When the gallant West Indian cricketers surmounted all odds and defied objections from certain quarters and boldly toured England for Test and one day series, maybe only a handful of cricket lovers gave them a chance against the strong Englishmen.
The Windies were sans some of their more dangerous cricketers who preferred to stay away and not take chances of contacting the dreaded covid -19 that has hit the world like a tsunami.
The Caribbean cricketers are famous for their magic on the field that is savoured by all cricketers and cricket lovers the world over for its sheer black power and beauty, went through all the testing processes, even been quarantined.
And when they took the field in the First of Three Tests, in Southampton and when Ben Stokes the England stand in captain for regular skipper Joe Root won the toss and surprisingly asked the visitors to bat after a
delayed start owing to rain and bad light and in conditions fit for seam bowling, it looked as the Windies were up against it.
The Windies had to negotiate and survive the pace and swing of Jimmy Anderson, Mark Wood and Jofra Archer with the new ball and bat responsibly and sensibly considering that some of their batters were playing in conditions unknown to them.
But what would surely have surprised England supporters would have been the inexplicable shedding of paceman Stuart Broad who had combined well with Anderson to bowl them to many a victory.
Again the adage that sports selectors the world over act in mysterious ways rang loud and clear once again. Stuart, the son of former England opening batsman and now Match Referee Chris Broad would have enjoyed a hearty guffaw at his son’s dropping.
The whole of the Carribean and where in the world they are domiciled the West Indians would have gulped many a drink that cheers, celebrated and danced their cares away with their Reggae and calypso music they are famous for on this glorious four wicket win over England who did not predict a face masking defeat like all do today owing to the covid-19.
Former West Indian batting great and captain Brian Lara, in an interview on the eve of the Test warned his countrymen that they should try and finish the Test on the fourth day, because they don’t have the batting strength to take the Test to the final day.
And Lara was spot on because the Windies cricketers would have read what their batting champion said and played and worked their strategy the way Lara had suggested and did not let England take the game to the fifth day.
Considering that the Windies were sans Chrys Gayle their cricket ball blaster, all rounder Dwanne Bravo and stylish left hander Darren Bravo and yet others who were scared to tour because of the covid-19, deserve loud applause for bringing down the high riding Englishmen from their Ivory cricketing towers.
Considering that the Windies cricket had taken a nose dive from their glory days when they were the undisputed monarchs of the game under the leaderships of Clive Lloyd an Viv Richards with batsmen who mauled all opposing attacks and pace bowlers who terrorized batsmen, this victory was creditable and historic.
The whole of the Caribbean would have celebrated and it prompted even three of the Prime Ministers from the Caribbean Islands to congratulate Captain Jason Holder for winning the First of Three Test matches. The first was Mia Motely from Barbados, followed by Dr.Ralph Gonsalves of St. Vincent’s and Dr. Keith Mitchell of Grenada.
And Captain Holder deserves every word of the praise. Leading a relatively unknown team that lacked galaxy of stars like in the past, Holder moulded them into a formidable strike force with inspiring and intelligent leadership and the team responded and the victory speaks for itself and it would have been sweet when it came.
Holder as a bowler packs no lightning pace, but has the rare ability to study the conditions and bowl his both way swing very intelligently which troubled the batsmen as his six wicket haul in the first innings dented the home team batting.
When England set the Windies 200 to win on a wicket and in conditions more friendly to the home team and when they lost three early wickets for 27, it looked as though England would go one-up in the series.
But cometh the hour, cometh the man and that man was right hander Jermaine Blackwood who used the wood in his bat with great intelligence by picking the right ball to hit and that he fell five runs short of a century that he and his team will always remember, was one of those sad moments in the game. However he and the team would have savoured the victory.
As for England and its standby Captain Ben Stokes the defeat would have been galling to swallow. Stokes who had performed magnificently for England sans the captaincy, especially against the Australians in the last Ashes series did not seem to carry captaincy material with him and England will do well to groom another captain once regular captain Joe Root calls finish to his captaincy career.
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