TESTING TIME FOR STOKES
West Indies’ Holder leads the way in battle of world’s best all-rounders
THOSE who like their individual duels within the context of competitive team sports will no doubt be relishing the key match-up in the Test series between England and the West Indies.
That would have to be Ben Stokes versus Jason Holder, England’s stand-in captain versus the West Indies’ Test captain since 2015.
Or, to put it the right way round in terms of the current International Cricket Council all-rounder rankings, Holder versus Stokes – world No 1 versus world No 2.
Indeed, Phil Simmons, the West Indies head coach, has predicted that the battle between the two holds the key to a series that is as fascinating in a cricketing sense as it is for the biosecure protocols compelled by Covid-19.
Make no mistake, these are two evenly-matched teams – mediocre with the bat, menacing with the ball, and reliant to a heavy extent on Holder and Stokes respectively.
Although talk of key matchups invariably sounds trite (after all, there are always 10 other players in every cricket XI), the temptation in this case is understandable.
Stokes and Holder, or Holder and Stokes, whichever way you prefer, are the beating heart of their respective sides, the players who their team-mates look up to and follow for a lead.
For most of us, there is little choice but to look up to Holder anyway; after all, he is 6ft 7ins tall, his head and feet so far apart that they have been socially distanced by Mother Nature herself.
Holder it was who won the first round in the battle between the two all-rounders, Holder who stamped his considerable authority on events beneath cloudy skies at the Ageas Bowl – 1-0 to Jason, as it were.
Although Stokes top-scored with 43 in England’s first innings total of 204, West Indies reaching 57-1 in reply at stumps on day two, it was Holder who stole the show with 6-42 from 20 overs, his career-best in Test and first-class cricket.
Making good use of a strong wrist, seam position and relentless line and length, Holder proved again that you do not have to bowl at the speed of light to be a top international bowler; it is enough to bowl at a good lick and consistently challenge the batsman in and around the off stump.
To be a great all-rounder, however, is not simply to bring your skills to the mythical table day-in, day-out. It is to have that sixth sense innate to all great allrounders, that of knowing when to stand up and really grab a game by the scruff of the neck.
Stokes did it unforgettably at Headingley last summer, near single-handedly winning an Ashes Test that neither he nor England had any right to win.
Holder did it with a double hundred against England in Barbados last year, which set his side on course for a 2-1 series victory.
Great all-rounders influence as well as inspire.
Holder’s sixth sense was in good working order on another gloomy day in West End, Southampton (is there any other sort of day down there?), one on which only 69.2 overs were delivered due to rain and bad light after just 17.4 were possible because of the weather on day one.
After England slipped to 87-5, Holder and Shannon Gabriel each taking two wickets after the hosts began the day on 35-1, Stokes and Jos Buttler were just in the throes of masterminding a recovery when Holder intervened as captain and as bowler.
With England’s sixth-wicket pair combining to add 67, and with the game just starting to run away from the tourists in the period after lunch, Holder got into his players’ faces with a few rallying words and then got into England’s middle-order and tail with the ball in his hand.
In an eye-blink he removed Stokes and Buttler, who were both caught behind, and then added the scalps of Jofra Archer lbw and Mark Wood caught in the
gully to ensure that West Indies’ good start did not go to waste.
Stokes, who was undone by a full ball that nipped just enough, had been dropped twice – by Kemar Roach at long-leg off Alzarri Joseph on 21, and by Shamarh Brooks at cover off Roach on 32.
The Brooks drop was a shocker quite frankly; Geoffrey Boycott’s mother could have caught it in her pinny while wearing a blindfold and with both of her hands tied behind her back.
But the very fact that these teams have errors in them only makes the cricket more intriguing – and Messrs Stokes and Holder stand out all the more.