West Indies are you ready?
Thu, Apr 30, '15
The DJ had the nerve to play ‘Rally Round The West Indies’ ahead of the last over before lunch on the final day of the second Test match. By then, the English bowlers had gobbled up six West Indies wickets. All credit to them, of course. Spectators would have been thinking that no amount of rallying was going to bring the team back into a position to draw the game. Where is the rain that visited the Grenada National Cricket Stadium often on days 1 and 2, they wondered? The sun answered by shining even brighter!
At the post-match press conferences after day 4, both century makers Joe Root and Kraigg Brathwaite had said that the first hour would be very important for their respective teams. It was indeed. It showed England that they could take the fight to the opposition and work them out on a pitck which was still playing well. On the other hand, it could have had Captain Denesh Ramdin asking “is West Indies ready?” what with the team going to lunch on 286 for 8. Six wickets lost in two hours.
Author’s note: I stopped writing at lunch time, unable to predict the future. Yes, while the sun shines, there was hope.
During the lunch interval, would Ramdin have asked his team if they were ready? Ready to defend the target of 143 they had set England to reach in 47 overs? Ready to dispel their reputation as ‘bits and pieces’ cricketers in the eye of the fans? Did he issue a clarion call to his troops?
With England needing to score at 3.04 runs per over, the West Indies would have to bowl a good line and length, like their bowling consultant Curtly Ambrose used to do. The fielders would need to prowl like the ‘big cat’ and chief selector Clive Lloyd once did.
In his first over and the innings’ second, fast bowler Shannon Gabriel got the early success with Jonathan Trott dragging one on. In his first spell, Gabriel had the batsmen testing their core strength as they had to lean out of the way to avoid the full length deliveries whizzing past their upper bodies. Fielders were running faster than Usain Bolt. It took 7 overs before West Indies gifted England an extra – a wide off Jason Holder’s bowling to Gary Ballance.
It would require astute captaincy by Denesh Ramdin to possibly force a draw, so likely at the end of day 4….or dare I say a victory. I wondered if during the lunch break, Ambrose recounted the 3rd Test of England’s 1994 tour of the Caribbean, where on the final day, he and his partner Courtney Walsh, routed England for 46? That would have given them inspiration.
Man down in the 9th over! But not an Englishman. Holder, the hero of the 1st Test, delivered a short pitched ball to Ballance, then writhed in pain as his ankle seemed to have rolled over, resulting in him falling. Off he went on a stretcher, and with that, the bowling attack - already weakened due to Jerome Taylor’s injury – was further reduced. Marlon Samuels, who had jumped higher than we had probably seen him do to try and take the catch at midwicket off Holder’s last ball, completed the over.
With 32 overs remaining, England required a further 109 runs – an over rate of 3.4. It had crept up. Yay! But in the 13th and 14th overs, England opened up, scoring a boundary in each one. That’s all they needed to do. Their 50 runs came off 15.3 overs (93 balls). There was still only 1 extra. By contrast, West Indies’ extras column had read 30 after England’s first innings.
The players walked off for tea with England on 65, still only for the 1 wicket. A stronger shot of caffeine instead of Lipton might be needed.
[Trivia: Does any cricket team actually drink tea during that break?]
Michael Atherton, former England captain turned journalist/commentator, packed up his computer and left the press box during Tea. Presumably, he did not expect to have to return. Nasser Hussain, also a former England captain-turned-commentator was still here. David Gower, yet another former England captain, was filming a segment during the Tea break. Was he saying “this West Indies team is nothing like that which whitewashed my team in the mid 1980’s?”
[Trivia: How many England captains were/are NOT opening batsmen???]
Meanwhile in the Party Stand to the left of the press box, the throngs of mostly locals were having a whale of a time. Soca and the haunting sounds of drums pervaded the air. ‘Mi thinks’ patrons were oblivious of the runs ‘chase’ happening on field. Maybe that was good for them. And perhaps the constant noise, whilst interruptive to journalists’ writing, was a necessary distraction to the inevitable. As ESPNCricinfo.com put it, West Indies was “sliding to defeat.” Who would have thunk it, given the close of play score of 202 for 2 on Day 4?
As I packed up the tools of my hobby (hey….. Nasser’s was still there) with 7 overs to go and England needing just 17 to win, I wondered what positives Denesh Ramdin would take away from this Test match, which eventually ended approximately one hour before the scheduled close of play. I asked him. 
“Kraigg Braithwaite’s and Marlon Samuels’ centuries,” he responded. I then pointed out the statistics which showed that West Indies had six partnerships in the top 10 for the game. “Having partnerships and going on should have been very important for us but they keep coming at us, they have a very good bowling line up that we can’t take for granted. But we should have just carried on and scored more runs and not let the game get away from us,” Ramdin said at the post-match press conference.
Attention now turns to the final Test match of the series to be played at the Kensington Oval in Barbados. The West Indies captain said he hopes that the wicket provides “something for the quick bowlers.” If that should be the case, the West Indies players have to be ready. As Ramdin went on to say, “we need to seize the initiative in crucial parts of the game either in bowling or batting.” And referring specifically to the batsmen he said “in Test matches, it is difficult to get starts at times. When you get the starts you need to make the best use of it.”
