West Indies

The war is over between the West Indies and the Empire and the Fire and the Babylon well and true extinguished in this early soggy English summer, the West Indies cricket team a sorry sight these days, no motivation to stick it to the Queen anymore. You can see that by the poor attendance of their fans at the tests here. It doesn’t matter anymore. At the England Lions game at Northampton v West Indies last month you could see this side were not going to be much opposition, the IPL and West Indies politics, not the heart, deciding how loyal the players are to the team. With the mighty Chris Gayle biffing an amazing century in the IPL on the opening day of the Lords Test you can see where international cricket is going. The West Indies have lost 16 out of their 18 tests in England since the turn of the millennium, atrocious numbers, considering the nightmares they used to dish out. The day their fast bowlers fizzed it past your ear or smacked it out of the ground with a vapor trail on are long gone. If their quickies have pace today they have little direction, but their batsmen able to guide the ball to the slips much more accurately.

----The Current Series---

The exciting Chris Bairstow was added to the England squad for the injured Ravi Bopara for the First Test at Lords for the current series, little James Taylor of Nottinghamshire overlooked again, his years at the less glamorous county of Leicestershire at the bottom of Division Two still counting against him. I saw young Bairstow in the pub on the Saturday night during the Lions at the Northampton match, he and Jade Dernbach deciding not to get their heads down to impress the selectors, their glamorous counties securing their selection so keep boozing. Lopey spiner Shillingford came in for the Windies.

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1st Test – Lords
May 16- 20
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Day one and England put the Windies in at Lords in very English conditions conducive to swing and seam, a lick of sunshine glinting off the new red ball, Chanderpaul yet again the star, the current umber one batsman in the world unbeaten on 87 in a poor total of 243. His score took him to 9th on the world of all-time test run scorers, three years short of his 40th birthday. His crab like side on batting style is hard to bowl at (think Peter Willey) and England simply couldn’t get near him as he ground them out. Bowlers bowl at his pads chasing LBWs and he simply whips it to the boundary. Stuart Broad was the star for England with an impressive 7-72, one of only five men to go up on the separate Honors Boards at Lords for taking a five for and scoring a century. Jamie Anderson became the 4th highest wicket taker at Lords in tests for an Englishman with his 47th scalp.

If you are an England batsman and you want to find form then there’s no better place than Lords against a feeble West Indian bowling attack, especially when it’s your home ground, Andrew Strauss’s first hundred since 2010 earning a memorable standing ovation. The fans love this guy as captain and angry that the tabloid press have tried to usurp him and so the emotion still strong for our leader, his fifth England ton at HQ and now level second with twenty tons in the All-Time list for English Test players with that 122. Some of the critic was fair and there’s no doubt that if neither Alistair Cook nor Strauss are firing England are wide open to spinners on the Sub Continent. But on our patch the England batsmen revel and Trott (58) set up Bell (61) to wag the tail for a healthy 398 all-out, 155 on. Trott has still to hit a six in a test match.

------Most Test hundreds by English batsmen--------

•22: Wally Hammond, Colin Cowdrey, Geoff Boycott
•20: Ken Barrington, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Strauss, Graham Gooch
•19: Alastair Cook, Len Hutton
•18: Michael Vaughan, David Gower
•17: Denis Compton

The West Indies response was again built around Shivran Chanderpaul, his awkward style flummoxing the England pace attack, flicking, nurdling and cutting off his pads to great but ugly effect. His stoic effort made a game of it, 91 off 250 balls alongside some aggressive hitting by Darren Samuels (86) and the tail gave the ‘Windies’ a chance of a surprise victory, setting England 191 to win and wobbling at 10-2 at the close of day four. For Stuart Broad it would be a record breaking day, his 4-93 giving him match figures of 11-165, the first 10 wicket haul in a Lords test since 1978 and the fourth best bowling figures ever there, his numbers the best by an England fast bowler, the all-rounder even beating the mighty I.T. Botham.

If England did get these it would be the fourth highest successful chase at Lords in a test. After an early scare or two with Trott and Pietersen removed, Bell (63*) and Cook (79) saw us home for the historic victory with a 132 partnership. It wasn’t comprehensive by England but still proficient, the days when England collapse against the West Indies long since gone…

---Result---

West Indies 1st Innings
243 all out (89.5 over’s)

England 1st Innings
398 all out (113.3 over’s) England 2nd Innings

West Indies 2nd Innings
345 all out (130.5 over’s)

193 for 5 (46.1 over’s)
England win by 5 wickets.

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2nd Test – Trent Bridge
May 25th-29th
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If the West Indies needed a way back into the series winning the toss at a baking hot Trent Bridge was the right way to go. But their first four are poor and soon blitzed by England’s excellent new ball bowlers, Chanderpaul again the only one holding out. But at 136-6 the West Indies captain Darren Sammy (106) rallied alongside Samuels (117) with a record seventh wicket partnership of 204, the highest for any visiting team in England. But 370 all –out was below par for such a pitch, Tim Bresnan 4-104.

England had much more solid start with Strauss’s century (146) driving England to 267-7, Pietersen with a flashing 80. But a wobble to genuine fast bowling from the exciting Kumar Roach on day three saw England’s tail left slog to 428 all-out, Bresnan again the man with 39*. When he plays England win, simple as, 12 out of 12 going into this series. Strauss’s ton was number 21 in tests, just two behind the all-time high for England, an exciting battle between him, Cook and KP to set the new outright record of 23.

The West Indies batsmen are brittle and a 58 deficit was too much, 61-6 at the close of day three. England’s pace attack simply overrun all sides in English conditions by finding movement or swing, Trent Bridge is known for it due to their new stands that mess with the wind and air. The following morning there was more resistance from Samuels with an unbeaten 79* but the rest fell away for 165 all – out, Bresnan 4-37 and Andersen 4-43.

England duly knocked the 111 off with little alarms to record a nine wicket win, Cook 43*. Incredibly, if you consider our history with the West Indies, for the chastened tourists it extends their series winless streak in this country to 24 years, and means they have won just one of their last 25 Tests against England. England has now won seven straight home test series against all comers. South Africa are next, the current world number two. Hang on to your hats folks!

-----Most prolific Test opening partnerships------

• 6,482 runs: Gordon Greenidge & Desmond Haynes (WI), 148 innings
• 5,655: Matthew Hayden & Justin Langer (Aus), 113 innings
• 4,597: Alastair Cook & Andrew Strauss (Eng), 111 innings

------Result------

England wins by 9 wickets and so the three match series.

West Indies 1st Innings: 370 all out (109.2 over’s)

England 1st Innings: 428 all out (123.4 over’s) England 2nd Innings

West Indies 2nd Innings: 165 all out (60.1 over’s)

England 2nd innings: 111 for 1 (30.4 over’s)

-----Conclusions-----

England are fine but the West Indies are not, the Calypso cricketers once again. They have five decent players able in this side at this level but that’s about it. Samuels can bat and top scorer so far here and there is no doubt they are too reliant on Chaderpaul still, why he is still world number one as he battles to rescue innings. Roach is quick and hits batsmen and certainly exposed Johnny Bairstow test career chances with the chin music. Captain Sammy can give it some licks and Rhampal looks sharp but bar that it does not look good. Would the IPL guys make much difference? Yes but England have more gears to go through and I still think they would win three nil this summer with Gayle and co in the games. The Windies need to make up with Sarwan and Gayle and the IPL needs to be shortened to March/April time so we can see stronger Test series around the world.