England fans injured as T20 stand collapses
Hosts fall 21 runs short of target after batting failure Pitch-perfect Narine helps visitors win opening T20
Three spectators have been injured after the partial collapse of a temporary stand at the Twenty20 international between England and the West Indies at the Emirates Riverside in Chesterle-Street.
The incident took place in the northeast corner of the ground shortly before 9.30pm, while England were batting. Photographs appeared to indicate that a section of the floor in the temporary stand had caved in, and there were reports that a female spectator was injured after falling through the hole in the floor.
An ambulance was seen arriving at the back of the stand shortly after the incident. The entire section was evacuated and sealed off by stewards as a precautionary measure. Around 200 spectators sitting in that section were moved to other parts of the ground.
In a statement, Durham County Cricket Club said: “During the course of the second innings between England and West Indies at Emirates Riverside, three spectators were injured when a small section of the north-east terrace flooring became unstable, causing them to fall.
“Stewards took precautionary action and evacuated that area of the stand efficiently. The stand had passed inspections in the week prior to the match.”
The ground has hosted 26 internationals since opening in 1995. Temporary stands have been used several times in the past.
On a chilly night in the North-East, it was England who were caught cold.
The West Indies are simply too good, too slick, too well-drilled in this form of the game. For the most part, Twenty20 is what they do for a living, and against an England side of mixed readiness, it showed.
This is no longer a game you can simply dip into and out of like canasta.
It is a calling, a lifestyle, a vocation. The era of the T20 specialist was epitomised by the fact that not a single one of the West Indies XI last night was in their recent Test squad. Man-of-thematch Sunil Narine and captain Carlos Brathwaite were among those players who had flown all the way here just for this match. For the West Indies it is this, and not fusty old red-ball cricket, that is their new national pastime. Over the decade or so since this became the dominant and most lucrative form of the game, they have dissected and decoded it better than anyone else. They prepare exhaustively, play with expression and trust their instincts. They are quite content to play out dot ball after dot ball, confident in their ability to clear the ropes when it matters.
Here, on a good batting wicket, it was their slow bowlers, and particularly Narine, who seized the game with tight lines and immaculate, unhittable lengths. England made encouraging early progress towards their target of 177, but looked a batsman light. The decision to rest Ben Stokes on his home ground looked even more baffling as Adil Rashid strolled in at No7 with the asking rate rising above 10 an over.
For the first 40 minutes of the match, it appeared England might struggle to get even that close. Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis were into their stride quicker than usual, helping themselves to sixes on both sides of the wicket. Tom Curran’s first over went for 15, Chris Jordan’s for 16, Curran’s second over for 17. At the end of the Powerplay, the West Indies were 72 without loss and their prospects seemed limitless.
But then Gayle had one of those brain fades that occasionally afflicts his game. Carving the ball to point, he was utterly oblivious as Lewis called him through for a single. Gayle made only the most ceremonial of efforts to reach his ground, putting in neither sprint nor dive, before retreating to the relative warmth of the dugout.
It seemed comically harmless enough at the time, but in retrospect it was a turning point. Gayle’s 40 had laid a platform, but that was all it had done. Lewis pushed on in his absence, bringing up his 50 off 26 balls, but never again did the West Indies look so thoroughly in control. Gradually England struck upon an optimum length, dragging it down and in so doing dragging themselves back into the match. Liam Plunkett, whose natural length was ideal for the circumstances, led the way. First Lewis drilled his slower ball to mid-off; next came the dangerous Marlon Samuels and Kieron Pollard, both caught trying to hoik to leg.
After he departed, Rashid returned from a poor first over and used the skiddy surface to good effect. Chadwick Walton heaved a shorter delivery to the mid-wicket boundary; Brathwaite and Narine both perished trying to sweep the straight delivery. As is so often the case in the format, Rashid had earned his wickets not so much through lavish turn as through the absence of it.
And just like that, England were in the hunt. Rovman Powell struck a couple of late blows, but the regular fall of wickets, and a passing squall with seven balls of the innings remaining, prevented the West Indies from gathering momentum. A score of 176 was formidable, but a measure of England’s fightback was that more than half of those runs had come in the first eight overs. All England needed was a decent start. Instead, their top three could all have been dismissed for golden ducks. Jason Roy carved his first ball straight to gully, Joe Root was very nearly trapped LBW by a fuller one from Jerome Taylor, and Alex Hales was dropped by Powell, a low skimmer at square leg. This last drop proved the costliest. Hales, whose sparkling mid- season form had rather evaporated in recent weeks, began with haste and the worst of intentions. Taking a firm liking to Taylor’s 90mph pace and full length, he backed away to carve him square, and flipped him over cow corner for six. After three overs, England were on 43, and Hales had 35 of them.
Had Hales managed to bat just another 20 minutes, England would likely have won at a canter. Instead, in the final over of the Powerplay he came down the pitch to Brathwaite’s leg-cutter and lost his off-stump. Root went next, footnoting an ugly, weirdly indistinct innings by popping a catch straight to extra cover. The over after that, Eoin Morgan lobbed a reverse sweep straight to the man in the circle to prolong what is now the worst slump of his career in T20 career. A concern? “My form’s always a concern,” he smiled. “It’s something I’ve become more relaxed about as I’ve got older.”
For Morgan, that was the period where the game was lost. Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow were forced to accumulate before they speculated. They put on a pedestrian 50 off 40 balls before Buttler was out caught on the midwicket boundary trying to pull a shorter delivery from Kendrick Williams. Increasingly, bowlers are targeting that area on an awkward length outside Buttler’s off-stump, denying him the fuller length and straighter deliveries on which he thrives.
The innings meandered along at a glacial pace, the West Indies making frequent complaints to the umpires about the slippery conditions, at one stage threatening to leave the field. Instead, they decided to end the game by more conventional means, knocking over the England tail and claiming a comfortable victory. The only surprise is that anyone thought it was a surprise.