Stokes stands firm
We support Archer, says centurion
It was supposed to be the start of the Hundred competition yesterday. The Oval Invincibles and Welsh Fire should have begun cricket’s freshest format in a blaze of sixes, fancy expensive fireworks, time-outs and countdown clocks.
Instead it was a sedate day for traditionalists. You expect Dom Sibley to revel in such conditions, but Ben Stokes was just as tempered, with both batsmen leaving more balls than an entire innings in the Hundred. Sibley scored the slowest ever Test hundred in terms of minutes in England, setting up his team to declare on 469.
Stokes’s 10th Test hundred was the slowest of his career and England batted for more overs than in any innings at home for six years.
Now only Garfield Sobers, Ian
Botham and Jacques Kallis have more wickets and hundreds than Stokes, who since he was cleared of affray has been England’s most consistent batsman.
He averages more than 45 since his court case ended in August 2018 – by contrast Joe Root averages 38 – and can shape-shift between patient accumulator and extravagant hitter. With Sam Curran striking with his fourth ball in the evening, West Indies were 32 for one and will have to be equally patient if they are to bat their way to a draw and retain the Wisden Trophy. Run-scoring is not easy but wickets have to be earned too on this pitch and rain is forecast today.
England are firmly in control thanks to Sibley and Stokes adding 260 runs from 94.4 overs of studious, unfussy batting.
There were flashes of flamboyance from Stokes with some superb clean hitting after his hundred, but he epitomised England’s ruthless crushing of West Indian spirit.
This was a grind, with Stokes and Sibley both facing in excess of 300 balls, the first time two Englishman have combined to do that in the same innings since 1974.
Sibley also took Keith Fletcher’s record for the slowest century in terms of minutes in England. His hundred took 471 minutes, Fletcher’s was 458, and Sibley scored just 15 runs in the first session, spending 36 balls in the nineties.
To put this plod into context, Sibley was on 98 when he faced his 304th ball, which took him beyond Sir Geoffrey Boycott’s slowest Test hundred. He brought up his century with a rare push down the ground through mid-on for three.
The understated fist-bump was a fitting mark of celebration and Sir Geoffrey will have nodded approval at his stubborn application.
West Indies will regret not rotating their attack. It has probably cost them the Test.
Shannon Gabriel could not rally himself again and Alzarri Joseph was their most threatening seamer but went off with an arm muscle injury as West Indies worked through 162 draining overs, having put England in to bat. Roston Chase had to hold the line, bowling unchanged after lunch, sending down 44 overs for his five for 172.
West Indies dropped Stokes twice on 141 and 157, they were better than on day one and never gave up, but England had a platform to go on and in Sibley a player determined not to waste it.
A second Test hundred is an important milestone. Adam Lyth and Sam Robson never managed a second and fell away. Nick Compton chalked up two hundreds but soon found himself on the wrong side of the team’s philosophy. It will be different with Sibley for his batting is just what the captain wants right now. Root has challenged his players (and himself) to make big first -innings totals.
This was only the first time England had scored more than 400 in their first innings at home for three years. Sibley left 101 balls, which for most batsman would be a selfless act of denial, but not for him.
He reached his century off 312 balls hitting only four boundaries. He trundled along at one an over and when he did attempt to change pace it did not come off. He missed four reverse sweeps and fell trying to hit over the top when he took the aerial route for the first time on 120, using his feet against Chase only to be caught in the deep.
Stokes absorbed some of Sibley’s style, carefully piecing together his hundred off 255 balls, bringing it up with a reverse sweep.
He also left 106 deliveries, but interspersed his innings after passing
his hundred with some big hits. A six off Joseph over long on was perfectly timed, the crack off the bat resounding around Emirates Old Trafford as his third fifty came off only 46 balls.
West Indies were poor in the field again. Jermaine Blackwood let an edge through his hands off Stokes on 141 at second slip and 16 runs later Shai Hope missed another chance at gully, driving the bowlers to despair.
Stokes slowed before tea, resetting himself for a thrash in the final session but was caught behind attempting a reverse sweep off Kemar Roach, somehow only his first wicket of the series. A second came a ball later when Chris Woakes edged to gully but that hat-trick ball summed up West Indies’s bowling. It was offline and Sam Curran could watch it safely glide past.
Jos Buttler’s 40 off 79 balls should give him confidence, although he could not have asked for a better platform to attack than coming in at 352 for five. He survived an lbw review on nought, gradually rallied himself with three fours in one over off Chase but even Buttler found stroke-making hard.
July 17, 2020 was earmarked as a day for someone like Buttler to give the Hundred lift off. Instead, in this upside down world it turned out to be one that belonged to a different era.