ENG vs WI | Ageas Bowl Day 4 Talking Points - England unearthing gems up top and Southampton’s un-English behaviour
The first Test between England and West Indies slowed down to a major extent to bring a halt to the unmissable excitement among the cricket fans for the sport’s international return but it promises an exciting finish for the last day. The game also proved English top-order’s impressive credentials.
Brief Scores: England 204 & 284/8 (Dominic Sibley 50; Zak Crawley 76; Shannon Gabriel 3/61) lead West Indies 318 all-out in 102 overs (Kraigg Brathwaite 65, Shane Dowrich 61; Ben Stokes 4/49; James Anderson 3-62) by 170 runs
Nevermind the conversion, England have few gems there
Long before Alastair Cook retired for good in 2018, he had assured his place among the pantheon of all-time greats with an enviable record to his name. However, Cook would always hold it against the County system for not providing him a partner worthy enough to share some load that ultimately proved damning. In all those years, a guy from Surrey, however, was lighting up the county circuit, silently yet effectively. That effectiveness was five consecutive 1000-run seasons for Surrey yet even an England Lions cap proved elusive.
I won’t talk more about the impact that Rory Burns has so far but surely, Cook would have loved him at the other end. Add to that the way Dominic Sibley and Joe Denly put up a premium on their wickets, ensuring a total blunt, it sends a positive message for the entire middle-order, at least when Joe Root returns to the fold once again.
Joe Root’s return will also be a sweet headache for the English management, who have unearthed a solid middle-order bat in the form of Zak Crawley, who defied the Windies bowlers with consummate ease. Silverwood will have to be prepared with a strong answer to whoever he’ll leave out before the team travels to Old Trafford for the last two Tests.
Holder for President!
Is there anything Holder can not do? An inspirational skipper, a leader of pace bowling attack and an able batsman who averages over 40 in the last two years, Holder has stood up as one of the finest all-rounders in world cricket at the moment. While that has been discussed over and over again, making it borderline cliched on social media, the penultimate day of the opening Test between England and Windies bore strong testimony to his persistent ability to set up examples.
More than half the deliveries Shannon Gabriel and Kemar Roach bowled before lunch were short of a length, allowing Dominic Sibley, in particular, to hang back and leave the ball, but Holder tested them with the seam angling away that cast doubt among the English top-order.
Even though Sibley and Burns were scoring freely when Roach and Gabriel were on, Holder understood it was a game of who would blink first as he kept a probing line from the outset. By bringing in Roston Chase, who took the ball away from Burns on a regular basis, Holder ensured the pressure never ceased off. While the result was far from the expectations in the first two hours, it reaped dividends in the second session when Gabriel mixed his length to trouble both Joe Denly and Sibley. The latter’s dismissal was also a direct result of the provident planning set up by their leader and the consumed bowling performance that put the Warwickshire opener off after a solid beginning.
The Un-English way
Normally the English wickets hold up for a long period of time after initial days of pace dominance, making spinners an almost redundant option, but surprisingly the way it has played so far, you would hardly be at fault to think that the match was in Barbados more than Ageas Bowl. The wickets slowed down even more than Bangladeshi tracks lately have to ensure one of the dullest days of Test cricket to kill the buzz that was created with the return of international cricket during the Covid-19 pandemic.
That coupled with the variable bounce generated by the Windies batsmen meant that there was an air of confusion that existed, in complete contrast to the way Southampton behaved the last time England played a Test match here, against India in 2018. It couldn’t be said with any conclusiveness if the lack of saliva on the ball resulted in such a dull encounter because let’s face this - apart from the bowler, no one was really sweating to have any such problems. But in Un-English way was too much for the traditionalists today and they can only hope it would change at Old Trafford.