England ended a day entirely without wickets still 572 runs behind after Jason Holder scored a phenomenal double century
Right, I’m done here. I’ll be back tomorrow to see how long England can keep up the pretence that they might not lose this match. Bye for now! Here’s something from Ali Martin in Barbados:
Related: Chastening Test for Sam Curran as West Indies punish England | Ali Martin
Eighteen wickets fell yesterday. No wickets fell today. West Indies will surely win this, but it looks like they’ll have to put in a lot of hard work before they do.
England trail by 572 runs with 10 wickets remaining
19th over: England 56-0 (Burns 39, Jennings 11) The last over of the day is delivered by John Campbell, his first deliveries in Test cricket. Five extras follow: a wide, and one that kept low, flew through Dowrich’s legs and sped away for four.
18th over: England 51-0 (Burns 39, Jennings 11) There are now just two overs remaining, and there has not been a wicket all day. This is unusual. West Indies have a loud appeal here for lbw against Burns, but the umpire isn’t keen and they don’t review. It looked a pretty good shout to me, but ball tracking shows that the ball pitched outside the line of leg stump. Burns then drives to long-off for four to take England’s score to a psychologically important 50. A scant 577 runs to go now.
17th over: England 44-0 (Burns 33, Jennings 10) Chase gets one to straighten, and there’s a stifled appeal when Burns gets a thick edge into his pads. As it stands Burns has had one Test innings in the 50s, one in the 40s, one in the 30s, one in the 20s and one in the teens. Plus three that ended in single figures, of ourse.
16th over: England 41-0 (Burns 31, Jennings 9) Alzarri Joseph does his first bowling of the innings, and it’s a maiden.
15th over: England 41-0 (Burns 31, Jennings 9) Roston Chase brings some spin, and when he bowls short and wide Burns clobbers it away for four. Chase then bowls even wider, conceding the first extra of the innings. Five overs remain in the day.
14th over: England 35-0 (Burns 27, Jennings 8) Burns isn’t holding back. He lifts the ball (a long way) over the cordon for a one-bounce four. Smart stuff: given the pace on the ball and the number of close fielders that wasn’t overly risky, and England need to keep the score ticking over if they’re going to, ahem, win this.
13th over: England 31-0 (Burns 23, Jennings 8) Burns is looking in decent nick here. For the third time in the innings he clips the ball off his pads through midwicket for four, this one just as sweetly timed as the others, and then for the second time he hoiks over square leg, though this one doesn’t have the legs to get to the rope.
12th over: England 23-0 (Burns 16, Jennings 7) Roach re-enters the fray, having changed ends, returning to the one from which he did so much damage in England’s first innings. Burns heaves the final ball of the over over backward point for four. England were 23-0 in their first innings as well.
11th over: England 18-0 (Burns 12, Jennings 6) Nine overs left in the day, and just the 189 or so in the Test. “I own the Picador Book of Cricket,” boasts Phil Sawyer, “and it is well worth any cricket follower investing their money and time. It’s an extraordinarily rich collection of writing on the great game.”
10th over: England 17-0 (Burns 12, Jennings 5) Gabriel unleashes an absolute howitzer at Burns, the ball rising off the pitch and heading as if laser-guided towards the batsman’s nostrils. When he pitches it fuller, Burns again flicks it through midwicket for four, another fine shot. Just another 153 of those and England have won this.
9th over: England 13-0 (Burns 8, Jennings 5) Holder bowls the third successive maiden over.
8th over: England 13-0 (Burns 8, Jennings 5) Oooof! Gabriel tempts Burns into tentatively fending at the ball, which zips just past the bat. And then another ooof! as the ball whistles past his defensive prod.
7th over: England 13-0 (Burns 8, Jennings 5) Holder, having not really had much to do for a while, has a bowl, and it’s a maiden. Here’s a link to that very same article, in a compilation of cricket writing. Strangely they have used as a headline the actual headline to an entirely different and only tangentially cricket-related article by McIlvanney published seven years earlier, in 1978.
@Simon_Burnton Link to Mcilvanney on Sir Viv https://t.co/NIE79P7iVv"mcilvanney"+"black+is+bountiful"&source=bl&ots=hGepCRroVs&sig=ACfU3U1S439_jv2fK8cPNE23cYNkuSI4Rw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjogf694YngAhVU8OAKHTzQDHYQ6AEwAHoECAIQAQ#v=onepage
6th over: England 13-0 (Burns 8, Jennings 5) Burns clips Gabriel’s final delivery off his pads for four, sweetly timed. So, that McIlvanney article. I haven’t exactly read all of it - I’m a bit busy at the moment watching cricket and stuff - but if you’d like to you could try clicking this link. Do let me know if it works.
5th over: England 8-0 (Burns 4, Jennings 4) Nope, I can’t work out how to show you the article. Sorry. It’s great though. McIlvanney was genuinely phenomenally good.
4th over: England 7-0 (Burns 4, Jennings 3) A maiden over from Gabriel, whose two overs so far have gone for one run. England are in all sorts of stuff at the moment, but the one thing they’re not in is a hurry. “627 runs,” sighs Robert Wilson. “Ouch; that’s a proper kick in the bum. That’s old school Windies. Our nostalgia for the sunny smiles of 80s and 90s WI legends sometimes neglects how pitilessly carnivorous they were. Like lions hunting hamsters, opposition was often charged, chomped and chewed in very quick order. Setting 627 is a fairly meat-eating kind of gesture.”
3rd over: England 7-0 (Burns 4, Jennings 3)“Did Hugh McIlvenny write cricket - give us some links would ya?” begs Andrew Benton. He certainly did, from time to time. I’m looking at an interview with Viv Richards from 1985 which would seem apposite, but I’m not yet sure how to get it to you (from the pdf it’s currently on). Leave it with me.
2nd over: England 5-0 (Burns 4, Jennings 1) Holder, for the first time today, is not involved in play: he’s doing some shoulder exercises with a pully stringamibob. Jennings gets a run off Gabriel’s first delivery, and Burns sees out the remainder.
1st over: England 4-0 (Burns 4, Jennings 0) Well they’ve survived the first over, so that’s something. Roach bowls and Burns gets off the mark with an edge, which wouldn’t have carried to the cordon and anyway runs between third slip and gully.
And out they come! Can Burns and Jennings bat out the day? And then the next one? Time to find out!
“So although I always want England to win, I do hope this is the start of the Windies getting a decent side together,” says Alistair Harper. “They just need Boycott calling them average all the time to motivate them.” Boycott may have been a great English batsman, but the English seem to have a lot more love for the West Indies.
The beancounters reckon England have 22 overs to face before the close of play.
103.1 overs: West Indies 415-6 (Dowrich 116, Holder 202) Holder clogs Jennings’ first ball to midwicket for four, thereby completing his double century, and his celebratory dance takes him all the way to the pavilion!
103rd over: West Indies 411-6 (Dowrich 116, Holder 198) Root has his head in his hands again, this time after Dowrich nudges the ball just wide of Stokes at slip. It was an uncatchable catch, though. Root has now bowled more overs (10) than the expensive but underemployed Rashid (9) in this innings.
This is the 12th time numbers 7 & 8 have made centuries in the same innings; only the 2nd time in a second innings.
Full list: https://t.co/tOeOCNTvS3
102nd over: West Indies 404-6 (Dowrich 111, Holder 196) Dowrich guides the ball to third man for four, tickling his team’s score beyond 400.
101st over: West Indies 397-6 (Dowrich 106, Holder 194) Root has a bowl. This is already by a margin the biggest partnership for any of the last three wickets against England ever, but still 70 away for the all-comer title.
100th over: West Indies 396-6 (Dowrich 106, Holder 193) Holder appears to be signalling an imminent declaration by means of massive, mighty thwacks. Jennings’ second delivery is smitten into the sightscreen for six. No2 spot in the all-time No8 charts is now a mere 13 runs away.
99th over: West Indies 387-6 (Dowrich 106, Holder 184) Holder starts Moeen’s over with a six to cow corner, and then a similarly-directed but comparatively underhit four. At the end of the over he leaves the field, and Stuart Broad gets a standing ovation from the Englishmen in the crowd as he subs on.
98th over: West Indies 376-6 (Dowrich 106, Holder 173) There’s an lbw shout, but that could have been heading down leg side, so the umpire shakes his head and England’s reviews are long gone. It’s more than two years since Jennings last bowled more than two overs in a Test, and really him getting a bowl at all is never a good sign.
97th over: West Indies 373-6 (Dowrich 104, Holder 172) That’s a maiden over from Moeen. And now Keaton Jennings is going to have another go.
96th over: West Indies 373-6 (Dowrich 104, Holder 172) Have some! Stokes gamely bangs the ball into a wicket that stubbornly refuses to be of any assistance whatsoever, and Holder clobbers it over midwicket for six. Then he tries a straight drive, edges and the ball flies through a gap in the cordon for four! Stokes is on his haunches, head in hands, and at the end of the over he heads back to the dressing room, presumably for a quiet sob.
95th over: West Indies 361-6 (Dowrich 103, Holder 161) Holder gets an early single and there’s a pause while bowler and captain discuss how best to deny Dowrich the single run he need to reach 100. Finally Moeen runs up and Dowrich lets his first ball go, leaves his second alone as well, defends his third, and then cuts the next, perfectly bisecting two fielders for four!
94th over: West Indies 356-6 (Dowrich 99, Holder 160) Stokes bowls his 49th over of the match. He has only once exceeded that number, with 52 in the run-heavy draw against India at Trent Bridge in 2014. Dowrich moves another run closer to triple figures and Holder, after seeing one move fractionally away from him and whistle just past the bat, pushes the next to third man for four.
93rd over: West Indies 350-6 (Dowrich 98, Holder 155) Moeen gets the final session of the day under way, and Dowrich moves another run closer to triple figures.
Right, the players are back out. There seems to be an assumption among the Sky commentariat that the declaration will come at some point in this session. Let’s see.
92nd over: West Indies 349-6 (Dowrich 97, Holder 155) Stokes completes the session and Dowrich, four runs from his century, takes another single, leaving Holder to see out the remainder of the session. And so ends another magnificent, wicketless session for West Indies.
91st over: West Indies 348-6 (Dowrich 96, Holder 155) And now for Moeen, with just a couple of overs left until tea. Dowrich gets a single, and West Indies lead by 560 runs.
90th over: West Indies 347-6 (Dowrich 95, Holder 155) Stokes bowls, Holder tries to flick the ball down to fine leg but doesn’t get enough on it and presents Foakes with a reasonably straightforward catch, diving to his left. He midjudges it, though, and the ball comes off the top of his glove and trundles away. This is thus now the No3 No8 innings, but Holder is still a little more than 50 runs away from moving to No2 in the all-time No8 charts, and over 100 away from top spot. The full rankings are here.
88th over: West Indies 343-6 (Dowrich 95, Holder 151) Dowrich drives Anderson past mid-on for four, an extremely handsome shot. Holder is a mere three runs away from moving to No3 in the list of all-time highest scores by a No8 in Test cricket, and his is already the highest score by a No8 in the second innings of a Test.
88th over: West Indies 339-6 (Dowrich 91, Holder 151) Holder thwacks the final ball away for four to take himself past 150 and earn a standing ovation from a good proportion of the crowd.
87th over: West Indies 332-6 (Dowrich 90, Holder 145) Holder hits the ball in the air and Buttler moves to his left, ready for the catch. The ball goes to his right. He simply didn’t see the ball, divined that it was coming vaguely in his direction, moved somewhere sensible and hoped it hit him in the hands. It went for four. “Ian Chappell always – ALWAYS – says you should think about what the opposition would least like when you declare,” says Pete Salmon. “For me, that would be batting out he day, and for 10 minutes tomorrow. Just to see what that does to Jimmy Anderson...” He may self-combust.
86th over: West Indies 328-6 (Dowrich 90, Holder 141) Anderson got a warning from the umpires for threatening a violent throw towards the batsman after fielding the final ball of the last over. He must be tired and extraordinarily grumpy. Holder gets a thick edge to the penultimate ball of Curran’s over, but gets away with it.
85th over: West Indies 326-6 (Dowrich 89, Holder 140) Anderson bowls at the stumps and Dowrich does to him precisely what Holder did to Curran in the previous over, pushing the ball back down the ground for four. Then Holder tickles the ball fine for four, an equally lovely but totally contrasting shot.
84th over: West Indies 317-6 (Dowrich 84, Holder 136) Curran’s final delivery is pitched full, straightens towards the stumps and is effortlessly pushed back down the ground by Holder for four. At what point does a target become so impossibly distant that scoreboard pressure ceases to exist and it becomes a merry Caribbean-based batting exercise? Can’t be far off.
83rd over: West Indies 310-6 (Dowrich 82, Holder 131) Another maiden from Anderson.
82nd over: West Indies 310-6 (Dowrich 82, Holder 131) Curran rehashes his opening-bowler impression, and immediately gets one to straighten into Holder. There’s a lusty appeal, but the umpire isn’t keen and England are fresh out of reviews. And it was missing leg stump.
81st over: West Indies 307-6 (Dowrich 81, Holder 129) The new ball is taken, and tossed to Anderson. Can he perform the kind of magic with this fresh cherry that he abracadabraed up towards the end of day one? Well, not immediately. Still, it’s a maiden.
80th over: West Indies 307-6 (Dowrich 81, Holder 129) Evening/afternoon/whatever everyone! As I join you Keaton Jennings is handed the ball, and his first delivery is pummelled to the rope by Holder. And two balls later he’s dropped! Holder looks to drive down the ground but hoists the ball into the air off his outside edge, and three fielders run towards it. Burns gets there, the ball dropping over his left shoulder, but it goes through his palms and down!
79th over: West Indies 301-6 (Dowrich 81, Holder 123) Nothing much is happening. England are waiting for the declaration; West Indies are pottering along in second gear. Dowrich back cuts Root classily for four to move into the effortless eighties. That’s drinks, and time for me to tag in Simon Burnton. You can email him at here or tweet here. Thanks for your company, night!
78th over: West Indies 295-6 (Dowrich 76, Holder 122) Holder half-edges, half-steers Anderson to third man for four. West Indies don’t seem in a hurry to declare, and it looks like they will bat on at least until Dowrich is dismissed or make his hundred. He is 24 away.
77th over: West Indies 289-6 (Dowrich 75, Holder 117) And now West Indies lead has gone past 500.
“Evening Rob and 2019,” says Tom Bowtell. “Last year I read somewhere, possibly on the OBO, that the England management were increasingly seeing Stokes as a batsman who bowls. Ever since then he has emerged as the complete opposite, as his stats from the last year - with nearly identical batting and bowling averages of 25 - show. He’s now arguably our second best seamer, but isn’t doing enough to be a top five batter. I wonder if some sort of role-swap with Curran needs to happen sooner rather than later?”
76th over: West Indies 283-6 (Dowrich 70, Holder 116) Anderson gets one to straighten past Holder’s outside edge. Lovely bowling.
“Do you think Jimmy is trying to get himself banned for running on the pitch,” says Richard Adams, “so he can spend the rest of the innings resting in the outfield?”
75th over: West Indies 280-6 (Dowrich 69, Holder 114) Root has comfortably outbowled Moeen and Rashid today, mixing off and legspin and varying his pace as well. One delivery in that over was 72mph.
74th over: West Indies 279-6 (Dowrich 68, Holder 114) Anderson replaces Stokes, another decision that is on the unfathomable side of WTF. He is warned by Rod Tucker for running on the danger zone, which makes his countenance even grumpier than it was at the start of the over. One run from it.
“After the earlier comments from Sara Torvalds, can she offer any solace to an Englishman living in Finland?” asks Chris Prior. “At least I’m not on Pluto? A Sri Lanka supporter?”
73rd over: West Indies 278-6 (Dowrich 67, Holder 114) Joe Root hurries through another over. While he is doing so, Jimmy Anderson gets loose for another bowling spell. Great, nice one.
72nd over: West Indies 276-6 (Dowrich 66, Holder 112) Stokes bowls his 46th over of the match, and we’re not even at the halfway point on day three. I can’t really see the logic behind this. Bowl Sam Curran, bowl Jonny Bairstow, bowl anyone else.
71st over: West Indies 275-6 (Dowrich 66, Holder 112) This is a terrific spell from Joe Root. Holder almost drags on and then inside-edges a legspinner this far wide of leg stump.
“It’s just gone lunch on Day 3,” says Harkarn Sumal. “Other than any gremlins that the weather might hold across Saturday and Sunday, there is no earthly reason why Holder should declare at any point before stumps today, especially if they’re rattling along like this and having fun. They’re potentially putting horrible thankless miles into Stokes and Anderson’s legs (and souls) too. If I were Root, I’d simply wrap the two of them up in cotton wool and leave Curran and the spinners to do the work for the whole of the rest of this innings, no matter what it did to the scorecard. England are toast here even if four wickets fall in the next over.”
70th over: West Indies 270-6 (Dowrich 66, Holder 107) The admirable, indefatigable, bloody-minded, bloody-stupid-to-still-be-bowling Stokes twice beats Dowrich outside off stump during an excellent over.
“Rob,” says John Starbuck. “Now that we’ve had choice of toss to the visiting side in the County Championship, are there any win/loss figures there too? Or do we have to wait about five years to get a respectable spread?”
69th over: West Indies 270-6 (Dowrich 66, Holder 107) Root is bowling well here, and almost slips a legspinner behind Holder’s legs. Much more of this and Root will be officially classifed as an all-rounder as well. Once Jimmy Anderson retires, England should be able to pick an XI comprised entirely of batsmen and batting all-rounders.
“I’m not basing this on the kind of stattastic numbers Jon Taylor produced (64th over), but might one reason for the increasing influence of the toss be the inability of test teams to bat out a draw when facing an ungettable target?” says David Hopkins. “It feels like nowadays teams lack the application to even try to bat out a day and a half, so a first innings leads more or less guarantees victory.”
68th over: West Indies 269-6 (Dowrich 65, Holder 107) Oh for heaven’s sake. Ben Stokes is bowling again, again. This surely isn’t a good idea given how much work he has already done in this match. Holder pulls him for four, because he wants to, because he wants to.
67th over: West Indies 264-6 (Dowrich 64, Holder 103) Joe Root, the Sonny Ramadhin de nos jours, is mixing offies and leggies to decent effect. Three from the over.
“I thought you (and a few other England supporters) might need a bit of cheering up,” says Sara Torvalds. “Take the positives and all that. So far, apart from the obvious (a resurgent West Indies, good for cricket, learning curve, yada yada) there’s one thing you probably haven’t thought of: You’re not in Finland!
66th over: West Indies 261-6 (Dowrich 62, Holder 102) The West Indies captain Jason Holder reaches a spectacular hundred on his home ground by launching Rashid for a glorious straight six. It’s his fifth six, all off Rashid, and that one went straight into the sightscreen. His hundred has taken just 99 balls. Rashid’s misery continues when he is called for a back foot no-ball. He has figures of 9-0-61-0, and I have a bad feeling we are watching the last spell of his Test career.
“Afternoon, Rob,” says Phil Sawyer. “The thing about Souness wasn’t just the tackling; he perfected the art of protesting that he was the injured party long before Suarez damaged his poor teeth on those chaps. This is a spectacular example. Warning: May not be safe for those of a nervous disposition.”
65th over: West Indies 252-6 (Dowrich 62, Holder 94) Joe Root takes one for the team by coming on to bowl. His first ball is a good one that Holder edges wide of slip for four, and then he has a huge LBW appeal against Dowrich turned down. England have no reviews left. That looked extremely close because Dowrich was a long way back as he played around a legspinner. In fact, I’m not sure what was wrong with that. Yes, replays show the decision would have been overturned had England been able to review.
64th over: West Indies 247-6 (Dowrich 61, Holder 89) Holder begins the session by swiping Rashid over long-on for six. He didn’t quite get hold of it as he intended but it had just enough to clear Jos Buttler on the boundary.
“Hi Rob,” says Jon Taylor. “How much would you say England’s Test recovery over the last year was helped by that crazy run of eight tosses won in a row? Without Sky I’ve relied on highlights and match reports so couldn’t assess how strong the performances behind the results really were. But of the last 100 completed Tests worldwide, the team winning the toss had an astonishing (to me) record of 60 wins, 27 losses and 13 draws. It feels like the toss is becoming more and more of a factor. Thoughts?”
This is wonderful
“Just came across this,” says Kim Thonger. “Marvellous stuff. Groucho visiting MCC v Cambridge University in 1954 at Lord’s. He was heard to remark, ‘What a wonderful cure for insomnia. If you can’t sleep here, you really need an analyst.’”
Related: From the Observer archive, 27 June 1954: Groucho Marx goes to cricket's Mecca
The players are coming back out
“Don’t worry Rob,” says Bob Miller. “As I vegan I can confirm you can chuck vegan pies. And cows will still be allowed to exist in the corner, come the revolution.”
63rd over: West Indies 237-6 (Dowrich 61, Holder 80) Stokes hustles in for the last over before lunch. Even he can’t bend this situation to his will, and the West Indies batsmen complete a superb session for their team: 110 runs, no wickets, no danger of anything other than a crushing victory.
I’ll be back in half an hour for the afternoon session. In the meantime, let’s get on with the quiz.
Related: Sports quiz of the week: Usain Bolt, Novak Djokovic and Thierry Henry
62nd over: West Indies 235-6 (Dowrich 60, Holder 79) Ach! The answer is Mark Boucher and Lance Klusener. Darn it. Turns out McMillan and Richardson were 15 runs short of achieving the same feat. Meanwhile, Adil Rashid has decided to around the wicket, which is primarily but not exclusively a defensive move. Dowrich and Holder milk him for five runs from the over. Rashid’s figures in this second innings are 7-0-42-0; he’s going at a run a ball, in other words.
61st over: West Indies 230-6 (Dowrich 57, Holder 77) Ben Stokes comes back into the attack. Did Andrew Flintoff die at Lord’s in 2006 for nothing?! (NB: He didn’t actually die.) A handful of singles push the West Indies lead up to 442. More to the point, Bumble will give us the answer to the big question at the start of the next over.
“You said Holder hit Rashid over cow corner for six,” notes Rob Merrills. “If the rising tide of veganism continues to gather momentum, will ‘cow corner’ join ‘Chinaman’ as nothing more than a footnote in the cricketing lexicon, evoking fond memories of simpler though considerably more cruel times where cricket teas included buttered scones with cream and jam, and potted beef sandwiches?”
60th over: West Indies 227-6 (Dowrich 56, Holder 75) This is a great question from Bumble on Sky. Dowrich and Holder are apparently only the second pair in Test history to put on a century partnership for the sixth, seventh and eight wickets. Who are the other pair? I’m going to guess Brian McMillan and Dave Richardson, and I’m almost certainly wrong.
59th over: West Indies 225-6 (Dowrich 55, Holder 74) Yeeha! Holder drives Curran high over long off for a regal six, which brings up the century partnership. England’s change bowlers are being treated like an old sock.
58th over: West Indies 219-6 (Dowrich 55, Holder 68) A bit of respite for Rashid, who gets through an over without being pumped for six by Jason Holder.
“Surely England are a bit like one of those SA XIs that had Pollock or Klusener at No9 or 10,” says Gary Naylor. “(Maybe, from memory, also the 1970 SA XI too. They were pretty good.)”
57th over: West Indies 216-6 (Dowrich 54, Holder 66) A maiden from Curran to Holder.
56th over: West Indies 216-6 (Dowrich 54, Holder 66) A flighted delivery from Rashid is carted into the crowd at cow corner by Holder. That’s a majestic shot, his second six in as many overs from Rashid.
55th over: West Indies 208-6 (Dowrich 53, Holder 59) That light shower has passed, so it was a good call from the umpires to continue. Sam Curran, who has switched ends, is flicked sweetly through mid-on for four by Dowrich. That brings up to a confident half-century, his ninth in Tests.
“OK Robert,” says Adam Roberts. “I’ll take the bait. I didn’t write in yesterday as it was during a very intense passage of play, but you’ve done it again today. Are you spelling mayhem as mayham on purpose and, if yes, why? Is it Sopranos related?”
54th over: West Indies 203-6 (Dowrich 49, Holder 58) I’ve a hunch this might be Adil Rashid’s last Test. He comes into the attack and is immediately launched for six by Holder. Poor Rashid’s match figures are 20-1-80-0.
“Hi Rob,” says Pete Salmon. “The thing that actually annoys me most about slow over rates is the way that every ex-player who becomes a commentator immediately bemoans them and starts looking for solutions AS THOUGH THEY WERE NEVER INVOLVED. Given we’ve suffered them for nigh on 30 years, who was actually playing when they happened?”
53rd over: West Indies 194-6 (Dowrich 47, Holder 51) It has started to rain at the Kensington Oval. The umpires decide to take the players off and then change their mind, presumably reasoning that it is only a light shower.
“’I can’t remember a Test team with a balance quite like this, which makes them hard to judge because there are no precedents,’” says Andrew Benzeval, quoting my earlier comment. “Yet another tick in the column in favour of the long overdue recall of Robin Smith…”
52nd over: West Indies 191-6 (Dowrich 45, Holder 50) Holder works Curran for a single to reach a quietly dominant half-century from only 60 balls. It’s his ninth in Tests, to go with two centuries and five five-fors. Even though he’s been Test captain for almost four years, he’s still only 27. This is a cricketer, and a gentleman, of admirable substance.
“Absolutely right that they changed it to ‘Left Arm Wrist Spinner’ (48th over),” says Bill Hargreaves. “Chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature.”
51st over: West Indies 190-6 (Dowrich 45, Holder 49) A good comeback from Moeen, who pulls his length back from full to good. One from the over.
“With the Australian Open going on right now, my eyes fell upon the ‘shot clock’ introduced in the major tennis tournaments to prevent wastage of time between the playing of points,” says Abhijato Sensarma. “Cricket could do with something similar amidst a long-standing crisis of poor over rates in Test matches. Timing the period between consecutive deliveries will be too distracting and impractical; maybe there could be the introduction of an ‘Over Clock’ on the electronic scoreboards? This ensures the change of ends is done at a quick rate, and the first ball of the next set is bowled at a decent rate. ‘Violations’ could be handed out to the skipper in case of delays not caused by the batsman or external factors, with fines (and even bans) being handed down after repeated offences. Maybe, this could bring an end to the over-rate crisis the sport is seeing nowadays! Thoughts?”
Related: MCC panel explores idea of introducing a ‘shot clock’ to speed up cricket
50th over: West Indies 189-6 (Dowrich 45, Holder 48) Holder plays another cracking shot, pulling Curran dismissively for four, and then Dowrich drives him to the cover boundary to take West Indies’ lead past 400. That’s drinks, and England need a very stiff Gatorade.
“I’m sure you saw this, Prof. Smyth,” says Bill Hargreaves. “The Dude is back – but is Jeff Bridges about to pull the rug from under us?”
49th over: West Indies 179-6 (Dowrich 41, Holder 43) A double bowling change, with Moeen Ali replacing Affronted Anderson. Moeen bowled well yesterday, picking up three wickets in the mayham of West Indies’ top-order collapse, but he starts today with a poor over that goes for 13. Holder drives him for three consecutive boundaries, the first two through extra cover and the third blitzed over mid-off. That’s superb batting, and I reckon West Indies have a collective plan to go after Moeen and dent his confidence. The first of those boundaries, by the way, brought up a fine fifty partnership.
48th over: West Indies 166-6 (Dowrich 40, Holder 31) Sam Curran replaces Ben Stokes and goes straight around the wicket to the right-handers. It’s a good, accurate start from Curran, with just one from the over. West Indies lead by 378.
“Rob,” says John Starbuck. “The thing about ‘Chinaman’ is that it’s laugh-out loud funny, in a sardonic way too.”
47th over: West Indies 165-6 (Dowrich 39, Holder 31) Holder does to Anderson what he did to Stokes, flicking neatly to the fine-leg boundary. Anderson is leaving the field, which suggests his work for this match is done. He must have been so hacked off yesterday, and rightly so.
“Why do we suddenly have so many allrounders and is it a good thing?” says Tom German. “Could some of these allrounders be forced to choose like with their A-Levels or should we just field seven allrounders and to hang with it?”
46th over: West Indies 160-6 (Dowrich 38, Holder 27) An inswinger from Stokes is flicked to fine leg for four by Holder. Stokes yelps in frustration. I would be tempted to take him out of the attack. It’s a short series and a long year, and England are going to lose this game. Stokes’ bowling workload is becoming an issue.
“Given the minuscule chance of anything other than a Windies victory, I was surprised to see the bookies giving odds of 1.13 before the start of play today (£100 would return £113),” says Sam W. “They’re giving England significantly more of a chance of a result than, turning to football for an example, Burnley getting something against Man City in the FA Cup tomorrow (£100 on City returning £107). I’d have thought this was much more of a done deal than the unpredictability of a 90-minute football match. Is there much chance of rain? Or is there something I’m missing?”
45th over: West Indies 156-6 (Dowrich 38, Holder 23) “I realise that I’m going against the grain here, but as a bowler myself, I’m a bit torn about the ‘fashion’ in recent years to squarely blame our low inningses (not sure that’s a real word) on our batsmen, as surely our bowlers are as culpable for allowing our opposition to score so many runs?” says Scott Roberts. “I genuinely look at the bowlers we have/don’t have any worry about the future of our team, as there don’t seem to be any decent prospects (with the exception of Jofra Archer) and haven’t been any threats to the Anderson/Broad duo for years, allowing them to rack up so many wickets unchallenged. Just a thought.”
I know what you mean, and it’s only a year since an average Australia side were scoring 600 at will. I’d expect Broad to be around for 2-3 years after Anderson to help with the transition. Archer is also, in the parlance of our time, a bit of a gamechanger. And there’s a lad at Warwickshire, Henry Brookes, who is a serious prospect. I’ve started bowling a bit of offspin at the age of 43, too, so let’s all just chill out for a bit, can we.
44th over: West Indies 151-6 (Dowrich 34, Holder 22) It might be time to have a look at Moeen Ali. Anderson and Stokes aren’t bowling badly, quite the contrary, but this middle-aged ball isn’t doing a great deal. Stokes still finds a way to burst one past Dowrich’s outside edge, which causes a flustered Dowrich to play and miss at the next delivery as well. Stokes has bowled so well this morning.
“Re: Gary Naylor’s point,” begins Ian Copestake. “Perhaps there should be a ban on using the phrase ‘we win as a team and lose as a team’ in front of a group who perhaps do not understand the notion of metaphor.”
43rd over: West Indies 146-6 (Dowrich 32, Holder 20) A juicy outswinger from Anderson is pinged through extra cover for four by Holder. He’s a really useful Test No8, with an average in the low 30s.
“Hello Rob: a book with cricket as a main feature and one that I’d highly recommend is Chinaman by Shehan Karunatilaka, set in Sri Lanka,” says Ravi Raman. “Fiction and not a true ‘cricket’ book as such.”
42nd over: West Indies 142-6 (Dowrich 32, Holder 16) Stokes, who is bowling with impressive intensity and precisely no luck, beats both batsmen in the course of a fine over. Before Bristol, Stokes was a batsman who bowled; at the moment he looks like the opposite.
41st over: West Indies 140-6 (Dowrich 31, Holder 15) Holder square drives Anderson for four, helped by a misfield from Bairstow, before being beaten by a lovely outswinger.
“As a counterpoint to all the doom around the England shower-show yesterday, and in the spirit of enthusiastic preamble, can I just say that, as one who was a lad in the era of Marshall, Holding, Croft and Garner, I loved the heady wave of nostalgia which swept over me on seeing a Windies fast bowler rip the heart out of the English line-up,” says Martin Wright. “Made me feel young again. And gave me hope (illusory maybe) that cricket still has a future in that most entertaining of cricketing nations. So there.”
40th over: West Indies 136-6 (Dowrich 31, Holder 11) Holder tries to turn a lifter from Stokes to leg and gets a leading edge that lands safely on the off side. Well bowled by Stokes, who has been extremely good with the ball since his return. (Don’t mention the batting.)
“Rob,” says Charles. “As a 47-year-old England fan I have lived through some tough times against the West Indies, but this is too much, can we stop now? Just post a few pictures of the blue sky and maybe a bit of local wildlife, NO MENTION OF THE CRICKET...”
39th over: West Indies 133-6 (Dowrich 30, Holder 9) After that scandalously expensive first over, which disappeared for four runs, Jimmy returns to his parsimonious ways with a maiden to Dowrich.
“It really was an extraordinary collapse yesterday,” says Andrew Benzeval. “West Indies bowled very nicely by all accounts, but perhaps not 77 all out nice. One way to look at it would be the nature of selection under Ed Smith, which is by hunch to a degree, combined with a number of players fulfilling multiple roles (the old “bits and pieces” team as opposed to a settled side of specialists) does create danger. An unkinder way to look at it would be two unproven openers, a new number 3, a misfiring middle order and then bowlers who recently have been doing much of the batting. Is another way to look at yesterday then simply that the wheels came off, as they have threatened to do a number of times in the last year, but this time nothing was there to stop it?”
38th over: West Indies 133-6 (Dowrich 30, Holder 9) Ben Stokes starts at the other end. He takes a few balls to get his radar right but ends the over with an excellent lifter that beats Holder.
“Hard as it is to disagree with Gary Naylor, I think it’s necessary,” says Geoff Wignall. “Buttler and/ or Curran have had to rescue the batting rather too often recently, decent opening stands have been too few and far between even when respectable totals have been posted and without the Earl of Burnley the bowling would be too frequently unconvincing to go along with his theory. It’s still about individual performance, albeit it does seem a very well knit team. (Am I alone in thinking the sense of team unity and common purpose, as well as Root’s onfield decision making has been on an upward curve since Buttler returned?)”
37th over: West Indies 131-6 (Dowrich 29, Holder 9) Shane Dowrich and Jason Holder get West Indies off to a good start, milking four singles from James Anderson’s first over. I suspect they will want to increase the lead to 400 as quickly as possible.
“My boyfriend and I are off to Antigua next week,” boasts Emma Leonard, “and we want something to read on the way. Any new cricket books you’d recommend?”
Mike Atherton is interviewing Shimron Hetmyer on Sky Sports. He seems a thoroughly charming, happy and self-deprecating young bloke, and we already know he is spectacularly talented. We are going to seriously enjoy him over the next 15 years.
This is an interesting point from Our Gary
“It’s often said that cricket is an individual sport played within a team environment - indeed, that’s one of its principal delights,” says Gary Naylor. “Can it be entirely coincidental that Joe Root’s England team - one of the most ‘together’ in England’s history, maybe in Test cricket’s history - tend to succeed and fail collectively, as if a hive mind operates positively and negatively? I can provide no psychological explanation for such conjecture, but it’s happening too often to be explained away by simple coincidence.”
Pre-match reading
Related: West Indies bowled ‘fantastically well,’ says shell-shocked Moeen Ali
Related: West Indies steady ship after ripping through England on day of 18 wickets
Related: Kemar Roach is West Indies’ raging fire on a day to stir nostalgia | Ali Martin
Oh, England. There’s your preamble!
At least it would be, had I not just spotted The Man lovingly polishing his knuckle duster. So, here’s your preamble.
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