Shivnarine Chanderpaul once again fought alone.
At Riverside in the fourth Test, Shiv Chanderpaul continued his valiant, almost singled handed effort in fighting for West Indian pride. Unfortunately, as has been the case for so long, his fight was in vain as the other members of the team rolled over and played dead before a rampant English squad.
With Gayle and Chanderpaul resuming the from the overnight score of 83/3, still 30 runs behind England's first innings total, batting out the day should have been the goal. The first session went well enough, with only Gayle (52) losing his wicket, edging one of his expansive drives to slip. The post lunch session, however, was horrible for any West Indian as the Windies lost 6 wickets for 88 runs to put England in the match winning position. The manner in which many of the batsmen got out left much to be desired as in addition to Gayle and Runako Morton on the previous day, Dwayne Bravo (44) and Daren Powell got out to absolutely ridiculous shots. Denesh Ramdin and Marlon Samuels fell cheaply as well, but at least they got decent deliveries from Monty Panesar. Chanderpaul was last man out for 70, leaving the English the small total of 110 to chase. England then raced to 111/3 with all of 30 overs remaining in the days play.
The West Indies twice found themselves in decent positions in this match, but on both occasions handed the advantage back to England. On the fourth day, they reduced England to 165/6 and looked set to take a first innings lead for the first time this series. However, the English batsmen scored 139 runs between lunch and tea, while losing only 1 wicket. The bowlers lost their line and length and the fielders' body language sagged in the face of the English batting. England went on to score an even 400. On the fifth day, the Windies had battled to 131/4 at lunch needing to bat out the days play to save the match. In the post lunch session though, Dwayne Bravo after grinding out a disciplined 43, inexplicably played a wild shot to Panesar. Bravo's dismissal signaled a rush of wickets as the last six wickets fell for 60 runs.
Chanderpaul's performance in the series has been nothing short of remarkable, evidenced by the fact that his dismissal marked the first time that the English had managed to get his wicket in approximately 18 hours of batting. His 70 was also his sixth consecutive 50, one short of the record of 7 straight Test 50s.
With a string of poor performances on the trot it may be that the West Indies players have forgotten what it takes to win a Test match. With the team not having won a Test match since May of 2005, the players may have become so accustomed to losing that there is no longer any hurt associated with being defeated. How else can one explain Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels celebrating the wicket of Kevin Pietersen with England only 5 runs away from victory with 7 wickets in hand. Or Denesh Ramdin taking a stump as a souvenir after the thumping defeat? Another loss, no big deal, business as usual.
Chanderpaul stands alone in this West Indian lineup in that he is the last current player to have played in the halcyon days when the West Indies could have claimed that they had not lost a Test series for over a decade. The other members of the team, with the exception of Gayle and injured captain Ronnie Sarwan, can count the number of Test matches they have won on one hand. While Gayle has played in 14 Test-winning sides and Sarwan 11, none of those wins have come in the last two years and 7 of them are either against Zimbabwe or Bangladesh. Bravo, who was the only West Indian to lend any support to Chanderpaul throughout the series, does not know what it is to play for a Test winning side. Losing has become a nasty habit for these West Indian players.
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