The Times - UK (2020-07-21)

66 2GM Tuesday July 21 2020 | the times

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allowed England breathing space,

given the loss of the third day to rain.

That Stokes did not usher the victory

in with ball in hand was the only sur-

prise, but even he was feeling the effects

by the end, having pulled up four balls

into his 15th over. England will be hop-

ing dearly that he recovers to play a full

part in the deciding third Test, which

starts on Friday. He remained on the

field for the victory moment, but it was

a pair of 22-year-olds who supplied the

cherry on top of the cake — Dom Bess,

the off spinner, who had struggled until

switched to a more favourable end, and

Ollie Pope, who flung himself to his left

to take the winning catch, a magnifi-

cent diving effort at short leg.

Everyone, though, stood in the shad-

ow of the Sun King, Stokes. What a

match he had: a mighty hundred in the

first innings; a rapid half-century after

being promoted to open in the second,

and vital wickets bowling what the pro-

fessionals call the “grunt” overs when

the ball was old and not doing much at

all. In the first innings he was withheld

until the 51st over, and took the key

wicket of Kraigg Brathwaite during an

11-over spell. Now, in the second, as En-

gland’s edge was blunted, he bowled

another 11-over spell, in which Black-

wood fell to his charms. Without either

of the quick bowlers, Jofra Archer and

Mark Wood, Stokes took that enforcer’s

role upon himself.

Until that stubborn partnership

between Blackwood and Brooks,

England’s day had gone entirely to plan.

Initially, we wondered how far Joe Root

was prepared to risk defeat for victory,

how far he was prepared to open the

door to West Indies. The answer was

not much, but not because Root was

especially conservative in his declara-

tion but because the vehemence of

Stokes’s stroke-play in the morning,

during which 92 runs were added in 11

overs, simply snuffed out any thoughts

of a West Indian run-chase.

Stokes signalled his intent immedi-

ately, crunching a towering six off

Kemar Roach’s fifth ball that had Jason

Holder craning his neck at long-off.

Roach’s first over went for 14 and, there-

after, Root looked to give as much of the

strike as possible to his right-hand man,

which ultimately cost him his own

wicket when he was run out in the

eighth over of the morning.

Stokes was dropped badly at deep

cover by John Campbell off Shannon

Gabriel, and then rubbed salt into the

Gabriel wound by taking him for

think of a better one. He looks a bit like
him, although a bit skinnier.”
It was not only a match-winning
performance from Stokes with bat and
ball — not least in the second innings
during an 11-over spell of aggressive
short-pitched bowling extracting
movement and bounce even with the
soft old ball — but one that showed
what a complete cricketer he is.
“This game showed more than any
other Ben’s ability to read different
situations, his adaptabililty, his
versatility,” Root said.
“He can do so many different roles
with the bat. That first innings showed
great maturity — him and [Dom] Sibley
set the platform.
“It’s the third time in four games we
have made 400-plus which is a massive
step forward for us as a team. Ben really
led the way with that and then you look Broad celebrates the wicket of Chase

There will be many moments of match-
turning magnificence that we remem-
ber when Ben Stokes’s career is done.
The World Cup final, the Headingley
Ashes Test and, no doubt, many more
to come. There are also minor vignettes
that will be forgotten; smaller, more
insignificant pieces of action that of
themselves have had little impact upon
the game, but which demonstrate what
an inspirational cricketer he is to those
around him.
One such came on the point of tea
yesterday, the first ball of the 43rd over,
during the eighth over of an afternoon
spell from Stokes. With virtually every
fielder on or behind square, Jermaine
Blackwood punched the ball back down
the ground and, with no fielders in his
vicinity, Stokes had to set off in pursuit
of the ball.
He sprinted fully 80 yards after
completing his follow-through, made a
full-length dive at the ball and flicked it
back before it reached the boundary.
That the batsmen had made an all-run
four was, to him, immaterial.
Three balls later, with Blackwood still
on strike, Stokes produced a brute of a
ball that reared up towards the right-
hander’s armpit, took the glove and
ballooned towards Jos Buttler, who
sprinted four yards to his left and took
an excellent diving catch. After a part-
nership of exactly 100 between Black-
wood and Shamarh Brooks, one that
had lasted throughout the afternoon
and had given West Indies hope, Stokes
had given England a vital breakthrough
again. England’s players walked off to
tea a little taller, with belief renewed.
Back in the ranks after a brief spell in
charge, the “Stokes Effect” was there
for all to see in a match that ended just
inside the final hour, England levelling
the series with a 113-run victory. Stokes
was man of the match, of course, for his
all-round performance, but the first-in-
nings century of Dom Sibley should not
be forgotten, nor the seam bowling of
Stuart Broad, who backed up his fight-
ing talk from last week with six wickets
that came in two vital clusters that

‘He even looks like Mr Incredible – but skinnier’

at the rest of the game, his impact with

the ball — he made something happen

when nothing was.

“He ran in on what seemed like a

flat wicket at that point with the old

soft ball and made things happen

and changed the game.

“His runs this morning

meant there was only

two possibilities in

terms of results and

gave us some

breathing space and

we could attack more

with the ball because of

those runs.”

Stokes did not complete his

15th over yesterday after what,

at the time, looked to be a groin

injury but he says he is not hurt

and was just feeling stiff. “I am

fine,” Stokes insisted. “My

body was starting to get really stiff and

I spoke to Broad and said I was feeling

stiff and he told me just to stop,

especially with them being nine

down. It made the decision a bit

easier but I am absolutely fine.”

Root confirmed that Jofra

Archer, who was removed

from the squad for the

second Test and fined

£15,000 after breaching

the strict biosecure

protocols surrounding

the series by visiting his

home in Hove after the

first Test, would be available

for selection for the third Test,

which starts on Friday, with

England bidding for victory to

regain the Wisden Trophy.

“It was disappointing,” Root

said. “He’s been through a

disciplinary process and is very

aware now of the

consequences of his actions

and is very remorseful about what he

has done. Now it is time for us to look at

him as available to be selected.”

Jason Holder, the West Indies

captain, said that England’s burst with

the second new ball on the fourth

evening, when West Indies slumped

from 242 for four to 287 all out in their

first innings, was probably what cost

them the game. “England played really

good cricket, especially Ben Stokes,

but I think yesterday’s performance

against the second new ball really let us

down,” he said. “If we had got through

that we could have stretched the game

a bit deeper and given ourselves a

chance to win.

“England’s bowlers really challenged

our batters, although maybe they got a

bit stuck on the crease. That is

something we need to pay attention to.

In these conditions you have to commit

to being forward or back and get into a

good position to make a decision

whether you want to play at the ball.”

continued from back

f

Root likened Stokes to the

Disney animation star

England v West Indies

Stokes the enforcer hauls

another six over long-off to bring up his

half-century in a rapid 36 balls, the

sixth fastest in England’s history, and

his second fastest after his 34-ball affair

at Cape Town in the winter — another

all-round performance that had hauled

his team to victory. Brute force was not

his only option, though, one glance

down to third man off Holder being as

delicate as a porcelain vase.

West Indies’ need to take time out of

the game was highlighted by Holder’s

decision to review a leg-before decision

against Stokes in which the ball had

pitched fully three feet outside leg

stump and hit the batsman in the gut, a

plainly ridiculous call designed only to

hold up England, something repeated

in Alzarri Joseph’s first over shortly

afterwards. That time-wasting had

come so early in the day told you every-

thing about the state of the game and

Root’s declaration set West Indies a

nominal 312 in 85 overs, allowing for a

second new ball if necessary.

England’s golden morning was

complete when three wickets fell to the

new-ball combination of Broad and

Chris Woakes. Broad accounted for

Campbell, to the faintest of edges that

was not detected by Buttler but was by

technology, and then Shai Hope, who

ended on his haunches as the ball

scuttled through on to the off stump. In

between, Woakes produced the perfect

nip-backer to trap Brathwaite on the

crease, and when Roston Chase fell to

Broad immediately after the break,

West Indies looked done for.

Brooks and Blackwood played game-

ly, then. The decision not to review a

caught-behind against Brooks when on

17, which replays showed had come off

glove as well as elbow, looked to be a

costly one for England — and for

Woakes, whose 100th Test wicket this

would have been. Eventually, Shane

Dowrich, looking ever jumpier against

the short ball, provided the Warwick-

shire man with this milestone — and in

Woakes’s 34th Test, it has come at a

decent lick. It would be a surprise were

Woakes to ever emit the kind of noises

Broad made on omission last week, but

with his record at home, he may be

entitled to a grumble or two.

Given England’s win, and given that

Jofra Archer, Mark Wood and James

Anderson are waiting in the wings, a

bowler or three will be grumbling come

Friday. With Test matches coming

thick and fast, Holder must look on

England’s seam bowling riches with

envy and England must be favourites to

win the series now.

Mike Ather ton

Chief Cricket
Correspondent

Emirates Old Trafford (final day of

five): England beat West Indies by

113 runs

52cm

Broad has started

pitching the ball up

more and is on average

bowling just over half a

metre fuller than he

did in 2014

England’s never-say-die hero

Stokes’s relentlessness in pursuit of victory was encapsulated as he dived to

stop a boundary off his own bowling. The batsman, Jermaine Blackwood, still

ran four but Stokes took his wicket three balls later with a brute of a delivery

Sport England v West Indies: Second Test

Broad’s

influence

58%

As a result, since the start

of 2018 more than half of

his wickets at home have

been bowled or lbw, up

from 33 per cent until

the end of 2017

From his first wicket

in the first innings to

his third in the second

innings

11.5

overs

5

maidens

25

runs

6

wickets

DAN MULLAN/GETTY IMAGES