Queen's visit at Lord's fails to inspire Windies
- Visitors plumb new low as England pile up 391-2
By Tony Cozier In LONDON
Stabroek News
July 23, 2004
The Queen of England visited the West Indies team during the tea interval but not even her exalted presence nor that of the Duke Of Edingburgh could bring a lift to the Windies' performance. (Photo courtesy of Graham Morris)
EVEN given the standards that have become depressingly common place, the West Indies plumbed new depths of mediocrity before a full house at the game's most prestigious ground yesterday
The plot began to unravel from the moment Brian Lara informed Michael Vaughan at the toss that the West Indies would bowl on the opening day of the nPower Test series.
By mid-afternoon, as Andrew Strauss and Robert Key were doing much as they pleased in a galloping partnership of 291 at well over five runs an over and a run a minute, it was clear that the psychological advantage England established with their 3-0 victory in the Caribbean a few months ago had been re-established, in a few short hours - and by two players were weren't even there.
Both gathered hundreds. Strauss' 137 was his second in his fourth Test, Key's unbeaten 167 his first in his ninth.
They established a new second-wicket record for England against the West Indies, surpassing the 266 between Peter Richardson and Tom Graveney at Nottingham in 1957.
Boundaries flowed in all directions.
There were 51 of them in all by the time fading light mercifully ended the carnage with six-and- a-half overs still available with England 391 for two.
It was even more punishment than Australia dished out in their 391 for three of the first day of the Trinidad Test in 2003 or South Africa in their 368 for three on the first day in Johannesburg last December.
No one could immediately source it but it is doubtful whether England have ever amassed as many in a single day - and their Queen was there to witness the most commanding part of it.
She and the Duke of Edinburgh were introduced to the teams during the tea interval. At 233 for one, with Strauss 102 and Key 90, England reigned.
An hour-and-a-quarter to the end, the West Indies managed to remove the left-handed Strauss for whom Lord's is truly home sweet home.
But they could not dislodge Key, the right-hander, who had averaged 18 in his previous eight Tests and had seemed out of depth in the one-day match in the NatWest Series.
Indeed, he was only in the team only because of the late withdrawal of the settled No.3, Mark Butcher, with a whiplashed neck after an errant driver crashed into the back of his car on Monday.
After a reprieve off a slash from Fidel Edwards at 16, when Chris Gayle at second slip spilled the latest of the several catches that have eluded him of late, head high and two-handed, he batted with the confidence that has made him the only batsman this season to pass 1,000 runs in the county championship, averaging 89 an innings. Lord's is the base of Middlesex, the home team Strauss captains. In his previous international matches there, he scored 112 and 83 run out on his Test debut against New Zealand in May and 103 against the West Indies in the NatWest Series just over two weeks ago in his previous international matches on the ground. He was as composed as a champion dancer waltzing to the classics composed by his German namesake.
Apart from a lively second spell of five overs in mid-afternoon from Tino Best, in which he bothered both batsmen with pace that was noticeably missing otherwise, the bowling was, not to put too fine a point on it, such that any self-respecting club teams would have been ashamed of it. Everyone was culpable.
Pedro Collins found none of the left-arm inswing that made him the best bowler in the home series against England and Bangladesh and appeared lethargic, both throughout his 13.3 overs and in the field. Best was the likeliest to take a wicket, and was inches away from a second when an edge from Key, then 53, dropped inches short of Devon Smith at second slip. But his threat was spasmodic. Edwards started with a horrid opening over that included a leg-side boundary to Key, the first of his five no-balls and the first of three wides. He gradually improved but not markedly. On debut, Dwayne Bravo's medium-pace control was patchy and included four wides. No one was more roughly dealt with than Omari Banks whose 17 overs (more than anyone else) in four spells were clouted for 111 runs. Strauss and Key appeared under instructions to target the tall off-spinner whose control was non-existent. He offered an inviting mixture of long-hops and full tosses that were dispatched for 15 fours, in an arc from third man to fine-leg. Lara was denied the use of Gayle's usually economical off-spin by a blow to his right index finger that needed off-field attention and strapping. It was sustained missing Key's catch, a case of injury added to insult.
Strauss and Key laid the foundations by reaching 91 at lunch, for the wicket of Marcus Trescothick who scooped a catch to mid-wicket off Best in the sixth over.
A further 300 was amassed off 59.3 overs in the final two sessions, captain Michael Vaughan calmly helping himself to 36 in a stand worth 71 with Key after Strauss' top-edged cut off one of the few respectable deliveries Banks managed, a bouncing off-break, brought his downfall after five hours. His boundary count was 20 fours from 202 balls. Long before then, explanations were being sought around the ground for Lara's mystifying choice to bowl. None could be found that made sense.
Lara's tactics are rarely governed by cricketing orthodoxy but his first decision of the series not only defied logic. It also contradicted his comments to the media on Wednesday. They were to the effect that he was satisfied with the form of the batting leading up to the Test but was concerned with the bowling.
He referred particularly to its lack of control that leaked runs at more than five an over in the preliminary matches against the MCC at Arundel and Sri Lanka at Shenley.
While Lara himself, Devon Smith, Sylvester Joseph, Dwayne Bravo, Ridley Jacobs and Shivnarine Chanderpaul all helped themselves to hundreds, those bowlers who joined from the Caribbean following the NatWest Series and all new to England - Pedro Collins, Fidel Edwards and Omari Banks - could make no impression. Edwards, only just back from injury, claimed a solitary wicket for 197 runs at an average cost of over six runs an over. If such evidence did not send a message to Lara in large flashing lights that he should bat if the coin fell in his favour, there were even greater additional reasons. One was very recent history. The last time he put the opposition in on winning the toss, Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs compiled 302 for one from 67.1 overs on a rain-interrupted first day. There was something in the pitch early on and he at least had the experience of Merv Dillon, Vasbert Drakes and Corey Collymore at his disposal. Yet South Africa still made 604 for six declared.
If his memory failed him, the realisation that his team's strength and experience undeniably lies in its batting should not have. He himself, the most prolific of all West Indians, is in his 109th Test. He knows England's bowlers well. His last innings against them was his unbeaten 400 in Antigua in April.
Chanderpaul, in his 80th Test, and Ramnaresh Sarwan, in his 47th, both average over 40 an innings, Gayle in his 44th only three below. Even wicket-keeper Jacobs, at No.7, is capable enough to have five Test hundreds to his name and average just under 30. They would have to deal with an England attack depleted by Andy Flintoff's inability to bowl.
On the other hand, the five bowlers at Lara's disposal shared a mere 49 Tests between them. Collectively, they had paid around 40 runs for each of their wickets. All were appearing in a Test in England for the first time. Even given such constraints, Lara could not have expected them to have been as abysmal as they were. It was, quite simply, impossible to set a field for them.
He would not have had to worry had he taken the obvious course and batted. Now he and his batsmen will be under enormous pressure to bat themselves out of the deep hole created after one day of what was always going to be a difficult series.