When reviewing the First Test between England and the touring West Indies, the most surprising element may be that I am writing it after the fifth day of play had been completed. Many anticipated the tourists to not put up much of a fight, like their predecessors did in 2009 when led by (now absent) Chris Gayle they put up little or no battle.
This side now led by former England bowling coach, Otis Gibson, showed a little more tenacity and desire to hold up an England side who wanted to do away with this series and regain form before the visit of South Africa in July when it is a straight battle for the No. 1 side in the world.
Yet the thing to take away from Lords, is that this Windies side is starting to get better, a collective force that is a sum of its parts. They arrive unfortunate to lose to the Australians at home, yet the defeats were all close and victory could have been gotten if luck fell their way. Yet they will admit, when you are down and out - like a club fighting relegation - luck does tend to desert you.
On Thursday morning, day one, Andrew Strauss won the toss and elected to bowl - typical English conditions, cloud cover with his bowling line up of Anderson, Broad, Swann and Bresnan who was selected ahead of Graeme Onions and home boy Steven Finn.
The West Indies selected a side that had a surprise due to injury; Ravi Rampaul did not recover from an ankle injury picked up in the England Lions encounter last week, so a debut was handed to Shannon Gabriel, a 24 year old fast bowler, whose action reminds us of famous bowlers of yore.
In the first hour, England make inroads as with Anderson swinging it both ways removing Kieron Powell (or is it Pollard as the scoreboard suggested) and Kirk Edwards with his swing movement. This brings Darren Bravo, the highly thought of batsmen whose motion reminds many of Brian Charles Lara in partnership with Adrian Barath - before Barath is undone by Stuart Broad an hour after tea. Then Broad begins to takeover proceedings but not before we enjoy another batting masterclass by Shivnarine Chanderpaul who scores a selfless 87* as runs out of partners.
Broad who finishes with 7-72, bowled with a bit of venom inducing bounce out of a pitch to remove Marlon Samuels. England are helped by a comical runout involving Shiv and Bravo, that ends Bravo's innings at 29. England take the new ball, and Broad cleans up the tail. One wicket was remaining at the end of play 243-9, he removes debutant Gabriel with the first ball of the second morning. Swann taking the catch at 2nd slip quite easily. Broad would be on a hat-trick with his first ball of West Indies second innings.
England's first innings is one of hard work intitially as Strauss attempts to see out the first hour as the live wire pair of Kemar Roach and Fidel Edwards offer zip and fire. Having put on 47 for the first wicket, Cook tries to cut a ball too close to his body and plays on, gone for 26. Jonathan Trott arrives and puts on a fine 147 partnership with the captain before he feathers one behind off of the slower medium pace of Darren Sammy, for another half-century. Trott is an accumulator and helps Strauss with his pace of the innings.
Andrew Strauss is desperate to score his first century in Tests since November 2010 on the last Ashes tour in Brisbane, and he does so as he finishes the day on 121. The ovation when he does reach three figures is prolonged showing how much in favour the captain is with the masses in terms of popularity. The next morning Strauss adds just one to his total departing for 122.
The West Indies bowl much better on the third morning, collectively as a unit. The last 7 wickets fell for 132, helped by Ian Bell going to 61 marshalling the tail. Debutant Jonny Bairstow showed some flashes with some wonderful drives before falling for a plumb lbw. Shannon Gabriel got his first Test wicket cleaning up Matt Prior who played all round a ball that seamed off the pitch. England finished on 398 a lead of 155.
The Windies batted much better in the second innings, as the pitch got flatter although a mini-collapse left them at 36-3 after being 36-0 topped off by Bairstow running out Kirk Edwards with a direct throw. Panic sets in when Bravo fails again shouldering arms to Graeme Swann leaving them 65-4. Yet Chanderpaul (again) and Marlon Samuels bat diligently and with intelligence putting on 157 for the fifth wicket, before Samuels who looked very good on both sides of the wicket nips at one outside off with Swann snaring the catch at slip, for 86. Chanderpaul then falls lbw to Swann, to one that straightens and is confirmed on review.
Some swishing from Ramdin and Sammy extend West Indies lead and eventually Gabriel is last man out again as Swann bowls him. West Indies all out for 345, setting England a victory total of 191, Broad takes 4-93 giving him 11 in the match.
Due to the resistance of the lower order England have to sustain a tricky 4 over spell on Sunday evening and with fire in Babylon in their loins, Kemar Roach removes Strauss (4th slip) and nightwatchmen Anderson caught behind leaving England 11-2 overnight.
After a good night's sleep Roach and Edwards come firing in and the plan to get rid of Trott early works as he fends at one to second slip to Roach; and Kevin Pietersen's attempt to hit Gabriel out of the attack fails as after hitting the previous ball for four, he then attempts the same shot from a slower ball with less bounce and lower edges it to Ramdin, leaving England 57-4. With still over 100 runs required, England have work to do against a new ball attack which is getting seam movement off a slow pitch.
The coming together of Ian Bell with the anchored Alastair Cook, however, leads England to victory. This is not helped by the bowling options diminishing for the Windies; without Rampaul or a spin option in Shane Shillingford - they have to fall on Darren Sammy and Marlon Samuels to bowl overs; neither bowl balls that are intimidating and Samuels does not spin the ball. Cook and Bell pick off the runs easily, scoring 121 in the morning session, leaving just 60 required for victory after lunch.
Cook is caught out at gully with two runs still required on 79, Jonny Bairstow joined Ian Bell yet if falls to Bell to hit the winning runs as he finishes unbeaten on 63* his second fifty of the match.
For England, it was a job well done and get the victory that many expected. As for West Indies there are a lot of positives to take from this test - a better disciplined and patient batting display second time around, good bowling all round from the three seamers. They will be hopeful that Rampaul can return to the line up and having that spin option may prove vital at Trent Bridge, where a spinner can be rewarded with some good fortune.
There were low expectations of this test series, yet the West Indies have shown a better side of themselves on this occasion and they can be proud of their efforts. Onwards to Nottingham now, which starts on Friday 25th May at Trent Bridge.
England v West Indies, 1st Test, Lords, 17th-21st May
West Indies 1st Inns 243 (Chanderpaul 87, Broad 7-72) and 2nd Inns 345 (Chanderpaul 91, Samuels 86)
lost to
England 1st Inns 398 (Strauss 122, Bell 61) and 2nd Inns 193-5 (Cook 79, Bell 63*)
by 5 wickets.
England lead the 3 match series 1-0
Man of the Match: Stuart Broad, 11-165 in the match
Showing posts with label Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Show all posts
Monday, 21 May 2012
Tuesday, 8 November 2011
In Praise of ...West Indies cricket
It has been a forlorn time of late for the West Indies Cricket Board. How far the mighty can fall? For so long the team were the most dominant teams in there and any sport, the envy the world over for the way they played and how they played it - always with a smile on their face.
Now when you think of the WICB you think of an organisation who struggle to pay their players, who cannot manage to come sort of arrangement with their most prolific player so he can play at the highest level and elevate a struggling team.
And yet it seems, very slowly and very surely, The West Indies cricket team are turning the corner. They are currently in Mohali playing the first of three tests against a formidable Indian batting line-up, newly bouyed by their demolition of England in a recent one-day series.
Tellingly, the West Indies for all their talent remain a team that have forgotten how to win. Since the legends Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose retired they have won just one test match away from home (nevermind a series) when they surprised South Africa in 2007. Now lets not get ahead of ourselves, the West Indies do not look like winning this test match or series of India with a fresh Sehwag, Tendulkar and Dravid returning to the line-up.
And yet for the first six sessions of this match, the West Indies were leading this test convincingly helped by another Shivnarine Chanderpaul century which allowed them to post a first innings 304, although they were 269-6 the adding of only 35 more runs would have been a disappointment considering Shiv was set.
Yet in the Indian's first response is when West Indies deciding to wake up dismissing India at that prolific line up for 209. Fears in the Indian camp would have returned to the same worries when in England this summer, unable to match first innings and giving in to scoreboard pressure, although 304 is not usually a fright.
The congratulations should be extended because India had put on 89 for the first wicket before the fortuitous run-out of Gambhir when Darren Sammy deflected a straight drive from Sehwag onto the non-striker's stumps, leaving Gambhir stranded and out on 41. Sehwag would go onto score 55, and Dravid also scored a half century of 54 yet only two other batsmen (Yuvraj 23, Sharma 17) reached double figures owing to some disciplined bowling by Devandra Bishoo (2-55), Ravi Rampaul (2-44) and Darren Sammy (3-35). All bowlers took at least one wicket to give the Windies a 95 run lead.
Yet the West Indies are like that average NFL side who cannot seemingly play a full four quarters of the game. Entering the third quarter of the game, the Windies had the opportunity to cement a dominance of Indisa and score a 300 plus lead, alas they ended up being bowled out for 180 with only Shiv 47 and Sammy 42 contributing to the scorecard, with Ashwin on debut gaining 6-47.
India require 275 and ended Day 3 on 152-2 with both Dravid and Tendulkar set with 148 more required, the pitch is not getting worse in fact these two mammoths of batting are going to pick off the runs easily, unless a miracle arises and a spinner can make magic happen. Unfortunately, you feel the Indian batsmen have the discipline to see out these difficult conditions.
The second innings dismissals were more about their inability to play spin rather than a pitch gettting worse on the third day, also nobody was willing to play the anchored innings, even Shiv's 47 came off a brisk 58 balls. This could be an indictment of the influence of Twenty20 forcing players to play more shots, even when the situation does not demand the expansiveness of shots. The Twenty20 has been played a lot in the Caribbean, and the West Indies gained a morale boosting victory over England at the Oval when fielding a second string XI, but at least it showed youngsters coming to the fore and stepping up.
Too often in the past the integrity of the West Indies has rested on senior professionals like Chanderpaul, Sarwan and Dwayne Bravo - now you have youngsters like Adrian Barath, Kraigg Braithwaite, Kirk Edwards and Kemar Roach; and when combined with the experienced yet mercurial captain Darren Sammy (at times inspirational, at times infuriating - why is he coming in at 9?) along with the x-factor Chris Gayle when he does finally resolve his issues with the WICB.
The West Indies will never reach the heights of the late 1970s and mid 1980s but Test cricket and cricket in general needs a solid West Indies team that competes and ultimately entertains, lets hope that half the work they did in Mohali does not go to waste in the remainder of the tour.
Now when you think of the WICB you think of an organisation who struggle to pay their players, who cannot manage to come sort of arrangement with their most prolific player so he can play at the highest level and elevate a struggling team.
And yet it seems, very slowly and very surely, The West Indies cricket team are turning the corner. They are currently in Mohali playing the first of three tests against a formidable Indian batting line-up, newly bouyed by their demolition of England in a recent one-day series.
Tellingly, the West Indies for all their talent remain a team that have forgotten how to win. Since the legends Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose retired they have won just one test match away from home (nevermind a series) when they surprised South Africa in 2007. Now lets not get ahead of ourselves, the West Indies do not look like winning this test match or series of India with a fresh Sehwag, Tendulkar and Dravid returning to the line-up.
And yet for the first six sessions of this match, the West Indies were leading this test convincingly helped by another Shivnarine Chanderpaul century which allowed them to post a first innings 304, although they were 269-6 the adding of only 35 more runs would have been a disappointment considering Shiv was set.
Yet in the Indian's first response is when West Indies deciding to wake up dismissing India at that prolific line up for 209. Fears in the Indian camp would have returned to the same worries when in England this summer, unable to match first innings and giving in to scoreboard pressure, although 304 is not usually a fright.
The congratulations should be extended because India had put on 89 for the first wicket before the fortuitous run-out of Gambhir when Darren Sammy deflected a straight drive from Sehwag onto the non-striker's stumps, leaving Gambhir stranded and out on 41. Sehwag would go onto score 55, and Dravid also scored a half century of 54 yet only two other batsmen (Yuvraj 23, Sharma 17) reached double figures owing to some disciplined bowling by Devandra Bishoo (2-55), Ravi Rampaul (2-44) and Darren Sammy (3-35). All bowlers took at least one wicket to give the Windies a 95 run lead.
Yet the West Indies are like that average NFL side who cannot seemingly play a full four quarters of the game. Entering the third quarter of the game, the Windies had the opportunity to cement a dominance of Indisa and score a 300 plus lead, alas they ended up being bowled out for 180 with only Shiv 47 and Sammy 42 contributing to the scorecard, with Ashwin on debut gaining 6-47.
India require 275 and ended Day 3 on 152-2 with both Dravid and Tendulkar set with 148 more required, the pitch is not getting worse in fact these two mammoths of batting are going to pick off the runs easily, unless a miracle arises and a spinner can make magic happen. Unfortunately, you feel the Indian batsmen have the discipline to see out these difficult conditions.
The second innings dismissals were more about their inability to play spin rather than a pitch gettting worse on the third day, also nobody was willing to play the anchored innings, even Shiv's 47 came off a brisk 58 balls. This could be an indictment of the influence of Twenty20 forcing players to play more shots, even when the situation does not demand the expansiveness of shots. The Twenty20 has been played a lot in the Caribbean, and the West Indies gained a morale boosting victory over England at the Oval when fielding a second string XI, but at least it showed youngsters coming to the fore and stepping up.
Too often in the past the integrity of the West Indies has rested on senior professionals like Chanderpaul, Sarwan and Dwayne Bravo - now you have youngsters like Adrian Barath, Kraigg Braithwaite, Kirk Edwards and Kemar Roach; and when combined with the experienced yet mercurial captain Darren Sammy (at times inspirational, at times infuriating - why is he coming in at 9?) along with the x-factor Chris Gayle when he does finally resolve his issues with the WICB.
The West Indies will never reach the heights of the late 1970s and mid 1980s but Test cricket and cricket in general needs a solid West Indies team that competes and ultimately entertains, lets hope that half the work they did in Mohali does not go to waste in the remainder of the tour.
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