Category: West Indies

Chris Woakes put his body on the line against India, following an example set in 1984 against West Indies

By That 1980s Sports Blog

It was an image that dominated the back pages. When Chris Woakes walked down the steps at the Oval on Monday, the crowd stood to applaud this noble deed. With his left arm in a sling and inside his jumper, Woakes arrived at the crease with England requiring 17 runs to win the final Test against India.

With Woakes suffering a dislocated shoulder, Gus Atkinson (or extras) would have to get England over the line. England fell short, the sheer will and skill of Mohammed Siraj helping India to win the Test and deservedly draw the series. Woakes’s bravery jogged the memories of those of a certain age. The circumstances were very different from the tail end of England’s innings at the Oval, but in July 1984 another England batter arrived on the scene sporting the Woakes look. Paul Terry could probably relate to Woakes’s pain.

Continue reading...

• West Indies 205-9; Australia 206-7 | Australia win by three wickets

• Green and Inglis hit 50s as Australia take 4-0 lead in T20 series

For the fourth time in as many games, Australia impressively chased down a West Indies total in their best-of-five Twenty20 series.

Glenn Maxwell lived up to his Big Show nickname and Cameron Green and Josh Inglis continued their hot form, as Australia swept to a 4-0 lead in the T20I cricket series against West Indies in St Kitts.

Continue reading...

• Third T20I: WI 214-4, Aus 215-4; Australia win by 6 wickets in St Kitts

• Middle-order powerhouse hits 11 sixes in 37-ball unbeaten hundred

A remarkable record-breaking innings from power hitter Tim David has carried Australia to a six-wicket win and an unassailable 3-0 lead in their five-match T20I series against the West Indies.

Chasing a testing target of 215, Australia were struggling at 87 for 4 in the ninth over of their run chase at the small Warner Park ground in Basseterre, St Kitts.

Continue reading...

• Third Test, day three: Australia 225 and 121; West Indies 143 and 27

• Australia wrap up 176-run victory and claim 3-0 series sweep

Mitchell Starc has produced one of the all-time great bowling spells and Scott Boland taken a hat-trick as Australia bowled West Indies out for 27 to win the third Test.

On a historic day in Jamaica, Australia’s quicks ran riot to wrap up a 176-run victory and claim a 3-0 series sweep of the Frank Worrell Trophy.

Continue reading...

• Third Test, day two: Australia 225 and 99-6; West Indies 143 at stumps

• No 3 batter hits 42 not out after Sam Konstas falls for a duck

Australia’s selectors have four Sheffield Shield matches to sort their openers for the Ashes, after the team’s top order crumbled under lights in Jamaica.

The tourists went to stumps on night two at Sabina Park at 99-6 in their second innings, leading West Indies by 181 but with the game firmly in the balance.

Continue reading...

The Victory Test against England has been immortalised in calypso song but is going unremarked during this series

“So at Lord’s was the scenery / Bound to go down in history.” Why isn’t Lord’s cricket ground marking the diamond anniversary of the Victory Test? We are now almost exactly 75 years on from West Indies’ deeply resonant first win at motherland HQ, two years after the first Windrush crossing, hats in the air, Rae and Stollmeyer, cricket, lovely cricket, a rush of blood in the dry yonic centre of the great colonial game, all of that.

It would be wrong to say Lord’s carries no trace of this occasion. Wander around its fragrant perimeters during the India Test, past the gated lawns, the scrolling bars and food courts, and you might spot an embossed brick in the wall of historical moments, just down from Wangfrott Major taking the inaugural village cup and the opening of the media centre: 1950 West Indies win their first Test at Lord’s.

Continue reading...

• Second Test, day two: Australia 286 & 12-2; West Indies 253

• Sam Konstas out for a duck, Usman Khawaja makes just two runs

Sam Konstas and Usman Khawaja’s fledgling opening partnership is on shaky ground after Australia’s openers were again dismissed cheaply against the West Indies. Australia slumped to 12-2 at stumps on day two of the second Test in Grenada, leading by just 45 after bowling the Windies out for 253.

Konstas was left shattered after he was out for a duck, playing on to his stumps from a Jayden Seales delivery. The 19-year-old, in just his fourth Test, looked better in the first innings with 25, after scores of 3 and 5 during the opening match of the series in Barbados.

Continue reading...

• Hosts rue controversial dismissals at crucial moments

• Beau Webster impresses with two wickets in fight back

Australia’s bowlers have hit back after a poor morning session to bowl out West Indies for 190 and regain the initiative in an absorbing and fluctuating first Test at Bridgetown.

But while the hosts grabbed a 10-run first-innings lead, they were again left unimpressed by two controversial dismissals of their key batters, captain Roston Chase and white-ball skipper Shai Hope, which may have tipped the game in Australia’s favour.

Continue reading...

• Batting ripped apart by Shamar Joseph and Jayden Seales

• Travis Head top scores with 59 in first Test

Australia’s new-look top-order has been shredded by a familiar West Indian tormentor Shamar Joseph as life without Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith began in wholly unconvincing fashion in Bridgetown.

Joseph, playing against the Aussies for the first time since his brilliance at Brisbane 17 months ago bowled the West Indies to their first Test triumph down under in 27 years, ripped through the new-look vanguard with four wickets as Pat Cummins’ men were dismissed for 180 in Barbados on Wednesday.

Continue reading...

Liam Dawson enjoyed a fairytale return to international cricket, taking 4-20 in a comfortable England victory

4th over: England 33-1 (Smith 16, Buttler 12) Jason Holder changes ends to good effect. An early wide didn’t bode well but he was in control after that and conceded only singles. Buttler, on the charge, was also beaten by a nice slower ball.

West Indies have dragged it back after conceding 16 from the first over.

Continue reading...

The Barbados-born former England player on being jettisoned as a West Indies selector, the risks of their new cricket structure and his thwarted football dreams

After West Indies secured a one-day series draw against Ireland on Sunday their captain, Shai Hope, was asked about the team’s imminent visit to England. “We played them at the end of last year and we won that series so we know they’re going to be coming at us even harder this time,” he said. “We’re looking forward to it. We know they’re going to be a tough, tough opponent but we’re always ready to play anyone.”

Roland Butcher, child of Barbados, once of England and more recently a West Indies selector, has a less optimistic outlook: “We’re struggling, and the struggle is not over. We haven’t hit rock bottom yet.” The concentration of power across all three formats in the hands of one coach and selector – Daren Sammy – is what Butcher fears “is going to finally push us to the bottom”.

Continue reading...

• Bethell, Salt and Livingstone back in action for RCB
• Starc and Curran among those opting to stay back home

Only eight days after the competition was suspended amid mounting hostilities along India’s border with Pakistan the Indian Premier League returns on Saturday, with most of the foreign players who scattered across the globe in the 48 hours after the competition collapsed now back in the country, their pursuit of runs and wickets having been temporarily replaced by the rapid accumulation of air miles.

The plug was in effect pulled on the tournament 10.1 overs into a game between Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals in Dharamsala on 8 May, when as rockets landed only 80km to the west the floodlights went out, fans were told to leave and players rushed back to their hotel. That match has been rescheduled for 24 May in Jaipur; all the remaining games are to be played in only six venues, with Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata joining Dharamsala in being cut from the schedule.

Continue reading...

• West Indies (win by 120 runs) 163 & 244; Pakistan 154 & 133
• Jomel Warrican named player of match and series

West Indies secured their first Test win in Pakistan since 1990 after beating the hosts by 120 runs in the second match in Multan on Monday to ensure the series ended in a 1-1 draw.

Pakistan needed 178 to win and sweep the two-match series after being reduced to 76-4 at stumps on the second day but lost two quick wickets when Saud Shakeel (13) and Kashif Ali (1) were removed cheaply by Kevin Sinclair and Jomel Warrican.

Continue reading...

Why am I writing about the fifth most famous spinner from the West Indies? Because it matters for Test cricket

There was a lovely moment after the Trinidad Test a couple of years back. With the final day’s play between India and West Indies washed out and the match drawn, Ravindra Jadeja and Jomel Warrican went up to the top of the covered stand to chat spin bowling.

And, you know, really chat about it. The dirty, under-the-counter stuff. Alignment, shoulder positions, approach angles, how to maintain efficiency of momentum into the delivery stride. The stuff that, to those uninitiated in the art and argot of left-arm red-ball spin bowling, might barely even register as English. Just two master craftsmen talking about their arcane, esoteric and very possibly dying craft.

Continue reading...