The Windies player bowls a sort of gentle off-spin that seems unremarkable, but it confounded both Rory Burns and Zak CrawleyThere are cricketers you feel awestruck to watch, cricketers whose skill makes them seem almost superhuman, who have such grace, such power, such pace, that they seem to come from another realm to the rest of us. And then there’s Roston Chase. Chase bowls the sort of gentle off-spin that seems entirely within our reach, the sort of gentle off-spin which, in fact, really doesn’t seem all that different from the sort that hundreds of club cricketers serve up every weekend of summer. Related: Dom Sibley and Ben Stokes steady England's ship against West Indies Related: Jofra Archer excluded by...
Forever in the shadow of teams who came before them, Jason Holder’s side know how much a first Test series victory in England since 1988 would mean Ghosts follow this West Indies team. Like every other squad who’ve travelled from the Caribbean to England in the last couple of decades they’re haunted by the men who came before them, men you still see on the TV, hear on the radio, and read about in books, magazines, and newspapers such as this one. Say West Indies haven’t won an opening Test here in 20 years, and see Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose in their last, late, unplayable pomp, bowling endless, parsimonious overs in 2000. Say West Indies haven’t won’t a series...
The fast bowler, goaded by Tino Best, produced a superb spell for England but Blackwood made a telling point of his ownJofra Archer was in the mood. You could see it in his batting early on Sunday morning. Crack! He lashed Jason Holder through long-off. Smack! He thrashed Shannon Gabriel through midwicket. Archer has always been able to hit them, but this was a little different to anything he’d done for England before. Here he was playing senior partner to the other two batsmen, Mark Wood and Jimmy Anderson, both older and more experienced than him. He was dictating how they were going to go about it, telling them which singles to take and which to turn down. When Gabriel...
Jason Holder comes out on top in battle of the box-office captain all-rounders in a Test where the absence of a crowd did not diminish the excitementIt has been a remarkable and at times emotional week in the bubble, one that – after a four-month wait – has reminded us just how ruddy glorious Test cricket can be.A sporting boxset consumed over five days, like all good dramas it saved the best for the final episode as at 5.53pm West Indies fulfilled the sense of destiny they have carried with them all match in wrapping up a famous four-wicket victory.Jason Holder, non-striker when the injured John Campbell nudged a calm single into the leg side, let out a cathartic roar...
As so often in his Test career the experienced Kent batsman gave his wicket away after playing himself in with diligenceJoe Denly left the tour of New Zealand last winter believing he would never live down a horror dropped catch on the final day in Hamilton but his second innings dismissal in Southampton’s biosecure bubble may be the moment that eats at away him for longer.As has been the case for a good deal of his Test career, Denly had got himself set. He had adjusted after his demise on the second day – bowled by one that nipped back from Shannon Gabriel – and though his favoured pull shot had been chancy at times given the variable bounce, he...