FROM THE ARCHIVE: Best of a bad situation

LAWRENCE BOOTH: It must have been the weather. Everywhere you turned, someone had a grouse. If it wasn't Ian Botham on the absence of Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad, it was Denesh Ramdin brandishing a home-made note at Viv Richards

It must have been the weather. Everywhere you turned, someone had a grouse. If it wasn’t Ian Botham on the absence of Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad, it was Denesh Ramdin brandishing a home-made note at Viv Richards. And if it wasn’t the crowd jeering the umpires for their mishandling of the light, it was Kevin Pietersen lamenting his loss of love for the game. Tino Best reintroduced some joy with the innings of a surrealist but, with Euro 2012 underway, cricket desperately needed more than the rain allowed. 

The rotation problem

For some, it was a dirty word – proof that the product was now secondary to its market. Andy Flower plumped for pragmatism: rest the new-ball pair and get them ready for South Africa. It wasn’t as if England were picking unknowns. Graham Onions returned for his first Test in two-and-a-half years with a bowling average of 31, roughly the same as Anderson and Broad. Steven Finn averaged 26 and Tim Bresnan 25. 

For the first time in a home Test since 1964 the opening two days were washed out, so it was tempting to regard Saturday as a bowl-off. England recovered from a mediocre morning to limit West Indies to 280 for 8. Onions hassled; Finn produced the odd brute; Bresnan, soon to lose his 100% Test record, was canny. Then came Sunday.

^{Best reaches his half-century}

95 of the Best

Tino Best, a one-man bundle of insane self-belief and one of four changes in the West Indies team, marched out with a Test average of 9.80, off-drove Finn for four, and held the pose. England, by contrast, lost their shape. Boundaries pinballed here and there and, by the time Best chanced his arm once too often, England looked a rabble. Not since 1906 had a No. 11 passed 50 against them. Best nearly doubled that. Little of it made any sense.

Well, Viv?

At Trent Bridge Ramdin made 1 and 6 and was described by Viv Richards as looking “totally lost”. He hatched a plan: on Saturday morning, Ramdin scribbled “YEA VIV TALK NAH” on a piece of A4, then stowed it in his pocket as motivation. Why, then, he needed to produce the note at all once he had been motivated all the way to a second Test hundred was unclear. Up in the TMS box, Viv – more hurt than he let on – rumbled ominously. Ramdin later admitted he got “a bit emotional”, although his insistence that he’d still share a drink with Viv seemed rather to depend on Viv.

KP: je ne regrette rien

After hitting a sparkling 78, including 45 in 38 balls off the debutant mystery spinner Sunil Narine, Pietersen announced in his press conference that he wouldn’t be talking about his decision to quit ODIs. Ten minutes later, we had the full picture: he played too much cricket, something had to give (though not the IPL) and he regretted nothing. Not. A. Thing. Life must be easy when it’s that straightforward.

^{Pietersen hits out at Edgbaston}

Bad light? Bad joke ...

Here’s hoping the New Zealand umpire Tony Hill regretted his response to Mike Atherton’s question about the frustration of spectators who had spent £43 to attend the fourth day, only to see the players ushered off twice in far-from-gloomy light. “Would they like to face Tino Best?” was the gist. It was crass throwaway remark. Test cricket needs all the support it can get.

Milestones

Tino Best’s 95 was the highest score by a No.11 in Test history, beating Zaheer Khan’s 75 for India v Bangladesh at Dhaka in December 2004 ... His partnership of 143 with Denesh Ramdin was the third-highest for the last wicket in Tests, eight runs behind both Brian Hastings and Richard Collinge (New Zealand v Pakistan, Auckland, February 1973), and Azhar Mahmood and Mushtaq Ahmed (Pakistan v South Africa, Rawalpindi, October 1997) ... When Andrew Strauss caught Best, he equalled England’s record of 120 Test catches, held jointly by Colin Cowdrey and Ian Botham.

This article was published in the June 2012 edition of The Cricketer - the home of the best cricket analysis and commentary, covering the international, county, women's and amateur game

Save 30% when you subscribe to The Cricketer’s print & digital bundle. £35 for 12 issues