Is there a soul alive with an ounce of love for cricket who did not rejoice at the way the first Test in Bridgetown turned out? Even the ranks of the Garrick Club could scarce forbear to cheer the sight of a team assembled under the banner of West Indies playing as if the maroon caps meant more to them than the gold necklaces. By finding two different ways to humiliate England with the ball in the space of a single match, they achieved something not even the greatest of their legendary predecessors could manage.
In the first innings at Kensington Oval the pace quartet of Kemar Roach, Shannon Gabriel, Jason Holder and Alzarri Joseph took all 10 wickets between them as England calypso-collapsoed to 77 all out, with Roach’s five for 17 the pick of the bunch. Two days later it was Roston Chase, whose batting is the stronger element of his all-round talents, stepping up to flight his barely turning off-breaks through the defences of eight Englishmen while conceding 60 runs out of a total of 246.
Written by Richard Williams
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2019/jan/28/test-cricket-winner-west-indies-england under the title “Why Test cricket is the winner after West Indies’ humbling of England | Richard Williams”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
