Third England-windies Test abandoned as draw
WITH the wet conditions prevailing in most parts of the country, Birmingham too has had a major share of it and it wasn’t a surprise that the third Test was abandoned as a draw with no play on the fth day. With rain causing a wash out of the rst two days as well, it is understood that the last time three full days of a Test were lost to the weather in this country was 58 years ago at Lord’s with Pakistan on their maiden Test tour of England.
In reply to West Indies rst innings of 426 England were 221 for ve at close of play on the fourth day, needing a further 56 to avoid the followon. But the last day saw no action and England, already in an unassailable position with two nil up in the series, retained the Wisden Trophy for which the two sides compete.
It is interesting to note that West Indies have not won a series in England since 1988 when Viv Richards’ side won 4-0. In fact they have not won a Test match in this country since 2000 on this same ground.
Going by regulations, it wasn’t until 3.00 pm that the umpires nally announced that there would be no play — although the weather had made it quite apparent from the morning that the game will not get underway -- and the usual post match press conference with the captains followed.
West Indies captain, Darren Sammy, speaking about the series said: “We didn’t compete long enough in the series over an extended period of time and hence we lost two nil. Looking at the three Test matches we scored over 320 with our top order not really contributing. So to do that (score those many) was a plus for us. In the series (recently) in home conditions (against Australia) we competed and we should have won and again at crucial moments we faltered or crumbled either in the rst or second innings and that cost us the match and that’s what happened here in England”.
He went on to say: “In sessions we dominated, the way Tino Best and Ramdin played for us and not forgetting Marlon (Samuels) the way he batted throughout the series it was just the way we said when we came here with a never-say-die attitude.
“That last wicket partnership (Ramdin and Best adding 143) was a perfect example of the attitude we have. And on that same at wicket we took ve wickets, if there was more play you never know what could have happened”.
Andrew Strauss, the England captain said: “We played enough good cricket in the rst two Tests to win reasonably comfortably but this Test was frustrating for all sorts of reasons. Clearly the rain wiping out the rst two days didn’t help with the intensity of the cricket and we certainly didn’t get everything right when we were out there in the eld but by and large we were very happy to have won the series. West Indies have some dangerous players and we were able to overcome that challenge”.
He added: “We head into our next Test assignment in fairly good fettle and feeling pretty con dent but we are also aware that there are areas we de nitely need to improve. It wasn’t a perfect performance by us in the little play we did have and that is frustrating.
“There are areas we need to sharpen up on, we dropped a few catches and you don’t want to be in a situation where a No. 11 gets 95. We also found ourselves under pressure with the bat but over the course of the three matches there are a lot of things to be happy about”.