Ben Stokes\, Stuart Broad fashion England win to level series against West Indies

Ben Stokes, Stuart Broad fashion England win to level series against West Indies

England bowled out West Indies for 198 in the final session on Day 5 to win the second Test by 113 runs and level the three-test series at 1-1 in Manchester on Monday.

Written by Sandip G | Published: July 21, 2020 1:13:06 am
Ben Stokes’ unbeaten 78 with the bat and 2/30 with the ball on Day 5 helped England level the series. (Source: Reuters)

Stuart Broad’s searing spell with the new ball and Ben Stokes’s all-round verve fashioned a series-levelling 113-run victory for England at Old Trafford. The defeat seemed an inevitability after the visitors had capitulated late on Sunday evening, squandering a fabulous opportunity to save the Test and retain the Wisden Trophy.

It was nip-backers that wreaked havoc on West Indies. Barring the left-handed opener John Campbell, the rest of the top seven were consumed by the inward-bending deliveries. Broad, reinforcing that he is still a match-influencer, showed the way and the rest followed. If the 14-ball-three-wicket burst with the old ball set the match up for England, his five-ball-two-wicket spell with the new ball ripped West Indies.

No one quite bowls those as frequently or masterfully as Broad in contemporary cricket. His highlight reels mostly feature the nip-backers, creaking through tiny spaces between the bat and body and knocking the upper half of the stumps. Take Oval 2009, the hat-trick against India in 2011, the first morning at Trent Bridge in 2015, Johannesburg in 2016, the nip-backer jags into the screen from all corners.

He renders it differently, as compared to the magnificent Chris Woakes, who has a dreamy seam presentation and whose back-benders fetched him the precious wicket of Kraigg Brathwaite and wicket-keeper Shane Dowrich. The seam remains upright and the ball lands on the edge of the seam. Broad holds it differently, the wrist is stiffer, the seam position more tilted, subsequently the ball wobbles a wee bit mid-air. Nonetheless, he extracts appreciable inward deviation. He has a teasing away-swinger too, a cutter that he rolls off his fingers, but it’s the nip-backer that’s his main weapon. Five of his six wickets in the match were thus bargained.

The fundamentals of the Caribbean batsmen amplified the sting of the nip-backer. Brathwaite shuffles across in his trigger movement, Chase has the tendency to plant his front-leg and play across it and Shai Hope pushed his hands through the ball a little more than usual, besides often getting struck at the crease. None of them possess a firm front-foot stride, which could have not only nullified the dangers of the nip-backer but also forced Broad and Woakes to pull their length back a fraction.

The impressive Shamarh Brooks later showed how to defuse those with a decisive front-foot press, but even he couldn’t stave off an in-ducker from Sam Curran. He was anyway waging a lone battle, after Broad and Woakes had snuffed out West Indies best-laid plans of escaping with a draw even before lunch, when they were 25 for 3. Soon they stumbled to 37 for 4.

That West Indies’s resistance lasted this long was thanks to a sublime 100-run partnership between Brooks and Jermaine Blackwood. Batting as if there was nothing amiss, with the regular freedom and enterprise, they offered the visitors a remote hope of saving the match. They matched each other stroke for stroke. Brooks drove gorgeously on both sides of the wicket, Blackwood cut and flicked without fuss. In the prelude to tea, they stroked boundaries so frequently that it seemed West Indies were on a hot pursuit of the target. At least a draw seemed within the realm of possibility.

The hope, though, turned out to be fleeting. In the fourth ball of the last over before lunch, Stokes hurried Blackwood into an uncontrolled flap off his chest. It was such an innocuous delivery, around the stump at the rib-cage that he could neither duck or weave. He could just lob it into the outstretched palms of a lunging Jos Buttler. Yet again, Stokes delivered when it mattered, just as he had on countless occasions in this Test. On the fourth day, he had taken out a well-set Brathwaite, pulling England back into the game with a thrifty 11-over spell. On Monday again, he bounded in relentlessly.

Hence, the protagonist of this Test win was as much as Stokes as it was Broad. In the morning, he straightway led England’s charge with a belligerent 78 off 57 deliveries. His assault—despite all the delaying tactics West Indies threw up— provided England the safety valve of runs. England racked up 92 runs in just 11 overs, eventually declaring at 129 for 3.

Brief Scores: England 469/9d & 129/3d (Ben Stokes 78 not out; Kemar Roach 2/37) beat West Indies 287 & 198 all out in 70.1 ovs (Shamarh Brooks 62, Jermaine Blackwood 55; Stuart Broad 3/42) by 113 runs.

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