ENG vs WI | Ageas Bowl Day 2 Talking Points - Gabriel’s love for timber and Holder’s DRS coup

07/09/2020

It is Jason Holder’s world and we are just living in it. What a spell of fast bowling to kick off what was a long-awaited return for Test cricket. Meanwhile, it is impossible to ignore the impact Shannon Gabriel left behind in the first spell of the day, post which England could hardly recover.

Brief Scores: West Indies 57/1 (John Campbell 28, Kraigg Brathwaite 20*, James Anderson 1/17, Ben Stokes 0/6) trail England 204 in 67.3 overs (Ben Stokes 43, Jos Buttler 35; Jason Holder 6/42, Shannon Gabriel 4/62) by 147 runs.

Shannon Gabriel and the love for cartwheeling the timber

ESPNCricinfo has this interesting trivia which I came across in the last India-South Africa series - in the last 7 years, among the 18 fast bowlers who have taken 100 or more Test wickets, Shannon Gabriel tops the list for the most 'bowled' dismissals, followed by Mohammed Shami. It was an interesting point which was further reaffirmed when the returning pacer dismissed both Dominic Sibley and Joe Denly with two seaming deliveries - the second of which was virtually unplayable. Commiserations should also be extended to Rory Burns who was caught plumb by a vicious leg-stump yorker after missing a regulation flick. A typically hit-the-deck kind of bowler, how does Gabriel do what he does on a regular basis?

The Trinidad pacer has the affinity to bowl from wide of the crease and always tries to target the stumps. He would have probably least bothered about the saliva ban because unlike his fantastic partner Kemar Roach, he hardly relies on the swing to get things in his favour, with his seam movement rendering enough subsidies to roll on over after over. While his bounce was the key, Gabriel has the tendency to beat the inside edge, after which he tries to exploit the gap between bat and pad. It ensures he is more likely to castle the batsman, that sometimes doesn’t get noticed as much as it should be. The Ageas Bowl bore the mark as the burly Trinidadian unsettled the young English top-order in remarkable fashion before his skipper Jason Holder joined the party.

Extra review, Why not?

Since the ICC released the new guidelines for the resumption of cricket in the Covid-19 era, one of the key decisions was to allow the local umpires to conduct the matches to ensure the logistical challenges kept at bay. The ICC allowed one extra review on an interim basis to ensure the mistakes that might happen by the non-elite panel umpires were averted but England were luckier in that sense. Richard Illingworth and Richard Kettleborough, the two umpires who are officiating the game, and Michael Gough, the third umpire, were all in the ICC Elite Panel and they are some of the best in the business. However, the officiating level was not up to the mark, with as many as five decisions getting overturned - with all going in favour of the Caribbean side.

Rory Burns, Zak Crawley, and Jofra Archer were given not-out by the two English umpires standing for the game, but that eventually had to be overturned when Holder almost instantaneously went for the review and managed to get rid of the trio one by one. And as the innings ended, they went back to the pavilion with three reviews remaining intact. In the second innings, too, John Campbell managed to overturn two decisions before falling to the wrath of luck the third time around to a beautiful James Anderson inswinger.

There are two ways to look at this - 1) Windies were excellent on the reviews they took (or) 2) the umpiring were not good enough. But both things stand correct at the end of it. However, one thing is certain that the decision to allow three reviews is surely a good decision to manage cricket in the era of coronavirus as we will not be sure how much of an impact can other umpires - who are not in the elite panel - can actually have, as we approach more live cricket in the next few months.

No Saliva, No problem

ICC’s decision to ban saliva for the foreseeable future, with the Coronavirus around, was expected to have a huge bearing on the pace bowlers, with everyone and their pet dog claiming that bowlers would have to give up a great deal in order to be successful with the red ball. However, with a full day of sample size available, it is easy to conclude that the skill-set mattered for a lot more than body fluid. As per Cricviz, Jason Holder found a total of 2.2 degrees lateral movement during his six-wicket haul with only Mitchell Marsh at The Oval, Chris Woakes against Ireland, Ben Stokes and Stuart Broad in Headingley finding more than the Caribbean skipper did in this game, last season.

Not only Holder, the other pacers in the side - the traditional swing-reliant Kemar Roach and pace-heavy, Shannon Gabriel and Alzarri Joseph - managed a combined swing average of 1.14 degrees, which was actually more than what Australia found in any innings during the 2019 Ashes. While the first two wickets were related to seam movement, Holder’s six wickets were a regulatory rhythm of swing bowling that was not only aided by the overhead conditions but also a considerable amount of finger movement. The high release point might have just added to that but at no point did it seem like Holder was troubled at all. So much for the talk of lack of swing, eh?