Cricket Nightmare – Trinidad and Tobago Newsday

Sport

16 hours ago

BEN Stokes The England team won the cricket series against West Indies by a convincing margin by winning the second Test match in four days of the potential five-day competition.

In this very interesting match, each team scored more than 400 runs on the first two days of the Test with WI leading by 41 runs.

The final tally was: England scored 416 runs on day one, while the WI scored 457 runs on day two.

The home team then scored 425 runs in the second innings, giving the opponents a day and a session to try to score 385 runs and seal victory on a gruelling pitch.

It proved a bridge too far and out of reach, and they lost for a paltry total of 143. A poor, disappointing performance, but not unexpected as the match progressed.

Despite losing the first Test by a wide margin of an innings and 114 runs, their comeback in the first innings of this Test with 457 runs was a performance that will have taken their most loyal and optimistic supporters completely by surprise.

Both Kavem Hodge, who played beautifully, with some fierce strokes and pleasing, well-timed drives through the off-side on his way to a delightful hundred, and Alick Athanaze, with his classic cover-driving during his satisfying knock of 82, made us understand the art, beauty and allure of the elegance of Test cricket.

Both Dominican batsmen shone on the pitch at Trent Bridge, impressing both the English and West Indian fans. They showed that there is still hidden talent out there and all it needs is regular first-class matches to gain the experience needed to mature more quickly.

Joshua Da Silva's confidence as an experienced Test player was evident from the way he played from the first ball, a straight drive between mid-off and the bowler for four, to his superb strokes around the pitch and the sixes he hit nonchalantly.

Thanks to him, Hodge and Athanaze, there is a foundation on which to build in the future.

I made a bet with a friend of mine that no matter who won the toss in this second test match, England would have the first strike. My reasoning was simple but based on a wide experience of playing cricket all over WI and in England.

As it happened, WI won the toss and England added. And the basis for my prediction was the terrible batting disappointment in both innings of the previous Test. It had the WI think tank worried about their immature batting line-up; they doubted their ability to withstand the seam bowlers of their opponents.

Their lack of knowledge of British cricket grounds probably means they are also unaware of the Trent Bridge playing field, where the second Test match was to be played.

It is a flat wicket, as far as English wickets go: they offer little help to bowlers, although they can provide some play for the seamers during play.

It would help especially before lunch on the first day, but only a little bit, and that's what opening batsmen are for.

After lunch it would be fairly flat, with little help for the bowlers, making it a delightful wicket to bat on. The surface would continue to favour the batsman on the second and third days; then on the fourth day signs of wear and tear would start to show and the bowlers would start to smile again.

The difference is that the spinners come into their own. The seamer has an advantage because his deliveries start low, so the batsman has to deal with the variable bounce of the pitch. Hence the reasoning for developing a good batting technique.

Towards the end of WI's first innings, Shoaib Bashir's off-spinners were seen to be turning, though slowly, not dangerously. In the second innings, he mixed it up a bit with straight ones, which was tormenting the batsmen.

By the time first-innings heroes Athanaze and Hodge came in, Bashir was in charge, having Athanaze play on the pitch of a well-flown delivery, but not quite close enough to the ball, and he drove it to first slip. Hodge, like his left-hander, never looked comfortable. Bashir brought one into the stumps from a foot outside off-stump and plumbed it lbw.

A completely different wicket now. That's why in England you always have to be prepared for varied and demanding wickets.