. One hopes that sanity will prevail, that Roland-Jones will be restored for Lord’s and that Chris Woakes will be asked to play every possible game both for Warwickshire and for Warwickshire 2^nd XI from here to the end of the season to get himself properly match-fit and into a good rhythm to be unleashed on the Australians.

Arguably, England should have made 330 in their first innings and the West Indies no more than 300. Had that happened, the course of the game would have been very different. As it was, after the dreadful “wheels off waggon” session on the 4^th evening that led to the England declaration and the sensation that the West Indies had given up on the match, suddenly the steel was back again in the Caribbean performance. Once again, from one session to another the whole momentum of the series changed. The day was tense but, in reality, once the West Indies got through the first hour without losing a wicket, the result had an air of inevitability. The last ball of the fourth over of the morning England had the chance to put the game to bed: short delivery from Broad, Brathwaite could not control the ball - it went at a comfortable height to Cook, through his hands and on to the boundary for four runs. Instead of being 11-1 and England with an early breakthrough, the opening partnership went on to 46 from 16 overs before Broad finally ended it. More critically though, Brathwaite was on 4 at the time and went on to score 95 and to guide the West Indies to 197-3 when he fell finally. From the moment of that drop the force and the momentum was always with the West Indies and the young Padawans always had the measure of their supposed Jedi Masters.

After a poor first innings, yesterday, whenever something happened, which was all too rarely, Broad seemed to be involved. First the missed catch by Cook, then he had Powell caught by Stokes at 4^th slip, then he himself missed what would have been an incredible catch off his own bowling, but deflected the ball onto the stumps to leave Kyle Hope stranded. 46-0 had become 53-2 and the inevitable West Indian defeat seemed to be just a matter of time. Then again at 285-4, with nerve-ends jangling, Cook dropped Shai Hope off Broad, ending any real chance of a late panic. Broad was not a happy bunny. Even then there was time still for Stokes to drop Blackwood too – a sitter – at 316-4. After seven catches and a run-out were missed by the West Indies, England showed that they were just as fallible in the field. One wonders if there were sighting problems at the ground, because even normally extremely reliable fielders were dropping catches.

On a day when Moeen was expected to be the main threat, he cut an unhappy figure: two dropped catches off his bowling and too many bad balls. The suspicion that he dislikes the pressure of being expected to be the match-winner on the last day of a Test seemed to be confirmed. Moeen, like Graeme Swann did before him, likes getting an early wicket; when he does, the bounce is there and he starts to fizz – yesterday, there was no fizz, no zip in his action and, indeed, after a promising first over the previous evening, little real threat however, to be fair, he also saw those two catches go down off his bowling; maybe, if the first of them had been taken, he might have clicked into life. Less forgivable was the lack of threat from the seamers. Stuart Broad bowled with some fire, but little luck and, after a wonderful start, Jimmy Anderson seemed to be missing some spark, while Woakes and Stokes just served to release the pressure on the batsmen.

Against the West Indian side of the 1^st Test England would still have won. This one though played sensibly, failed to panic even when they lost a wicket and hunted down the target like a pack of wolves stalking their prey. When the run rate required started to rise, the ball started to fly to the boundary, easing any run-rate pressure and when chances were missed, they made England pay.

It was the 9^th longest 4^th innings in 51 Tests at Headingley (5 of the 8 longer ones were in losing causes), the 20^th highest successful 4^th innings chase in Tests, the 2^nd highest successful chase ever at Headingley and an object lesson in hunting-down an apparently extremely tough target.

This being cricket, probably England fans are as delighted as the West Indians. It might no longer be true in all parts of the world, but the practice of celebrating the deserved success of the opposition still exists in the English game. After a desperately disappointing South African side were dispatched, England needed proper practice against realistic opposition. Even more so, almost everyone wants West Indian cricket to rise again. However, native caution suggests that we have seen so many good one-off West Indian performances and so many false dawns that, unless this result is followed up in the 3^rd Test it will look like just another frustrating reminder of a bygone age. However, at least in this Test, players such as Brathwaite, Shannon Gabriel, Blackwood and Shai Hope have shown that there is hope for West Indian cricket and that talent continues to be produced. We saw in the 1^st Test that there are Test-quality players even in this severely weakened squad: one hopes that better governance from the WICB will give the young players the chance to develop and thrive, remembering that the West Indies are the current holders of the U19 World Cup, so serious talent is still coming through, despite everything. What the West Indies can ill afford is to lose these players too to the T20 circuses that have led to the WICB banishing all their biggest stars. Think of how much Brathwaite and Hope could learn if they were able to play their Test cricket alongside players such as Chris Gayle and Lendl Simmons for the next two years.

Back in 2004, Brian Lara was finishing his career, but the West Indies could field a pace attack of Jermaine Lawson, Fidel Edwards, Tino Best, Pedro Collins, Corey Collymore and Adam Stanford. It was an attack of frightening potential, that could have been every bit as great as the attacks of the ‘80s and ‘90s but, little by little, they either never developed as they should have, or simply drifted away. The memory of that team should serve as a dreadful warning to the WICB that they either look after their current crop of youngsters or they may not get another set of talented youngsters to lose.

Many England fans have condemned Joe Root’s declaration on the fourth evening. Just why, is a mystery. England were on top. The West Indies looked defeated and 99% of the cricketing world expected the loss of early wickets and a rapid spiral to defeat. Root saw the unexpected chance to win and to seal the series and went after it. Attack, not caution was the right approach. The opprobrium if he had batted on into the final morning would have been terrible to behold from the self-same fans who attacked his supposedly over-generous declaration.

For now, we are back to Square One. The Lord’s Test will be an unexpected decider. Given England’s record of losing the final Test of series over the last four years, they can ill-afford not to bring their A-Game to Lord’s. The West Indies will know that they have a wholly unexpected chance of a series win at a ground where England often underperform (W10 D4 L4 in the last 10 years, but W4 D2 L3 in the last 5 years and 3 defeats and a draw in the last 6 Tests there).

With Tom Westley given a, presumably final, chance to succeed, the only likely doubt is whether to go with Woakes or Roland-Jones as third seamer. One assumes that on his home ground, Roland-Jones has to play. England can scant afford to experiment or to take risks and the tight, mean line and length of Roland-Jones will help to bring a discipline to the attack that was so lacking in Leeds.