Hope springs eternal for West Indies after centurion’s epic effort
Batsman’s unbeaten 118 secures five-wicket win Bajan first to hit two tons in one Headingley match
It was an epic Test match. It could well be in pole position for the Test of this century to date, so complete was the turnaround after England had won the first Test by an innings and 206 runs and so brilliant was Shai Hope, who batted in the best Barbadian tradition to take West Indies all the way home with five wickets and 4.4 overs to spare.
Hope did not know that, in the process, he had become the first batsman to score a century in each innings of a first-class match – let alone Test – at Headingley in 534 games. Not Herbert Sutcliffe, not Sir Leonard Hutton, not Geoffrey Boycott had ever achieved this feat, yet Hope cracked it in only his 12th Test, blissfully unaware.
Hope will know, however, what he and his fellow Barbadian Kraigg Brathwaite – who fell only five runs short of this distinguished record – have done to revive cricket in the Caribbean by chasing down a target of 322. Together they took West Indies to what was only their third Test victory overseas, excluding Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, since they beat England in 2000 and showed they can still compete at the highest level. In one West Indian word, respect!
And in reviving West Indian Test cricket, these two young batsmen have revived Test cricket itself. West Indies had won the last World Twenty20 but, in the red-ball game, they had been sliding down to eighth in the world rankings – into what would have been a second division of six countries, including Afghanistan and Ireland, if some had their way. But Hope saw West Indies over the line and back into the full brotherhood of Test-playing nations.
England did not bowl their best, apart from Stuart Broad, who was roused to concert pitch but saw Alastair Cook drop Brathwaite and Hope off his bowling, and James Anderson, who was almost spent by the time he took the second new ball. Rising above all else, though, was the superlative batsmanship of the younger Hope brother in partnership with his vice-captain. Brathwaite was phlegmatism and bottom-handed pragmatism; Hope was balance, quick feet and hands, and the soundest of minds.
When Hope came in, West Indies, who needed 317 more off 90 overs at the day’s start, were wobbling at 53 for two. After the start had been delayed until 11.15am by overnight rain, Anderson and Broad were in their element under cloud. So the first of Cook’s misses, when Brathwaite was on 10, proved a fatal lapse, while the second came when Hope had scored 106 and the outcome was almost settled.
West Indies themselves had dropped four catches in England’s first innings, three in their second. Australia’s former captain Steve Waugh always said catching was much harder for fielders in England because of the background: spectators wore dark clothes against the cold. Whatever the cause, the foundations for the run-chase would not have been laid if Brathwaite had gone, in addition to Kieran Powell caught at fourth slip and Kyle Hope run out when Brathwaite’s straight drive – another possible catch – had deflected into the bowler’s stumps off Broad.
Brathwaite and Hope added 144 off 243 balls to go with the 246 they had put on in West Indies’ first innings. It was during the afternoon, and an ineffectual spell by Chris Woakes, that the crowd sensed an England victory was not guaranteed. Woakes appeared to have trouble with the footholes made by Broad, so that he had to go wide in the crease, and when he angled into the pads, both Brathwaite and Hope flicked him away – Hope with a touch of the majesty that Barbados bred in Worrell, Weekes, Walcott and Sobers.
Moeen Ali, too, was struggling, bowling too flat. He was not so threatening as Roston Chase had been. The responsibility of spinning England to victory seemed to weigh heavily: he bowled one of his high full-tosses. The crowd tried rousing England when Broad ran in, but nothing disturbed the batsmen’s composure until Brathwaite, in sight of tea and his second century, tried to cover-drive too square of the wicket when Moeen, for once, flighted. West Indies now required 125 off 36.2 overs.
After tea, Broad and Anderson managed three maidens, the target going from 103 off 30 to 103 off 27. There might have been some reverse-swing to judge by the fields: only four on the off side, with one wide slip, and the eventual edge would fly through the gap.
When Chase was caught at midon – a brilliant two-handed diving catch by substitute Mason Crane – Hope still had not reached his 100.
England began to play for the draw, slowing the game down, hoping bad light would rescue them. Broad, the old pro, had all sorts of trouble with the footholes which demanded the groundstaff ’s attention. And it was getting darker, the floodlights taking over from the natural light: so here was justification for Jermaine Blackwood’s eccentricity. West Indies had to knock them off before the umpires took them off.
Immediately Joe Root took the second new ball, with West Indies needing 56 off the last 16 overs, but he did not post more than two close catchers. Blackwood attacked Anderson’s second ball of this spell and launched him straight for six. Now a support act to the Blackwood show, Hope eased to his century but did not celebrate triumphantly, intent on his team’s goal.
It was probably the biggest, most unexpected, setback for England since they lost their first Test against New Zealand in England in 1983. But so what? Hope rightly triumphed in the end.