Cricket: England hit a “new low”
“How typical of England,” said Paul Newman in The Mail on Sunday. Just when you think “they have cracked it”, they let you down all over again. They went into the first Test against West Indies, in Bridgetown last week, having won eight of their previous nine matches. What followed was “an utterly brainless display”. There was the dreadful first innings, when they scored a measly 77 runs. Then, in the second innings, “they capitulated in the most abject manner” to lose by 381 runs. Apart from Rory Burns, who scored 84, no batsman managed higher than a 34. The bowling was almost as bad – especially in the second innings, when West Indies’ Jason Holder scored 202, the third-highest score by an eighth batsman in Test history. This was “a new low” for England.
Even during the 1970s and 1980s, when West Indies dominated world cricket, “there was rarely a Test win against England as shattering as this one”, said Mike Atherton in The Times. And unlike the great West Indies sides of that era, this incarnation are merely “workmanlike”. True, they played “disciplined and thoughtful cricket with a dash of flair” – but this is still a team who had won only three of their previous 12 Tests. England kept finding ways to flatter their opponents, said Vic Marks in The Observer. They made Roston Chase, who had previously averaged 47.61 runs per wicket, look like a world-class bowler: he took eight wickets for only 60 runs. This match was lost from the moment England selected their team, said Scyld Berry in The Daily Telegraph. They woefully misread the pitch, and picked the wrong players as a result. Bridgetown has always been a place where pace bowlers have thrived. Yet the selectors left out Stuart Broad, one of the best pace bowlers in the world. What were they thinking?
England got what they deserved for failing to prepare properly, said Nasser Hussain in the Daily Mail. This tour, like so many in recent years, began with a couple of “abysmal”, twoday warm-up matches – rather than a proper match, against first-class opposition, that would have given players the chance to adjust to “an unfamiliar environment” in advance. No wonder England’s tours start so badly: in their past 15 away series, they have won only three of their opening matches. But the players are hardly blameless, said Michael Vaughan in The Daily Telegraph. They’re fine when they win the toss and get to bat first. But this match was another reminder that they struggle to “bat under pressure with the opposition in front”. On the past 23 occasions that the opposition have batted first and scored 250 runs in their first innings, England have won only two Tests. They will only be a first-rate team when they become tougher “with bat in hand”.