West Indies bowler, Alzarri Joseph, added a tidy two-wicket haul to a maiden half-century to help put English County club Worcestershire in a commanding position against Nottinghamshire at New Road.
Chasing a sizeable first innings score of 436, Nottinghamshire crumbled for 276, despite 111 from opener Haseeb Hameed and not losing their first wicket until they had put 115 runs on the board.
Charlie Morris had the best bowling figures for Worcestershire, after taking 3 for 30 but Joseph chipped in with 2 for 33. The West Indies accounted for top-order batsman Ben Duckett and Nottinghamshire were then forced to follow on still some 160 runs short of the target.
April 25, 1976. The end of the bloodbath in Jamaica, which gave the West Indies victory in the series by a slim 2-1 margin. Arunabha Sengupta looks back at some of the most hostile bowling ever seen in Test cricket.
As the demoralized Indian contingent disembarked from their flight at Bombay’s Santacruz Airport, not too many fans were waiting to welcome them back. One wonders whether even the biggest diehard follower of Indian cricket could have recognized them. Battered, bruised, and beleaguered, the men could have easily been taken for a troop on the way back from Ha Noi. Life and limb had been at peril, and yards of gauze and bandages spoke about the ghastly travails.
Gundappa Viswanath had a plaster cast running from his forearm to fingers. Anshuman Gaekwad was barely recognizable; his features wrapped from chin to crown in white dressing. Brijesh Patel had three stitches on his upper lip.
CRICKET West Indies (CWI) CEO Johnny Grave said plans are still in place to host South Africa despite Cricket South Africa (CSA) facing intervention from South Africa’s sports minister Nathi Mthethwa which may affect the tour.
A Cricinfo article on Sunday said, “Cricket South Africa (CSA) will face intervention from the country's sports minister Nathi Mthethwa after failing to agree on a Memorandum of Incorporation that will set out the blueprint for a majority independent board. Mthethwa will use the National Sports and Recreation Act to step in, which gives him the right to – amongst other things – withdraw funding and no longer officially recognize CSA as the governing body of cricket.”
South Africa is next in line to tour the Caribbean following Sri Lanka’s tour of the West Indies in March and April, but the latest news in South Africa has created some uncertainty.
Cricket West Indies (CWI) is hoping that an accelerated roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines by regional governments can result in a sufficient improvement in health conditions so as to facilitate the staging of first-class cricket in coming months.
The governing body has been banking on a shortened first-class season, but with COVID-19 cases rising in several countries, speculation over a cancellation has heightened in recent weeks.
However, CWI chief executive Johnny Grave said they remained “optimistic and hopeful” of an improvement in the pandemic so some amended version of the first-class season could be staged before the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), which is scheduled to get underway in August.
“We want to hold on to the possibility of playing some four-day cricket at some point this summer until it becomes absolutely impossible from a logistics and COVID perspective,” Grave said.
West Indies fast bowler, Alzarri Joseph, put in another solid performance for English County Cricket club Worcestershire, against Nottinghamshire, at New Road One cricket ground on Thursday.
At the end of the first day, Joseph remained unbeaten on 46 from 81 balls and sharing in an eighth-wicket stand worth 89 runs with Ed Barnard. The partnership took Worcestershire to 305 for 7, after looking in some trouble at 216 for 7 earlier on.
The total marks Joseph’s second 40+runs innings of the young season, having opened up with 46 from 55 against Derbyshire last week. On that occasion, the bowler also chipped in with 3 wickets drawing commendation from Worcestershire coach, Alex Gidman, who praised the player's mentality.
