Rain, No Play

A magnificent bowling performance by debutant Darren Sammy has given the West Indies the slightest sliver of hope in the third Test at Old Trafford. England were cruising along at 265/3 when Gayle's offspin trapped century maker Alastair Cook lbw for 106. Then entered Sammy, who then proceeded to produce a spell in which he took the last 6 wickets to fall, triggering a dramatic West Indies-like collapse on the part of the Englishmen. Sammy bowled a steady line and length just outside the batsmen's offstump and got enough away movement to repeatedly take the edges of the batsmen. Sammy's figures of 7/66 were the second best ever by a West Indian on debut after Alfred Valentine's 8 for 102 in 1950. His stunning spell was punctuated by an over in which he took 3 wickets in 5 balls.

Meanwhile, Cook, after inexplicably being given not out by Billy Bowden early in his innings on Friday, went on to make his second ton of the series. Sometimes umpires' decisions go your way and sometimes they don't, with some feeling that they balance each other out in the long run, but how does a batsman feel after watching the ball he edged go straight into the keeper's gloves and then being given not out? How does he feel after going on to make a century after he knows he should have been given out? To make matters worse, the Windies should have had him out another time when Collymore dropped a catch in the deep.Read more

The West Indies' batting collapse on today's second day of the third Test was so remarkably bad, that even former Windies captain and commentator Viv Richards described it as one of the poorest batting performances he has ever seen. The disappointment and embarrassment was palpable in his voice as the Windies collapsed from 216/4 to 229 all out. The Windies had lost 6 wickets for 13 runs in the space of 44 deliveries.

The day started positively enough, as the Windies were able to wrap up the English tail for 74 additional runs as England fell for 370 runs. Given the Windies' batting frailty, 370 looked like it could have been daunting. However, the Windies' top order, save for Daren Ganga, all got starts and carried the Windies score to 216/4. Gayle, 23, Devon Smith, 40, Morton, 35, Chanderpaul, 50 and Bravo 23 all made useful contributions, but at least 1 or 2 of them needed to go on and make a big score.Read more

News has surfaced that the selectors had nominated Chris Gayle for the captaincy of the ODI and Twenty20 teams in Ramnaresh Sarwan's absence. However that proposal has been shot down by the WICB, who are apparently favouring Daren Ganga for the role. Now, Ganga has proven himself to be an astute captain, but can he claim a batting position in a ODI side? He wasn't even in the Windies' initial list of 30 for the World Cup.

Gayle's "too cool" personality has often irked many a Caribbean scribe - is that the reason for his snub? Kool kat or not, Gayle is clearly one of the most established players in ODI cricket for the Windies. Gayle, despite his poor run of form recently, averages a just shade under 38 with the bat and has made 15 ODI centuries - more than any other batsman in the team. His leadership ability was pointed out by Brian Lara as far back as 2004 when Lara suggested that Gayle could be a future Windies captain.Read more

On Thursday, the West Indies had their best day of Test cricket since arriving in England. In fact, the post lunch session was probably the best session of Test cricket that the Windies have produced in a couple years. English captain Michael Vaughan won the toss at Old Trafford and decided to bat on what looked liked a fast scoring pitch. The decision seemed to have payed off as the Windies bowlers were flayed to all parts of the ground during the opening session. England survivied the early wicket of Andrew Strauss, who fell to Jerome Taylor, to race to 112/1 off 28 overs at lunch.Read more

In England today against a Marylebone Cricket Club XI made up mainly of University students, including one Mali Richards, son of Sir Viv, Jerome Taylor bowled with impressive accuracy and pace to take 5 for 43. The performance would have been a big boost for Taylor, as his place in next week's Third Test was surely in question following rough outings in the previous Tests.

Despite Taylor's figures, the Windies were unable to bowl out the opposition as after having reduced them to 152/6, the MCC team was able to battle back to 234/7. Fidel Edwards, even though he only took one wicket, gave the selectors something to think about as he bowled with pace and venom. One criticism of his bowling may be that he pitched the ball too short too often rather than trying to get as much swing as possible with his slinging action.Read more

Marlon Samuels has been drafted into the West Indies side to replace the injured captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, who has been sent home. Sarwan had injured his shoulder during last week's Test at Headingley when he dived into the advertising boards trying to save a boundary. Presumably, vice captain Daren Ganga will be elevated to the captaincy.

The issue of who should replace Sarwan once again raised the spectre of insularity in the region. Barbadian Tony Cozier called for Barbadian Ryan Hinds to be drafted in the squad. This ruffled the feathers of a few Jamaican commentators who argued that the Jamaican Samuels should be the choice, often hinting that Cozier's choice was because he and Hinds are Bajan, while dismissing that a similar claim could be made against them.Read more

Ryan Sidebottom in full flight. [Photo credit: Jon Hall]

In the midst of the disaster of the second Test at Headingley, there is the interesting story of Ryan Sidebottom. And his story is not interesting only because of his name and all the fun headline writers could have with it. (How does one get a name like Sidebottom anyway? Is it the English equivalent of 'backside'?). Before Sidebottom starred in England's big win with eight wickets in the match, he was famous or infamous for the fact that like his father before him, he had only played in a single Test match.Read more

Michael Vaughan leads his team off the field victorious.

[Photo courtesy of Jon Hall]

One thing that can never be said about West Indies cricket is, "It can't get any worse than this!".

Today it got about as bad as it possibly could for the Windies as they caved to a massive innings and 283 runs defeat - the biggest defeat in the 79 year history of West Indies Test cricket. After following on a full 424 runs behind England's big first innings total of 570/7, the West Indies put on an even more pitiful performance than their first innings total of 146. This time they folded for 141.Read more

Monty Panesar's left arm spin gives the England attack a dimension that the Windies' sorely lack.

The Windies ineptitude with the ball in the first seven days of Test cricket on the England tour has only highlighted the need for a specialist spinner in the Windies side. In the first Test at Lord's the Windies pace quartet of Daren Powell, Jerome Taylor, Dwayne Bravo and Corey Collymore each went for over a hundred runs as England piled up a massive 553/5 declared in overcast conditions that should have favoured the seamers. Four England batsmen: Alastair Cook, Paul Collingwood, Ian Bell and debutant Matt Prior picked off centuries against the largely wayward and rusty Windies pace attack - with 'attack' being used very generously.

Contrast that with the success of Monty Panesar against the Windies, who took six wickets in their first innings and of Chris Gayle, who took 3 English wickets in the second innings, wouldn't a specialist spinner have been useful for the West Indies?Read more

In last week's drawn first Test at Lord's the Windies demonstrated remarkable fight to save the match after England had piled up a massive 553/5 declared. The Windies' fast bowlers struggled in the first innings with their lack of match practice being on full display. A solid batting performance led by Shiv Chanderpaul's 74 and some dogged batting by lower order batsmen Dwayne Bravo (56), Denesh Ramdin (60) and Daren Powell (36) carried the Windies to a respectable 437.

A strong bowling performance led by Corey Collymore's 3/58 and Chris Gayle's 3/66 restricted England to 284/8 dec and left the Windies with a steep run chase of 401. The Windies started positively at 89/0, but an almost rained out final day resulted in the tame draw.Read more