NICK FRIEND: At one point, a draw seemed most likely. Briefly, an England counterattack threatened to put Ben Stokes' side in charge, before a flurry of quick wickets opened the door for West Indies. All we know is that Sunday could be a cracker...
On the belated first day of this exceptional summer, Rory Burns became the first England opener since Alastair Cook to reach the landmark of 1,000 Test runs – decent reward for an anthology of work now spanning 15 international appearances. That figure, of course, would be greater had it not been for an untimely football-related injury that ruled him out of the majority of the South Africa series.
Likewise, perhaps, had England given in to the clamour for his selection earlier than they ultimately chose; rather than becoming a partner for Alastair Cook, he was forced to wait until the former captain required a replacement.
Moving on from one telling statistic, then, to another: the 72-run stand for the first wicket here on the fourth day of this intriguing Test was England’s highest opening partnership at home since 2017. On that day, they were indebted to Cook and Keaton Jennings.
Neither Burns nor Dom Sibley, the two architects on this occasion, are without flaw. Both have their idiosyncrasies, their areas of weakness, their own battles to exude total confidence at this level. But they are forming a partnership that England can build around.
Cook and Strauss apart, Burns is as nailed on an opener as England have had since Marcus Trescothick. In both innings at the Ageas Bowl, he looked assured, his twitchy trigger movements working in perfect order.
Like Sibley, however, whose demise came courtesy of a legside strangle, Burns’ end arrived in a manner that has been witnessed before in his brief Test career. He has a curious propensity to come off his cut shot prematurely against the off-spinner, his right foot dragging well legside of the ball prior to impact. Here, it cost him as Roston Chase’s extra bounce left him unable to stay on top of the stroke.
Sibley’s tendency, meanwhile, to fend at the ball directed into his armpit has caused much discussion, with West Indies’ deploying a leg slip as a cognizant nod to a growing reel of similar dismissals. Likewise, one prolonged passage of play prior to lunch featuring Sibley and the off-spin of Chase descended into an uncomfortable impasse.
In his Test days thus far, his game against spin has shown signs of improvement, having initially struggled against Mitch Santner in New Zealand. However, his struggle to rotate the strike as Chase toiled away was noticeable; it felt as though he was short of a release shot. And though not a major issue at the moment – after all, England were looking to build a platform, greater challenges lie ahead on the subcontinent.
That said, there was a clear attempt to increase his proactivity against the seamers; he picked out Shannon Gabriel early at mid-on as a quick single option. And having worked to lose two stone during lockdown, he made the most of his fleet of foot; 43 overs into their second innings, England had already run more singles than in the entirety of their first. By the time his innings was ended by Shannon Gabriel, he had helped England to their initial target of parity, his 164-ball effort featuring just four boundaries.
West Indies' seamers bowled beautifully as the day wore on
This was a Joe Denly innings in every which way; the only mild surprise was that it didn’t span its traditional 100-ball length – the ‘dentury’, as has been christened on social media. For long periods, he went about his work as he so often has done – resolute, occasionally stylish, seemingly set for something bigger than he ultimately provided. A statistic revealed by ESPNcricinfo showed that since 2019, only two Test batsmen – the Sri Lankan pair of Oshada Fernando and Lahiru Thirimanne – have had a lower percentage of control among balls faced in that time.
Only four times has Denly fallen for a single-figure score, but that has never been the issue. Only once has he faced fewer than ten deliveries in an innings. There have been starts aplenty, but without ever truly pushing on. Before today, his time as a Test batsman read like a Euromillions rollover: 6, 17, 20, 69, 23, 10, 18, 11, 30, 26, 12, 50, 4, 53, 14, 94, 74, 35, 4, 50, 31, 38, 31, 25, 27, 8, 18.
And having added 29 to that list today, he managed to chip an innocuous delivery from Chase to Holder at midwicket. He remained for a moment, slumped on his bat, wondering quite how he had fumbled upon such a dismissal.
It was almost written as fate, such is the norm that this has become, that Denly should make a start but fail to go on. According to CricViz’s wicket probability system, it was the fourth-least threatening wicket-taking ball of the match, but then it has often been the inoffensive that has proven to be Denly’s kryptonite.
This episode was somewhat skittish from early on; one of Denly’s calling cards as an England batsman has long been his pull shot, but even that misfired four times before he finally nailed one. Despite that, he had handed himself a start – one punch through mid-on was an absolute treat.
Watching on, one begun to wonder whether this might finally be the day. But almost as soon as that thought entered the mind, it was extinguished once more. The story of Denly’s Test career, in truth: almost but not quite. It has not been an abject failure by any stretch; many have fared worse, certainly many have looked less at ease and more technically marooned. All of which makes his record more unusual.
With Joe Root absent for this Test owing to the birth of his second child, these five days were billed as paramount for both Denly and Crawley, the Kent teammates batting aside one another. Denly was nominally the man in possession, with Burns returning at the top of the order and Crawley, though he played in England’s most recent Test, the man most vulnerable as a replacement for England’s captain.
Yet, if this was a shootout, then it was Crawley who was standing tallest by the end. His half century could scarcely have been better timed and given the one-paced nature of England’s top three as it stands, his positivity of stroke-play would be a welcome addition.
That, then, is the question for the selectors. It would seem unjust were Crawley to miss out in the second instalment at Emirates Old Trafford; he has improved with each Test he has played.
Ever since replacing Burns in South Africa, he has looked increasingly at home in international cricket. In the two practice games that England managed in Sri Lanka before the coronavirus outbreak aborted that trip, he made scores of 91 and 105.
Here, that upward trend continued, cutting Chase at will and using his feet regularly to stamp some youthful authority on proceedings. His 76 today was his highest Test score.
Jos Buttler was clean bowled
Quite a day of Test cricket. Intriguing for the most part, curious at others.
What happens next is anyone’s guess. For a time in the evening session, it seemed that the draw was the likeliest result, while Ben Stokes and Crawley were going well and scoring at will against the second new ball. Yet, when both fell in quick succession and Jos Buttler followed, the tables turned from a game heading towards a stalemate towards a conclusion hotting up. When Dom Bess and Ollie Pope followed in a tremendous final show of pace, skill and stamina, West Indies became favourites.
In the morning session, there had been moments when the ball spun sharply, so much so that Holder might well have wondered whether leaving Rahkeem Cornwall out of his playing side had been the right call. His fast men, however, showed tremendous heart to wrestle back the initiative.
Occasionally, the ball shot off a length – one delivery from Holder spat to hit Sibley flush on the point of the elbow. For the majority, however, it looked a pleasant surface. Should it remain that way overnight and into the final day, this story will have quite a denouement: the tourists will fancy their chances.
Since January 2019, Jos Buttler has accrued 202 runs in 11 innings at an average of 18.36 in Test cricket. The only wicketkeeper beneath him globally – having batted in a minimum of eight innings – is Jonny Bairstow, whose average in that period is just 18.
Ben Foakes was part of England’s 30-man squad and remains among the nine reserves picked ahead of this match outside of the 13-man group.
In the first innings here, Buttler seemed more positive, making an important 35 in conjunction with Stokes. Second time around, however, he was scratchy and pinned to the crease, finding it difficult to push his weight forward. He had already been given out wrongly on one occasion, before Alzarri Joseph shattered his stumps.
The social media clamour for Foakes has followed, naturally.
He spoke to The Cricketer at length during lockdown about his own game and the challenges he has had to overcome in recent months, having been dropped from England’s Test side during the reverse tour of West Indies back in 2019.
He began his Test career with a hundred on debut in Galle and added a half-century in Pallekele. In five games, he averages 41.50 with the bat at Test level.
“In terms of competition, it’s really strong,” Foakes acknowledged of the strength in depth around the position, speaking as part of a long read about life as a wicketkeeper. “It is tricky to get everyone in at the same time. But nowadays with the batting and keeping, there’s such a dilemma with that – where you fit in, what you push harder on. It’s a complex time for a keeper-batter.
“It’s obviously very difficult. For me, I’d done six years on the Lions working all summer and all winter trying to get to the eventual goal of playing for England. And then, I guess once you get there, you don’t know what’s going to happen.
“For me, for it to go really well and get the man of the series in the first series, I guess you do expect more of a run. Two games later, for it to be gone – in terms of the mental side of it – that’s something that’s quite tricky to deal with.”
He pointed, then, as well to an acknowledgement of his own form with the bat. He averaged just 24.58 in the County Championship last year, but openly admitted at the end of the season that he had felt mentally drained and in need of a break. In short, he felt that his lack of runs in 2019 was more down to his own tired state of mind than anything else.
It is worth noting that from 2015 through to 2018 in first-class cricket, Foakes averaged: 51.41, 44, 49.47 and 36.70. It is hard to argue that he's not worthy of a second opportunity.
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