England get smoked as Roach fires
Rolled for 77 as the Windies light up
It was back to the glory days of Caribbean cricket as England were blown away for 77, to leave them trailing West Indies by 339 at the end of the second day of the first test.
The West Indian fast bowlers generated the pace required to maximise the unevenness in the Barbados pitch.
Kemar Roach claimed five England victims — the prime wickets of Rory Burns, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali — for only four runs. Roach pounded in from the pavilion end, used the strong crosswind to shape the ball into the righthanders, and extracted bounce that was, for them, excessive.
But if one ball epitomised the calibre of the West Indian fast bowling, it was the bouncer by Shannon Gabriel — who was timed as the fastest of the four members of the home attack at 148km/h — at Sam Curran. Curran, 20, has done manful feats for England already but this was a reprise of West Indies v England in the 1980s and early 1990s: men against boys. Curran’s survival instinct made him duck a snorting bouncer and raise his gloves in self-protection.
If England had not enjoyed a relatively comfortable start, reaching 23 before losing their first wicket, they might have plumbed all-time depths.
England’s lowest total of 45 was made in the 19th century, as you would expect, but their second and third-lowest totals occurred at the hands of West Indian fast bowlers in modern times: 46 in Trinidad in 1994 and 51 in Kingston in 2009.
In those two earlier cases, something was rotten in the state of English cricket: in 1994, there were no central contracts and no academy, while in 2009, the cult of certain individuals was bigger than the team.
Moeen did give England a glimmer by taking two wickets in an over, reducing the West Indies to 61 for five.
If England go on to lose this game, the critical passage will be seen as their failure to make the most of the first new ball on day one, which let the West Indies reach 126 for one, before batsmen on both sides started a constant procession.
In the absence of Stuart Broad, and with James Anderson and Curran pitching too short, West Indies were given more than a head’s start; and while Anderson has out-swung the ball beautifully, only Stokes has been able to generate the same speed as the West Indian attack and thereby maximise the pitch’s unevenness.
● Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head combined for Australia’s biggest partnership in more than a year to put the hosts in a commanding position against Sri Lanka on the second day of their day-night test at the Gabba last night.
Australia were all out for 323 and had Sri Lanka 17-1 at stumps for an overall lead of 162 runs.
Labuschagne fell just 10 minutes before the dinner break for 81 and the pair’s 166-run fifth-wicket stand marked just Australia’s second century-partnership of the summer and their biggest since last year’s Sydney test.
Labuschagne pushed a ball from spinner Dhananjaya de Silva to short mid on. Head was dismissed for 84 as the last five wickets fell for 51 runs, with No 10 Mitchell Starc finishing 26 not out.
Coming to the wicket with the hosts in trouble at 82-4 after Marcus Harris and nightwatchman Nathan Lyon went in the first four overs of the day, Head and Labuschagne fought hard for control.
Sri Lanka have never won a test match in Australia.