England’s win bid frustrated by rain
ENGLAND’S hopes of a seriesclinching victory over the West Indies and Stuart Broad’s pursuit of a 500th Test wicket were frustrated by rain as play was washed out without a ball bowled on day four at Emirates Old Trafford.
The covers remained defiantly in place throughout the day as persistent, heavy showers set in over Manchester, halting the home side’s charge after they dominated with bat and ball on Sunday.
The match officials accepted the inevitable shortly after 4pm.
Having set the Windies a notional target of 399, Broad reduced them to 10 for two with his seventh and eighth wickets of the match.
That took the 34-year-old seamer to 499 career scalps and it is now a question of when, not if, he joins team-mate James Anderson in the exclusive 500 club.
Only six bowlers in history have achieved that mark, with Anderson, Glenn McGrath and Courtney Walsh the only pacemen.
The bad weather has played into the West Indies’ hands, knowing a draw is enough to see them retain the Wisden Trophy. But with 98 overs possible today, England will still hope to have enough time to seal a 2-1 win.
Meanwhile, David Willey is viewing an unexpected second chance with England as “a free hit” after being recalled to the one-day squad for the first time since his gutwrenching omission from last year’s World Cup.
Willey had been involved for the duration of the four-year build-up to the tournament and even made it as far as the provisional 15-man squad before being cut for the newly available Jofra Archer.
While England, and Archer, went on to lift the trophy in an unforgettable final at Lord’s, the Yorkshire all-rounder started coming to terms with the idea that his international career might be at an end and set himself on a less complicated goal: having fun with the game again.
He has now been named in a squad of 14 for the forthcoming ODI series against Ireland – England’s first on home soil since they lifted the trophy.
“I’d love to have played in the World Cup for England and I don’t think anything is going to make up for being dropped at the 11th hour, but that’s the nature of the beast,” he told PA. “Somebody had to miss out and it was me.
“If I’d have gone down swinging after that selection I might have upset a few people and they might have gone in a different direction now, but I wanted the lads to do well. Just because I missed out I wasn’t going to rubbish it, I’d been part of the group for years.”
Somerset’s explosive batsman Tom Banton has also made the cut but there is no place for Sussex’s Phil Salt despite a 58-ball century for England Lions against Ireland on Sunday.
England squad to face Ireland:
EMorgan (c), M Ali, J Bairstow, T Banton, S Billings, T Curran, L Dawson, J Denly, S Mahmood, A Rashid, J Roy, R Topley, J Vince, D Willey.