West Indies
Flickr photo by Edmund Gall shared under a Creative Commons (BY-SA 2.0) license.

West Indies: Jason Holder & Co. revive the Calypso magic

Mustafa Ismail·
Test
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After struggling in the Test arena for years, West Indies are starting to build a team that’s capable of competing with the very best…

Before the series began, England were considered sure-shot favourites to clean sweep the West Indies and add to last year’s success. After the first innings, with the West Indies all-out for 289, it looked like England would build a commanding lead and control the Test match. Much to everyone’s surprise, England succumbed to the pressure and were bundled out for 77 runs – leaving the Windies in the driver’s seat.

Kemar Roach sparked England’s downfall as he bowled with exceptional pace and consistency to trouble the English batsmen. It’s been a rare sight, especially in recent years, to see the West Indian attack torment top-quality opposition in the Caribbean.

From that moment on, England were chasing the game. They gave themselves a glimmer of hope when they had West Indies struggling at 60-5 in the second innings. However, all hopes were diminished on the third day when captain Jason Holder and Shane Dowrich dug their heels in with the score at 129-6. Both lower-order batsmen put on a show as they pummelled the English attack with some wonderful strokes, and eventually took the game away from the visitors.

Dowrich rallied to a hundred and shortly after, Jason Holder brought up his maiden double ton, which stretched the lead to 600+ runs. It was a sensational innings from Holder – a man who’s played his heart out for West Indies over the years and is finally reaping the rewards.

England started their chase well, but it became evident that they needed a miracle to save themselves. The fourth day was all about Roston Chase as he spun a web around the English batsmen, picking up eight wickets in the innings and ensuring a massive West Indian victory. It was a strong display across all departments from the Caribbean side, with each player contributing to the triumph.

The win will mean a lot for the West Indian team and their supporters, who are extremely passionate about the sport and have been starved of home victories for too long. Jason Holder and his team have reignited a seemingly lost spark and if they continue to improve the quality of their cricket, they can bring the West Indies back to the top-tier of the cricketing world.

England will be shocked by the manner in which they were defeated, having been outplayed in all departments. They’ll be hoping it was just a minor slump that they can recover from in the next game. There was a lot of talk about team selection and Stuart Broad deserving a place over Tom Curran as the pitch was conducive to the pace and bounce that Broad could extract.

Curran didn’t have the best of games but even if he gets dropped, it won’t be for long as the kid has a lot of talent and will learn from experience. The series is now wonderfully set up and should deliver some quality cricket, with a vast travelling English contingent already present and West Indian finally fans feeling upbeat about their chances.