HOLDER TWISTS THE KNIFE
Skipper smashes 200 to pile pain on England
An unbeaten double hundred. Eight sixes, more than any West Indian has managed in a Test innings against England. And an unbroken stand of 295 for the seventh wicket with a fellow Bajan on their home ground. This was a special day for Jason Holder.
What a performance this was from the West Indies captain but what a chastening experience this first Test is turning into for Joe Root and his new England.
They may have survived 20 overs at the end of the third day of this first Test without loss after being set an impossible 628 to win but there still appears no conceivable way England can avoid the mother and father of all beatings here.
Eighteen wickets fell on the second day and then, extraordinarily, none yesterday in a Test that has been utterly dominated so far by the eighth-ranked Test team in the world.
First West Indies dismissed England for a humiliating 77 on Thursday with a display of fast bowling that would not have been out of place in the glory days. now, after slipping to 61 for five, they showed England how to bat on what has turned out to be a blameless pitch in reaching 415 for six before Holder declared when he reached only the third double hundred by a no 8 in Test history and celebrated with a display of utter joy. It would take a cold English heart not to be pleased for him and his side.
Here was a figure who has become such an impressive captain of this proud team in an era when West Indies have so often struggled to live up to their rich history and have been shorn of so many of their best players by the Twenty20 dollar.
Only when Holder sliced a delivery from Keaton Jennings just out of reach of the diving Rory Burns at cover on 127 and when he offered a half chance to Ben Foakes down the legside off Ben Stokes on 151 did he give any hint of vulnerability.
At the other end was the contrastingly diminutive figure of Shane Dowrich, who may have played second fiddle to the flamboyance and sheer power of his captain but added an unbroken century of his own as England failed to make a single breakthrough.
All the while England, with eight wins in their last nine Tests and supposedly buoyed by their 3- 0 success in Sri Lanka, huffed and puffed but could find no way through. The futility of England’s exercise was summed up by the increasingly exasperated figure of Stokes, who threw his heart and soul into the fray and found pace and aggression but no tangible rewards yesterday.
Stokes has been forced into the role of third seamer by what has turned into a disastrous selection from England and now Root turned to him time and again in the desperate search for a wicket. And that is a concern.
Stokes, now freed from the worries that came from having a court case and then a disciplinary inquiry hanging over him, has again become the heartbeat of this team and is incredibly important in all three formats.
So they have to be very careful they do not overbowl him in a cause that already is lost, as Root did here in asking Stokes to bowl 25 overs in West Indies second innings and 50.3 in the match.
Trouble was, the England captain had so few other options after England had misread conditions, left out their tallest bowler in Stuart Broad — given a warm reception by England fans when he came on to field — seen Sam Curran rendered virtually ineffective and Adil Rashid fail to justify his inclusion as second spinner.
Rashid had something of a shocker and was only given nine second innings overs by Root, who brought himself on and then proceeded to totally out-bowl his leg-spinner.
England, with Jennings and Burns putting on 56 by the close, now have to take this game as long as possible before quickly sorting out what they got so badly wrong ahead of the second Test in Antigua next Thursday.
They had planned to take four seamers into this Test, as West Indies did, and then two spinners on what is expected to be a low and slow pitch at the Sir Viv Richards Stadium.
Instead they made their catastrophic error to go here with Rashid and Curran, who clearly has so much to offer England but as a middle order batsman and fourth seamer, not new-ball bowler and no 9.
now he is facing his first defeat as a Test cricketer after seven victories in his first seven matches with England facing the prospect of still needing to bat for two full days to escape with a draw.
And then England have to come up with the right equation in Antigua if they are not to see this series end like so many others in the Caribbean in defeat.