Whenever it is tempting to consign hopes to the bin, as many England supporters would have done over the weekend, it pays to remember just how long a Test match lasts. A scheduled five days, 15 sessions, 450 overs, 2,700 balls is an age in sporting terms, allowing for shifts in feeling and mood and pressure that can help accelerate even the drabbest of encounters. It only takes one bad hour or one bad session to bring a match to life.
Patience was required, but possibilities finally arose in this match in the hour after lunch on the fifth day. England had already squeezed the accelerator in the morning, scoring giddily at almost six an over to allow a declaration with 65 overs left. Then three wickets fell quickly before the shine had gone from the ball, and suddenly we were in Antigua again, England’s players filled with belief, and West Indies hanging on, defeat a real possibility.
A tense afternoon followed, with time ticking away, spinners operating for long periods with four, five, sometimes six men around the bat, England’s supporters in full voice to provide every possible encouragement, light fading and Kraigg Brathwaite, the proud captain of West Indies, standing between them and an improbable victory. When the last hour began, England required five wickets for victory, and Brathwaite’s wicket most of all.
Brathwaite was immense all match. He spent more than 15 hours at the crease all told, adding four more hours of watchfulness to the 11 hours and more he needed to craft his first-innings hundred. By the time the second innings began, he had only spent 20 overs off the field, so this was a performance of genuine fortitude. Now and again he would play a shot that involved a little too much risk for the situation and he would tap his bat on the ground a few times as if to say to himself: “Come on, Kraigg, concentrate.”
He certainly did that. His duel with Jack Leach, who added 25 overs to a 70-over shift in the first innings, decided the outcome of the game: had Brathwaite succumbed to Leach earlier in the first innings, or during the afternoon of the second, England would probably have won the match. Brathwaite’s skill in nullifying the spinner, by playing bat in front of pad, and carefully watching the ball off the pitch, was the telling factor, though Leach could also take pride from his performance.
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On such a comatose pitch, it was to England’s great credit that they managed to offer their supporters even a glimmer of hope. A clue to their intentions, when 145 runs were added in 25 overs in the morning, was the alacrity with which Root sprinted out to the middle after the early dismissal of Alex Lees, caught on the boundary looking to push things along. To his ninth ball, England’s captain shimmied down the pitch and drove Veerasammy Permaul over mid-on; to his tenth, he suffered the same fate as Lees.
When Zak Crawley hoisted a pull to fine leg, England had lost three wickets in the opening half-hour. Between them, Dan Lawrence, Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow repaired the damage without limiting any ambition. As middle orders go, this one has potential to create some carnage, especially when ahead of the game, as England were now. When 17 were taken from a Kemar Roach over, which included a mighty six from Stokes, the charge was well and truly on.
Lawrence, in particular, enjoyed the chance to express himself, as he did in a similar situation in Antigua, aiming extravagant hits, especially to the leg side. He added 51 in only seven overs with Bairstow, meting out punishment to all, although excellent catching in the outfield added some gloss to the bowling figures. Root’s declaration came at lunch, the target 282.
England had given debuts to two young bowlers, and it was one of those, Saqib Mahmood, who began to prise open West Indies’ batting line-up with his waspish pace. Leach had actually set the ball rolling, coming into the attack in the sixth over, and immediately finding enough turn and bounce to snare John Campbell in the leg trap. But it was Mahmood who provided the most impetus with a fine five-over spell that brought the wickets of Shamarh Brooks and Nkrumah Bonner, both caught by Root at slip in contrasting ways. At 39 for three, West Indies were wobbling.
Mahmood is not the 90mph bowler of popular imagination but he is sharp enough, is skilful with new ball and old and holds a steady line. For his first wicket, he required the excellent reflexes of Crawley at first slip, who palmed up a back-foot slash from Brooks, for Root to snaffle, but the ball to get Bonner was a good one and brought a simple waist-high catch, squaring the batsman up on the back foot as a result of a little movement off the pitch.
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Mahmood looked the most incisive of the seamers. Chris Woakes has endured another ineffective match with the ball, and must surely be at risk for his place in Grenada, and Matt Fisher looked like an English-style bowler, useful with new ball in hand but straining to adapt thereafter. So it was to Mahmood that Root turned again immediately after tea, as the seamer most likely to bring more joy. That suggested a dramatic promotion.
Mahmood bowled three more overs before giving way to Leach, who immediately ended the partnership between Brathwaite and Jermaine Blackwood, in familiar fashion. Familiar, because it was Marcus Trescothick at Taunton who initiated positioning himself extremely close to the bat at gully in a helmet on his knees, and here it was Jonny Bairstow reprising the Trescothick role and safely pouching the edge as Blackwood pushed forward. There were 28 overs remaining when Jason Holder walked to the crease.
Holder had played an uncharacteristically loose shot in the first innings, and will not look back fondly at his dismissal in the second as a short ball from Leach stopped a little in surface, resulting in a spooned catch to cover, where Lawrence pounced athletically low to his left. Only Josh Da Silva now stood between England and West Indies’ bowlers, but Da Silva played calmly, despite the tenseness of the situation and the proximity of the close fielders.
Once England’s first innings had reached 500 on the second day, the rest of the game was always destined to be a grind between an industrious attack lacking a little inspiration and an obdurate batting line-up lacking class, on a sluggish pitch that hindered the former and helped the latter. The likelihood of a draw seemed high once Brathwaite settled to his task first time around, but it needed all his obduracy and skill again on the final day to ensure the result his mighty performance deserved.
Scoreboard
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England 1st Innings - 507-9 declared
West Indies 1st Innings - 411
England 2nd Innings - overnight 40-0
A. Lees c Joseph b Permaul 24
Z. Crawley c Seales b Joseph 40
J. Root c Campbell b Permaul 9
D. Lawrence c Joseph b Seales 41
B. Stokes c Brathwaite b Roach 19
J. Bairstow c Roach b Seales 29
B. Foakes not out 11
C. Woakes not out 9
Extras (b1, nb1, w1) 3
Total (6 wkts declared, 39.5 overs) 185
Did not bat: M. Fisher, J. Leach, S. Mahmood
Fall of wickets: 1-51 (Lees), 2-67 (Root), 3-74 (Crawley), 4-110 (Stokes), 5-161 (Bairstow), 6-167 (Lawrence)
Bowling: K. Roach 8-3-31-1 (1nb, 1w), V. Permaul 10-0-29-2, J. Seales 6-0-34-2, K. Brathwaite 1-0-5-0, J. Holder 8.5-1-40-0, A. Joseph 6-0-45-1
West Indies 2nd Innings
K. Brathwaite not out 56
J. Campbell c Lees b Leach 10
S. Brooks c Root b Mahmood 4
N. Bonner c Root b Mahmood 3
J. Blackwood c Bairstow b Leach 27
J. Holder c Lawrence b Leach 0
J. da Silva not out 30
Extras (b1, lb2, nb2) 5
Total (5 wkts, 65overs) 135
Did not bat: A. Joseph, K. Roach, V. Permaul, J. Seales
Fall of wickets: 1-14 (Campbell), 2-23 (Brooks), 3-39 (Bonner), 4-89 (Blackwood), 5-93 (Holder)
Bowling: C. Woakes 4-0-11-0, M. Fisher 2-1-4-0, J. Leach 25-13-36-3, S. Mahmood 8-2-21-2 (1nb), J. Root 6-3-15-0, B. Stokes 7-2-9-0 (1nb), D. Lawrence 13-34-36-0
Result: Match Drawn
Toss: England
Umpires: Joel Wilson (WIS), Nigel Duguid (WIS)
Match Referee: Sir Richie Richardson (WIS)
