West Indies’ lowest total of the series to date was actually a continuation of the dogged attitude they had found at Headingley, and their bowling reflected that truth
Melinda Farrell at Lord's07-Sep-20172:22
Butcher: Stokes irresistible when he finds his mojo
Some days it doesn’t matter what you do.You can wake up after your best ever sleep, look in the mirror and realise you’ve lost five pounds, accidentally rub against a lucky rabbit’s foot and find a fifty pound note in your pocket. The stars can be in alignment, the moon in your house and the sun shining on your back.Sometimes you can prepare as best you can, mentally and physically, focus on your processes and kick the laurels from underneath you.Some days you can do all of the right things and it counts for nothing.At Edgbaston, West Indies were bowled out for 168 and 137. In their first innings at Lord’s they were all out for 123. But while they managed fewer runs in their most recent outing, it didn’t spark the same sense of calamity as did their batting capitulation in the first Test. Perhaps there was still a lingering and softening glow remaining from their Headingley victory. Or perhaps a realisation that, today, they simply came up against some outstanding swing bowling in the sort of conditions that would have seriously tested the most resolute batsman’s defence.The ball may have been red but there were similarities to Edgbaston. There, the Windies struggled against a moving ball under artificial lights and for much of the first day of this final Test the lights were required at a gloomy Lord’s.Kraigg Brathwaite and Kyle Hope were victims of the new ball leaving them under the expert guidance of James Anderson as he hunted down the last few wickets needed to reach his teasing milestone – he was so difficult to play, it probably cost him the elusive 500th wicket. Could they have left better? Opening batsmen nick off to good outswingers. Such is the nature of the game at this level.Shai Hope did the early hard work, was patient and looked set; he could arguably have played Toby Roland-Jones better and perhaps have avoided the thin edge. But there will be far worse shots and poorer innings than this.Kemar Roach struck early to remove Mark Stoneman•Getty ImagesKieran Powell certainly could have timed his departure better; coming so soon after Hope’s wicket it left two new batsmen at the crease just as Ben Stokes was warming up.”Shai got a good ball, I think Kieran Powell played very well – again, he gets good starts,” said West Indies batting coach, Toby Radford. “I’d like him to carry on, I think he deserves to carry on. He’s played very well for us, does the hard bit and gets through Anderson and Broad, I just want to see him go on and get a big score. But losing those two, after that it was a little bit difficult, a fight uphill for batters coming in, with Stokes bowling an inspired spell and swinging it both ways.”I would have said the way it swung and seamed around all day, 220-250 would have been a good score. I thought they bowled particularly well. I thought at 70 for 2, we’d played well, we’d seen off the new ball and then we lost Shai Hope and Kieran Powell within a few balls and we were under a bit of pressure.”But Powell and Hope would still finish with the best batting figures of the day.Jermaine Blackwood provided the most disappointing batting moment for the Windies – going for the big heave-ho across the line when patient rebuilding may have been more helpful – but Blackwood only knows one way and the rewards he can provide will always be tempered by the risks he courts.The rest were victims of the extravagant hooping ball from the hand of Stokes, who turned up the swing louder than the Benny Goodman Orchestra. The last time Stokes bowled with such moving devastation was in the second innings against Australia at Trent Bridge in 2015, when he took 6 for 36 off 21 overs. Here he required fewer than 15 overs to better those figures.There was outswing to take care of Shane Dowrich and Kemar Roach while massive inswing did for Jason Holder and Shannon Gabriel.And it is hard to imagine how Roston Chase – or any batsman in the world – could possibly have dealt with a ball that seemed to swing, nip and shimmy all at once before shaving the stumps.Some days you just come up against a better opposition.And then…Some days your bad choices turn out to be fortuitous foresight. The decision to bat first under cloudy skies against a new ball attack that thrives in such conditions seemed unwise at first, until Kemar Roach has his turn late in the day, bowling tight to a good line and drawing the edges of Mark Stoneman and Alastair Cook.”We believed, and we checked the forecast several times, it was going to be the best day of the five, win the toss, bat – and from my own playing and coaching here, I know some days when it’s flat, it can be very flat and you can get 300-400,” said Radford. “On other days, like today, with the overheads and a little bit in the wicket, you look like something’s going to happen every ball.”On those days your shaky batting figures suddenly look robust. West Indies lost their fourth wicket with 78 runs on the board; when Jason Holder trapped Tom Westley and then found the edge of Joe Root’s bat England had only mustered 24.There are bad days and then there are days when the only thing that matters is having a better day than your opponent.The Windies will settle for more such days in this Test.
