OUT OF IDEAS
Lifeless pitch but England’s bowlers are exposed by dogged Brathwaite
THIS miserable pitch and most of the England fans who have travelled to this cricketing cathedral in their thousands had fallen asleep by the time Jack Leach finally turned a ball past the outside edge of Kraigg Brathwaite’s bat and hit his off-stump.
It was a rare bright moment on a fourth day of second Test drudgery that brought to an end a superb display of concentration from the West Indies captain that was both admirable and, to be frank, boring in equal measure.
The fact it was the 382nd delivery Leach bowled and the 489th Brathwaite faced said everything about West Indies’ negative response to England’s 507 for nine. It also highlighted the worrying lack of penetration in another new-look England attack.
It should be said this was a monumental effort from Brathwaite, who batted close to 12 hours for his 160, barely playing a loose shot but rarely producing a memorable one either.
So obdurate and so lacking in ambition was the captain that his 150 contained 377 dot balls — there were 401 scoreless balls in his whole innings — more than the entire number of deliveries faced by six top-order England batters in the Ashes. Only Brian Lara has batted longer for West Indies against any opposition.
But what will concern England is that, in the first two Tests at least, they have come no closer to solving the perennial puzzle of finding ways to take 20 wickets in an overseas Test.
Yes, Kensington Oval was a sad imitation of its glorious fast and bouncy past, with the groundsman again seemingly more interested in producing a pitch that guaranteed five days filling the coffers rather than trying to enhance the actual spectacle.
But there was far more turn than in Antigua and signs of uneven bounce on the fourth morning when Ben Stokes bowled one delivery to Jason Holder that shot along the ground and another that leapt off a length and rapped him on the gloves.
And despite bowling a ball short of 70 overs, the most by an England bowler in a Test innings since Phil Tufnell sent down 71 overs against New Zealand in Wellington in 1992, Leach did not have enough variation nor guile to take more than three wickets while conceding 118 runs.
England really should consider having a look at leg-spinner Matt Parkinson alongside Leach in Grenada next week, at least if we are served up another dead pitch, but the feeling persists they only brought the Lancastrian to the Caribbean as cover.
Nor did the four right-arm seam bowlers of similar pace have enough points of difference to burst through what has been a brittle West Indies.
It could be argued England are without six first-choice seamers who might have made a difference in the Caribbean.
They can do nothing about the absence of their three injured bowlers of extra pace in Jofra Archer, Mark Wood and Olly Stone, while a back problem and concerns over general fitness have kept Ollie Robinson out of the series so far.
But, of course, the absence of the other two from the six was entirely self-inflicted. We will never know if Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad truly would have fared any better both in Antigua and here but it would have been interesting to see how Broad’s off-cutters would have fared on this surface. And Anderson has enough skill to prosper on most pitches.
To be fair, England are on a mission of discovery and there is no question their two debutants in Saqib Mahmood and Matt Fisher will rarely face conditions as unhelpful as this.
Both did all they could yesterday and Mahmood looked the likelier to have a long Test career, claiming his first Test wicket when a rare rush of blood from Holder led to a good, tumbling catch by Fisher and then trapping Veerasammy Permaul lbw.
But this has been a testing tour for the experienced bowler England wanted to lead the attack and improve his sorry away record. Chris Woakes has done neither and was marginalised yesterday when Ben Stokes took the third — yes third — new ball instead. It was finally all over when Leach took the wicket of Josh da Silva with West Indies 411 all out off 187.5 overs, 37 more than England faced for 96 fewer runs.
That left the tourists needing to score rapidly in the hour left to them on the fourth day if they were to have any chance of putting West Indies under pressure today.
But Alex Lees, more Brathwaite than Botham, had trouble forcing the pace and Zak Crawley escaped an lbw to Kemar Roach on two when yet another of the umpires on-field decisions was proven by technology to be wrong.
England finished on 40 without loss, a lead of 136, and really this Test should be put out of its misery and the teams move on to Grenada for Thurday’s finale as quickly as possible today.