Time of writing: Day 3 – 12:20 – West Indies 108/2 – Brathwaite 50, Brooks 5, Bess 1/11
Day 2 was back to the same old England. At 35/1, England needed to be looking at 300. They barely made 200. West Indies bowled well, but the England batting looked weak and nobody scored a 50. We kept talking about how you cannot judge a pitch until both sides have batted and bowled on it – but West Indies closed just 1 wicket down and looked strong.
England seem to struggle with the pace of batting. Back in 2010, the likes of Jonathan Trott and Alistair Cook were happy to dig in and bat and bat. They did not score quickly, though Trott did not let bad balls go to often. When Burns and Denly were batting, it all looked ok but runs were not coming. Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler batted sensibly but Stokes played a poor shot and Buttler got a good ball. Dom Bess saved the day with the bat, and has just got a wicket. England need to find the balance of patience and aggression as they did in South Africa.
However, South Africa’s bowling in January is not up to the quality of what we are now seeing from West Indies. West Indies have a really good bowling attack in this game and have responded well to the empty grounds. In the face of it, it seems that Jason Holder should not be taking 6 wickets too often, but as part of a 4 man pace attack, he is extremely handy. It was a team bowling effort – even if the bowlers were shared between 2 bowlers only.
At the moment, Holder is well ahead in the battle with Ben Stokes – including in the context of DRS reviews. At the moment, Holder has made good decisions – including with regards to DRS. At the moment, Stokes made a poor decision to bat first – it made no sense in such murky conditions. At the moment England made a poor decision to drop Stuart Broad – this pitch looks perfect for Broad.
It can all change in a flash of course – and England really need it to. Jimmy Anderson, Jofra Archer and Mark Wood can show that England’s selection was good – and Bess already is well on his way to doing so.
One other talking point from this test match. The on field umpiring has not been good at all. Richard Illingworth and Richard Kettleborough want to be very grateful for the excellent third umpiring we have seen from Michael Gough – and thank goodness West Indies had not run out of reviews a la Tim Paine. We must remember that this lockdown situation is as hard for umpires as it is for players. These are proven good umpires and are absolutely full of integrity. However, any suggestion that we do not need neutral umpires has been dismissed already in these game. But I think the ICC need to reconsider if all 3 umpires need to be neutral.
Cricketed 