The first test match in three match series between the West Indies and England ended in a draw yesterday. This post looks back at the match.
THE PRELIMINARIES
England made a cautious selection, opting for both Woakes and Overton, leaving out Saqib Mahmood. The West Indies meanwhile went for Holder at number six and four specialist bowlers as well. Joe Root won the toss and chose to bat first.
ENGLAND FIRST INNINGS
England made a disastrous start, slumping to 48-4. A fightback spearheaded by Bairstow and featuring good contributions from Stokes, Foakes and Woakes saw England end the first day 268-6 and possible back on track. On the second morning England battled on to 311 and it looked very much game on.
WEST INDIES FIRST INNINGS
West Indies did not score at all quickly, but they batted a very long time on a surface which had little life. Wood, the only bowler England had who was capable of bowling genuinely fast, left the field injured fairly early in the innings. Leach bowled well but without luck, keeping things tight but not taking wickets. Stokes, supposedly having his workload managed, was made to bowl 28 overs in the innings. Eventually the West Indies were all out for 375, Nkrumah Bonner scoring a very slow century to anchor the innings.
ENGLAND SECOND INNINGS
Zak Crawley delivered with the bat for once, and Root moved into second place on the England century makers list and became the leading scorer of centuries as England captain (24 in his career, still nine short of Alastair Cook’s tally and 13 as skipper). With Wood injured a measure of caution was necessary when it came to the declaration, and Root declared leaving WI a target of 286 in 70 overs.
WEST INDIES SECOND INNINGS
It was soon obvious that West Indies were not going to attempt the target, but when they lost their fourth wicket with quite a bit of time remaining England had genuine hope. Root made a point about his team’s mindset by staying out there until West Indies had six wickets left with only five balls to go – only then did he accept the draw. There was some adverse comment about this, but he did the right thing, not giving up on the chance of victory until he absolutely had to.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Time for my usual sign off…
aspiblog 
A test match of umpiring turnovers
Indeed, a lot of decisions were reversed on review.
“… but he did the right thing …” well I would agree that Carlos Braithwaite’s comments about disrespect are spurious and the sort of thing otherwise sound people end up saying when they have to fill dead air time. However, with Stokes’ workload issues, injuries to both Wood and Ollie Rob’ and the next Test starting on Wednesday I wonder if the Windies were laughing their socks off that they could block on whilst our bowlers clocked up extra overs. On the same theme, you mention Bonner batting slowly but almost single handedly he has worn our bowers down.
Clive