HOLDER COMES OUT ON TOP!
Windies skipper trumps Stokes to net series lead
Not even Ben Stokes could pull off a miracle this time. Not even England’s stand-in captain could stop his opposite number Jason Holder having the final word at the end of a tumultuous first test by leading West Indies to a famous victory.
Something was stirring at a deserted Ageas Bowl yesterday when Stokes brought himself back for one last throw of the dice and dismissed Shane Dowrich and Jermaine Blackwood as West Indies stuttered within sight of the finishing line.
But not even the man who last year pulled off the twin feats of inspiring a World Cup victory and probably the best innings in English test history to win an Ashes test could mark his first game in charge by beating the odds again.
Instead it was Holder who settled any nerves West Indies felt as they edged towards their target of 200 with an unbeaten 14, before the limping John Campbell hit the winning run with four wickets to spare. It was a fitting end to this historic test.
How apt it was that the hugely impressive Holder was at the crease to help steer home West Indies, who looked to have blown their chance of just a second test win in England in 20 years when they collapsed to 27 for three.
And how the man who is ranked the best all-rounder in the world above Stokes, as he gently reminded us before the game, will relish a victory West Indies richly deserved.
Remember, West Indies agreed to come here with the Covid crisis in England at its peak and were then shut away at old trafford and then here in Southampton before the first of three tests that will save millions of broadcast money for the ECB. Holder and his team showed great dignity in their support not only for the financial health of English cricket but also the Black Lives Matter movement, which they so poignantly backed with their words and actions ahead of the test.
there have been plenty of false dawns since the great days of Caribbean cricket ended, but perhaps this really is the start of a proper test resurgence for West Indies, under a worthy successor to their great leaders of the past.
Yet it could have been so different. A West Indies win looked a long way away when Jofra Archer returned to his hostile and brilliant best, taking two of the three early wickets and forcing Campbell to retire hurt with a painful blow to the toe.
But it was then West Indies found an unlikely saviour in Blackwood, who has rarely displayed the discipline and responsibility of a test batsman since making a century against England in
Antigua in 2015. Blackwood, who has been dropped five times in his test career, could have been left out again here, had West Indies picked spinner Rahkeem Cornwall, but instead played the innings that lifted his side to within one win of retaining the Wisden trophy. England, though, could only blame themselves for allowing Blackwood to reach 95 before he holed out to Jimmy Anderson at mid-off for the second time in the match. they gave him three lives as the pressure told, having gone some way towards justifying Stokes’s questionable decision to bat first by extending their overnight score to 313. Man of the match Shannon Gabriel finished with five wickets, as England set West Indies a far from easy target. Firstly the captain himself moved too quickly to his right at slip and could not hold a cut off Dom Bess with Blackwood on five. then wicketkeeper Jos Buttler spilt a chance down the leg side off Stokes. Finally Rory Burns at gully seemed to completely lose a Blackwood cut on 29, even though the empty seats provided the perfect backdrop for a catch, Stokes compounding the error by over-stepping for yet another undetected no-ball. When Zak Crawley fumbled a run-out opportunity with Blackwood and Roston Chase almost at the same end, England’s fielding profligacy was complete and West Indies were let off the hook to move on to a win that beautifully sets up this series. Stokes may have last night stood by his two big decisions here in batting first and leaving out Stuart Broad, but he must regret not bowling when conditions demanded it on Wednesday.
the Broad call is more debatable but the dilemma England have now is that Emirates old trafford should provide better conditions for the quickest bowlers in the second test than here, and they may have to accept they backed the right horses at the wrong course.
Archer, who took a third wicket with a brute of a delivery to Chase, is surely an automatic pick but England will think long and hard over whether Jimmy Anderson and Mark Wood should again play ahead of Broad and Chris Woakes on thursday.
An easier decision, surely, will be to bring to an end the test career of the under-achieving Joe Denly on Joe Root’s return and back the class and potential of a batsman who made their highest score in the match here, Zak Crawley with 76.
England face a headache too over what to do with a man they are so desperate to see succeed at test level in Buttler, who again disappointed with the bat here and then dropped a catch off Blackwood that would probably have won the match for England. Buttler will almost certainly stay for now but he is playing for his test future in Manchester.
‘Good luck, Joe,’ smiled Stokes when he said last night that it would be up to Root again to make those big calls now.
the captain will return with a big job on his hands if England are going to do what they did in South Africa last winter — and come back from 1-0 down to win this series.