62 2GM Monday July 27 2020 | the times
Sport
For the final 30 minutes yesterday, En-
gland smelt blood. The old combina-
tion, Stuart Broad and James Ander-
son, had their rightful hands on the new
ball and Broad, in particular, after six
wickets and a half-century, fancied his
chances of reaching a landmark 500th
Test wicket in the short time available.
It did not quite come, but it will at some
time over the next two days, along with
an England victory.
Starting on 497 Test wickets before
the West Indies’ second innings, Broad
needed only three balls to find the edge
of John Campbell’s bat. As David Warn-
er found out last summer, the combina-
tion of Broad, a Dukes ball and a round-
the-wicket angle is a nightmare for any
left-hander in England, 21 of them
having fallen to him cheaply in Tests
since the start of last year. In his present
form, maybe Broad should try batting
against himself.
He snuffed out the nightwatchman,
Kemar Roach, shortly afterwards and
with his knees pumping and that im-
maculate, testing length coming natu-
rally to him, the 34-year-old looked like
taking a wicket every ball. Survival was
the limit of Shai Hope’s ambition in
Broad’s final over and is now the limit of
West Indies’ ambition after a day in
which their belief evaporated. England
can be thankful to Broad, in all kinds of
ways, for that.
After a lacklustre start to the day,
Broad took a burst of four wickets in
four overs in the morning after which it
was the turn of Rory Burns to turn the
screw in the afternoon with a well con-
structed innings, the highlight of which
was his improvement against the off
spinners, Rahkeem Cornwall and Ros-
ton Chase. With the West Indies’ fast
bowlers feeling the pinch, Burns was
given plenty of practice against the
spinners, who sent down 33 of the 58
overs in all.
Burns had spent much of the pre-
match preparation period in the nets,
working with Graham Thorpe, the as-
sistant coach, throwing off spinners and
chatting about the best way to combat
Chase, who had dismissed him three
times in the series. There were few bet-
ter players of spin than Thorpe in En-
gland colours in recent years, and
Burns put the advice to good use,
sweeping Chase three times to the
boundary in a half-century that came
in 111 balls.
Burns shared in an opening stand of
114 with Dom Sibley, the first century-
opening partnership for England on
home soil for four years, and then en-
joyed far more freedom in company
with Joe Root, who provided much-
needed impetus to the innings with a
jaunty half-century that came at quick-
er than a run a ball. With a bad forecast
for today, the question of the declara-
tion was more problematic than the
touring side’s bowling, which was insip-
id at best.
Root went to his half-century with a
blistering lofted straight drive off Roach
and then it was simply a question of
which would come first, the declaration
or Burns’s hundred. What little luck the
left-hander needed was with him for a
time, when stand-in captain Kraigg
Brathwaite refused a review against
Emirates Old Trafford (third day of five):
West Indies, with eight second-innings wickets
in hand, need 389 runs to beat EnglandEngland v West Indies
Mike Ather ton
Chief Cricket
Correspondent
Broad celebrates the wicket of Roach, the West Indies nightwatchman, for hisStuart Broad had a great day yesterday.
He did not have a bad one on Saturday
when he smashed his highest Test score
for seven years. But yesterday he com-
pleted his best bowling figures in an En-
gland shirt since 2016, and bowling,
after all, is what he is picked to do.
Broad also became a day older yes-
terday and age is something that he can
do nothing about. Broad is 34, his old
mucker James Anderson almost 38 and,
in the physically demanding business
of propelling cricket balls, that means
the light is dying around them. They are
the oldest fast bowlers to play for En-
gland in the past 15 years.
It cannot help that they are playing
under a regime — whether the driving
force is Joe Root, the captain, Chris Sil-
verwood, the head coach, or the
national selector Ed Smith, who
knows? – eager to invest in youth. In the
past ten days, Broad has found himself
sharing a field with four team-mates
who are 23 or younger, another who is
24 and another 25.
Being among the two oldest men in
the team is never easy because if the
powers that be find cause to drop you,
you know that getting back is all the
harder. Joe Denly was dropped after the
first Test for Zak Crawley and as Denly,Ruthless England find all
Cornwall that would have resulted in a
wicket, but the end came when he
swept once too often against Chase and
top-edged a simple catch. The declara-
tion followed immediately.
The problems stacked up for West In-
dies throughout the day. Just before
lunch, Jason Holder was hit on the
thumb at slip and emerged after lunch
with a huge strapping on it. Immediate-
ly after the break, in the eighth over,
Shane Dowrich failed to cope with late
movement and took one in the mouth
off Shannon Gabriel. It looked a nasty
blow and the wicketkeeper left the field,
with claret spurting from his mouth. At
least in Josh Da Silva, West Indies had
a capable replacement to hand, al-
though Da Silva missed a tough stump-
ing chance when Burns was on 12, un-
able to remove the bails in time as the
batsman scrambled back into his
ground.
Whether Dowrich recovers in time
to bat remains to be seen, but he spent
the rest of the day looking dazed in the
dressing room, and, no doubt, will be
tested for concussion in the morning.
Gabriel joined him, having left the field
after his opening spell, not to return.
The fast bowler’s race was done. Later,
in the evening session, Holder left the
field again, struggling with his ankle. At
times, West Indies had as many as four
substitute fielders in operation.
Which is to say that the game, all one
way, had lost its competitive edge. In
each of the past two games, now, Hold-
er has opted to bowl, despite the record
books stating no captain has done so in
Tests at Emirates Old Trafford and en-
joyed the outcome. Quite how far
Holder’s decision was a defensive,
rather than attacking move, is hard to
know, but it is likely that it was partly
due to concerns about his top six, and
their ability to withstand England’s re-
surgent pace attack. In a five-day game,
you can put off that challenge but you
cannot avoid it completely.
To win both tosses and concede first-
innings leads of 219 and 172 runs, is
about as demoralising as it gets. It left
Holder’s team with nowhere to go yes-
terday afternoon and you sensed the
belief draining away.
Having looked so ruthless on the
second evening, England had emerged
from the blocks on the third morning
sluggishly, summed up by Chris
Woakes, who overstepped the front line
for just the second time in Test cricket,
only to see Holder brilliantly caught by
Ollie Pope at mid-wicket. Pope was
horizontal in the air at the moment of
intervention; a wonderful catch that
will live only in the fielder’s memory
rather than the scorebook, sadly.
It was the introduction of Broad that
sparked England into action, as it so of-
ten has done. Quite why Broad was
ignored at the start of the day is a mys-
tery, given how well he has bowled
since returning to the team, but he did
not take long in putting matters right,
just three balls before trapping Holder
on the crease. Cornwall followed simi-
larly, after some breezy drives, Roach
went to slip, and Dowrich flinging the
bat.
Broad was quick to grab hold of the
ball for a memento and he led the team
off the field, as was his right. Four wick-
ets, then, to him (4-1-14-4 for the morn-
ing), six in all for the innings, an 18th
five-wicket haul and, after his new-ball
burst at the end of the day, 499 wickets
in Tests.
No one has taken more six-wicket
hauls for England, and he stands equal
with the great Sydney Barnes having
achieved that feat on a dozen occasions.
What a cricketer and what a competitor
he has been.Sport England v West Indies: Third Test
Scoreboard
ENGLAND First Innings369 (115.5 overs; O Pope 91,
J Buttler 67, Broad 62, R Burns 57;
K Roach 4-72)Weather forecast
Max temp 18C
Today: Overcast with
persistent heavy rain
all dayMax temp 14C
Tomorrow: Showers
likely to persist
throughout the dayWEST INDIES First Innings R B
(Overnight 137-6)
*J O Holder
lbw b Broad
Pinned to crease, leg stump46 82†S O Dowrich
c Woakes b Broad
Skewed pull shot, mid on37 63R R S Cornwall
lbw b Broad
Played across line, front pad10 15K A J Roach
c Root b Broad
Tempted into drive, first slip0 3S T Gabriel
not out0 3Extras
(b 4, lb 5, nb 1, w 5)15TOTAL (65 overs) 197Fall of wickets 7-178, 8-188, 9-188.
Bowling: Anderson 16-5-28-2; Broad 14-4-
31-6; Archer 17-1-72-1; Woakes 18-2-57-1.ENGLAND Second Innings R B
R J Burns
c Da Silva (sub) b Chase
Slog-sweep, top edge90 163D P Sibley
lbw b Holder
Playing across line, plumb56 132*J E Root
not out68 56Extras
(b 6, lb 3, nb 3)12TOTAL (58 overs; 2 wkts) 226 dec
Fall of wickets 1-114; 2-226.
Bowling Roach 11-4-34-0; Gabriel
5-0-19-0; Holder 9-2-24-1; Chase 14-2-61-1;
Cornwall 19-2-79-0.West Indies Second Innings R B
K C Brathwaite
not out2 17J D Campbell
c Root b Broad
Moved away, first slip0 3K A J Roach
c Buttler b Broad
Full and straight, thin edge4 5S D Hope
not out4 11Extras 0
TOTAL (6 overs; 2 wkts) 10
Fall of wickets 1-0, 2-6.
Bowling Anderson 3-2-2-0;
Broad 3-1-8-2.Umpires R Kettleborough (Eng) and
M Gough (Eng) TV Umpire
R Illingworth (Eng) Match referee
C Broad (Eng)
Series details: First Test West Indies
won by four wickets. Second Test
England won by 113 runsBrilliant Broad has
England seamer aware
time is no longer on his
side under new regime,
argues Simon Wilde
at 34, is older by 12 years, few expect to
see him in Test cricket again.
Nasser Hussain was never grumpier
than in the 12 months he spent back in
the ranks after quitting the England
captaincy; he knew his time was com-
ing to an end and without the leader-
ship role to bolster his case, runs were
his only currency, just as wickets are
Broad’s only currency now.
Broad and Anderson want to keep
playing, but they know there will come
a time soon when they will have to go,
and they will want to get their depar-
tures right. Good luck with that. As
Steve Waugh once said, there are not
many Cinderella stories in inter-
national sport.
The situation is complicated by an
Ashes series in 2021-22 that is near
enough to require planning but too far
away to ink in many names. The En-
gland management know from past ex-
perience that they need X-factor bowl-
ers to win matches away from home —
in Australia that means high pace.
Broad and Anderson do not have that
but Jofra Archer and Mark Wood do.
Archer, 25, and Wood, 30, are short of
Test match experience though, and
need outings to hone their games,
hence the decision to play both of them
in the first Test and leave out Broad.
Broad demanded clarification as to the
reasons from Smith but he had already
been given them by Ben Stokes, the act-
ing captain. As Hussain was, Broad is in
a permanent state of grump.
Broad has also not forgotten his
treatment two winters ago, when he got