If the first innings of West Indies was any indication, the only thing that could have prevented an inevitable England win, was bad weather. After the fourth day got washed out completely, the rain did provide intermittent hindrance on the fifth day too but it was not enough for Windies to save the day. It seemed a long tour, lengthened by the overstay due to Covid regulations, had worn them out both physically and mentally. They lacked the resolve and vigour that they had in the earlier tests. England outplayed them completely in all the departments. Apart from the first two sessions of the first day, West Indies were never in the game.
The Final Day
Day 5 started with a few questions looming large in cricketing circle like will the rain play spoilsport again or how much resistance would the guests show with only eight wickets in hand, at least 98 overs to face and an out of sight target of 399. However the most anticipated question was how early would Broad join the 500 club. Well, Broad didn’t let the viewers wait for long as just after the first rain break, he trapped Brathwaite leg before with his in-seamer. We know about Broad’s camaraderie with his new ball partner Anderson, featuring together for 117th time, but we didn’t know it would go to this extent that they would share the same batsman as their 500th victim. Broad is only the fourth fast bowler to join the elusive list after Courtney Walsh, Glenn McGrath and James Anderson. The list of highest wicket-takers is topped by three spinners- Muttiah Muralitharan(800), Shane Warne(708) and Anil Kumble(619).
Shai Hope played some delightful drives, a back-foot drive through cover point getting on top of the bounce off Archer, being the best of the lot. This strokeful innings didn’t last long as a mistimed pull from toe-end of bat into the hands of mid-on off Woakes’ delivery saw his back. Thereafter Woakes ran through the middle order claiming 5-fer. After Hope, he dismissed Brooks, cut in half, inside edge easily carrying to Buttler behind the wicket. A hesitant run and a brilliant one-handed pickup and direct hit from Bess sent Chase back to pavilion. Holder, Dowrich and Cornwall followed soon with similar deliveries, misjudging the line and caught right in front of stumps.
Stuart Broad fittingly claimed the last wicket to fall when Blackwood gloved a short ball down the leg side in an attempt to pull. Broad finished the match with figures of 10/67 – only the 7th Englishman in the history of the game to score a fifty and claim a 10-wicket haul in a test. He was adjudged Man of the Match and England’s Man of the series as well. From being ignored for the first test to being the best performer of the tournament, Broad rightly justified his anger on being left out and proved a point to his critics that he is still quite committed and capable of playing for his country.
Build-up to Day 5
Earlier WI captain Jason Holder won the toss and elected to bowl first again. For a while it seemed a right decision when they reduced England 122-4 but a 140-run partnership between Pope and Buttler and quickfire 62 off just 45 balls from Broad down the order, took England to 369 -a decent total on this track. Roach took 4 wickets and also became the first West Indian in 26 years to reach the milestone of 200 test wickets.
In reply Windies could only accumulate 197 runs. Broad (6/31) and company took wickets at regular intervals and didn’t let any partnership to flourish except for Holder-Dowrich’s 68 runs for 7th wicket. Several West Indies batsmen got starts but couldn’t convert them into anything substantial- a problem that they faced throughout the series. None of their batsmen scored a century. Many got settled but could not score big -a prominent difference between the two sides that probably cost them the series.
A 114-run opening partnership between Burns and Sibley, a first in England since 2016, and another century stand for 2nd wicket between Burns and Root ensured enough runs on board for England to declare at 226-2. WI were set a daunting task of chasing 399-runs target but they were all at sea even in the second innings, getting bowled out for 129 runs.
Wisden Trophy
This was the last match to be played for Wisden Trophy as it will be replaced by Richards-Botham trophy the next time these two teams compete. Introduced in 1963 to commemorate the hundredth edition of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, the trophy was at stake for 28 times. West Indies won 14 of them including the long run of retaining the trophy for 27 years between 1973 and 2000, while England got their exclusive rights on it 10 times. A total of 120 matches were played with WI emerging victorious on 48 occasions and England bagging 36 tests . While West Indian captain Frank Worrell was the first one to hold this trophy, it’s England’s Joe Root who lified it for the last time.
This series also marked the first successful completion of a cricket series post Covid-19 pandemic and both the cricket boards must be applauded for their efforts in this regard.
Joe and Troy are the Madden and Summerall of this generation of Football. Skip Bayless is…a second rate journalist and a third rate commentator..but a first class troll..Good of Troy to call it out.