England captain went for the win in second Test but played into West Indies’ hands while displaying an overreliance on Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson“Same squad, different performance” is the message from the selectors after England’s startling defeat at Headingley. With surprising speed they announced the same 13 names in their squad for the decisive Lord’s Test against West Indies, which starts next Thursday. The most relieved man will be Tom Westley, who failed twice in Leeds, an outcome that inevitably reduces his chances of making the squad for Australia.The Lord’s Test has everyone salivating after West Indies’ brilliant five‑wicket triumph, which leaves the series level at 1-1. Indeed within 24 hours Test cricket around the world has been given...
Batsman displayed class and maturity to achieve Headingley feat of a century in each innings and show he is much more than a boy with plenty of potentialShai Hope has aged a lot more than five days in this past week. He started this match a kid but finished it a man. He made his very first Test century on Saturday and followed it, three days later, with his second. There is little new left for anyone to do in this game but this was something that had never been done before.In the 127 years they have been playing first-class cricket at Headingley, no one – not Len Hutton, not Herbert Sutcliffe, not Geoff Boycott – had scored two centuries in...
Moeen Ali takes advantage of umpire’s no-ball mistake to complete a tough day for West Indies whose pacemen were out on their feetThe ball bounced low, lower than Moeen Ali imagined it would when he leaned back and started to bring through his bat to cut it past point. It flicked off the bottom edge and shot through to Shane Dowrich, who dropped down and caught it just before it hit the ground. Dowrich’s grin fell off his face the moment he looked up again. The bowler, Devendra Bishoo, had already wheeled on his heel, back towards Sundaram Ravi, who had his arm out, not up. No-ball or so Ravi called. Replays showed he had got it wrong, that Bishoo’s...
Tourists’ admirable captain held things together with bat and ball on the third day at Headingley and has given his side a chance of victory in the second TestJason Holder was running late on Sunday morning, caught short, like everyone else, by the startling start to the day’s play. Jimmy Anderson dismissed Shai Hope with the first ball and Shane Dowrich with the second. Hope left with his head high and his bat raised, Dowrich went eyes down, like sad Charlie Brown. Then there was a short pause, probably while Holder was scrambling to get his pads on. By the time he made it to the middle, Anderson was waiting at the end of his run and England’s eager fielders...
Opener displays shades of Shivnarine Chanderpaul with stubborn resistance to England’s attack – punctuated by the odd flourish – on way to sixth Test centuryNewsprint never tastes so very good, but a lot of people at Headingley were happy enough to eat their words on Saturday. West Indies, written off here, there and everywhere else, are in charge of the second Test. Kraigg Brathwaite and Shai Hope put on 246 runs for the fourth wicket. It was West Indies’ sixth-highest partnership in England, their best here in Leeds since Garry Sobers and Seymour Nurse put on 265 in 1966.For once, then, these West Indies players find themselves namechecked alongside some of the famous men that came before them without suffering...