There was a moment, early on the first afternoon of this Test, when the West Indian attack threatened England’s batsmen. It came when Tom Westley was dismissed lbw, and England were 39 for two. By midway through the match’s second day, as over followed over, hour followed hour, session followed session, that moment started to feel as thought it was a very long time ago indeed. Alastair Cook’s batting can have that effect. Cook’s score rolled on, as inexorable as the tide and just about as fast-moving too. Jason Holder, West Indies’ young skipper, played Canute, powerless to send Cook back. He faced 407 balls altogether, in nine hours and 22 minutes of unruffled batting, dismissed, in the end, when he lost concentration and missed a straight ball.
The first time they played floodlit cricket in this country, in 1952, The Times ran an editorial in which the writer worried “what is to prevent non-stop Test matches where the last wicket falls as the milkman arrives?” Which situation, you guess, would suit Cook just fine. He seemed so happy batting against these West Indian bowlers that he might have gone gladly on right through the night if they’d let him, as if this was Test cricket’s version of They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, and he was the last one left dancing. Kemar Roach and the rest of the West Indian quicks were certainly out on their feet. And even the crowd in the Hollies stand, who have spent most of the last two days chanting Don’t Take Me Home seemed to be starting to sag.
After the four Tests against South Africa, Morne Morkel and all, earlier this summer, Cook seemed to have worked up a quite an appetite for the West Indian bowling. It wouldn’t be quite right to say he fell on it like a starving man might his first decent meal, only because he was altogether more discerning than that suggests. Rather he worked away at it as your canny old uncle does the wedding canapes, picking out the choice bits and passing on everything else. He was quite happy to leave a lot of what the West Indies served, certain as he was that something altogether more tempting would appear soon enough. A full toss or a half volley or something short and wide, the West Indies obliged. Cook has been doing a lot of work with his personal batting coach, Gary Palmer, this year, honing his already well-refined, well-defined technique. Against South Africa he made two fifties, and two forties but never seemed to be entirely comfortable at the crease. But the West Indian quartet, Roach, Holder, Miguel Cummins, and young Alzarri Joseph, were a less stressful proposition. These last two days must have been the sort he was dreaming about when he gave up the captaincy so that he could get back to the more straightforward business of busying himself with his own batting. And now they’d come along, he was sure to make the most of them.
So, whatever we learn from this first day-night Test, it won’t be anything new about Cook, who simply did all the things he’s always done so well. Or the state of the West Indian bowling, for that matter. Their’s was a slipshod, slapdash performance, and well as Kieron Powell and Kyle Hope batted in the brief spell between England’s declaration and the evening’s rain, they are still 470 runs behind. After five sessions, this series is already suffering from the unavoidable suspicion that it’s a gross mismatch. Change has been a long time coming to West Indies cricket, and judging by the way they bowled, it will still be a long while yet.
You need a long memory to remember the last time West Indies sent a strong Test team to England. It’s been a generation since the even won a game here. That was back in June 2000, at this very same ground. Jimmy Adams, who has just become the WICB’s director of cricket, was the captain back then. The key difference between his old job and his new one is that back then he could call on the two members of the West Indies’ great fast bowling dynasty, Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose, the last links in a chain that ran all the way back to Andy Roberts, who made his debut in 1974. In 2000, Walsh was 37, Ambrose 36, but they were still far too good for England. Walsh took eight wickets for spit, and Ambrose bowled 35 overs which cost just a little more than a run each. At the end of that series, England’s batsmen seemed only too happy give both Walsh and Ambrose a guard of honour, since they knew they wouldn’t have to face them again. England’s fans had come out in numbers to watch, too, and not because of the novelty of seeing a Test played under floodlights. The last day of that Test match at the Oval was so busy that they had to close the gates half an hour after the start of play, and shut 5,000 or so fans outside the ground. These days, England’s batsmen are a lot happier to see the West Indians come around than their fans are. Since 2000, the West Indies have played 13 more Tests here. England have won 11 of them, and the other two they drew were both washed out. It will take a lot more than a couple of hours of rain for this game to end the same way.
