ENGLAND CALYPSO CARNAGE Chase leaves Root & Co in a Caribbean spin
Dean Wilson
SORRY England were hurried, humbled and embarrassed by a rampant West Indies team taken to victory by a part-time off spinner.
After the efforts of Shimron Hetmyer on day one, Kemar Roach on day two and Jason Holder on day three, Roston Chase, the
Bajan spinning allrounder claimed an incredible
8-60 to bowl his side to a famous victory with a day to spare.
Take nothing at all away from the jubilant West Indians who have outplayed England at every turn to secure victory by a whopping 381 runs.
Abject
But by the same token the tourists have been utterly abject in their initial attempt to win just a second series in the region in 51 years.
As good as it felt to triumph 3-0 over a desperately poor Sri Lanka side, now being routed in Australia, this was yet another wake- up call for a group of Test cricketers who blow hot and cold more than a Dyson hairdryer.
Just when Joe Root (above) thought he had a team that could go places – after two successive winters of failure in India and then Australia and New Zealand – he has been brought back down to earth with a bump.
On a pitch where his own spinners were made to look like club standard bowlers, along comes Chase to take the best ever figures by a West Indies spinner against England in history – and the fourth best against anyone.
And all this on a pitch where he hardly turned a ball off t he straight, but was gifted several wickets by some frankly pathetic English strokeplay. While opener Rory Burns can be largely blameless for his 84, he too was conned by looking for spin that simply wasn’t there as Chase slid one between his bat and pad onto the stumps.
Keaton Jennings had already edged into the slips once again before the big, mean fast bowler Shannon Gabriel had Jonny Bairstow caught down the legside. Gabriel should have sent Root packing earlier when he fended a short ball into the slips but was reprieved by a huge no-ball.
The Windies fans need not have worried, though, as Root all but gifted his wicket to Chase trying to cut a slightly quicker ball away but could only edge it to a grateful Darren Bravo.
England might have been able to master the Sri Lankan spinners on turning pitches but on what still looks like a flat surface good for batting they had very little idea on how to play Chase.
Ben Stokes was next, well set on 34 and the all-action hero, capable of batting for long periods, and yet he too went looking for spin that wasn’t there and was plumb LBW in front, pushing forward.
Horrible
The worst shot of the lot though came from Moeen Ali, who secured his first ever pair of ducks in his Test career, by guiding the ball straight to second slip on the back foot.
It was like catching practice, a horrible, ugly shot that summed up England’s lame efforts.
England were bereft of the patience required to bat in Test cricket and the nous to adapt and play the conditions and the players in front of them.
Yes, they picked the wrong team here, and yes their two day warm-up matches might not have been the best preparation for what they were to face, but neither are an excuse for what has unfolded over the last four days.
Root has a talented group of cricketers, but there is a soft underbelly that will be causing the captain concern.