Right, that’s it from me. Stick around on site for all the reports and reaction, and obviously plenty of well-deserved Anderson-love, but from me, cheerio!
Here’s Jimmy: “My immediate emotion was that we were back in the game. We had opened up an end. The immediate reaction was the game itself … I’m hugely proud … I know my game now, when I started I didn’t have a clue.”
Holder's basically a kid thrust into an Allan Border-1984 situation, or worse. What an innings. Immense application. #WIvEng
— Dileep Premachandran (@SpiceBoxofEarth) April 17, 2015
ALL OVER! MATCH DRAWN!
Alastair Cook walks up and shakes hands with the batsmen. What a brilliant rearguard effort from the West Indies and from their young allrounder in particular. He has just become the fourth player to score a century from No8 in the fourth innings of Test.
129.3 overs: Tickled calmly to leg.
129.2 overs: A poke and a miss. Essentially he has two more balls to survive.
129.1 overs: Roach blocks out Anderson.
129th over: West Indies 350-7 (Holder 103, Roach 15) minimum 1 overs remaining What an innings this has been. Really quite exceptional.
Jason Holder averages less than 20 in First Class. Jason Holder just made a Test match hundred at eight to save a Test. Jason Holder, hero.
— Jarrod Kimber (@ajarrodkimber) April 17, 2015
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128.5 overs: See 128.4.
128.4 overs: Holder blocks.
128.3 overs: Holder clumps Tredwell over the top again! Another boundary and that’s his century! It’s his FIRST century in first-class cricket. Unbelievable stuff from the 23-year-old.
128.2 overs: Holder drives against the shins of silly point.
128.1 overs: Holder blasts Tredwell back over the top for a four that takes him to 99 …
128th over: West Indies 342-7 (Holder 95, Roach 15) minimum 2 overs remaining Anderson charges in for one final blast at Roach. EDGE! Short of Cook! Four runs! That died just in front of the England captain at slip, no more than a foot short. A couple of balls later he finds a bit of reverse swing and bit of extra bounce, but Roach is equal to it, though he takes a whack on the hand for his trouble. From the last there’s an appeal – there was a noise as the ball passed the bat. The umpire says no but England opt to review, more in hope than expectation. Without Snicko or HotSpot it’s impossible to overturn, and it does look with the naked eye that the noise was bat on turf. England need three wickets in 12 balls.
Stat! This just shows what a fine effort this had been from Jason Holder:
Holder on 95 - 4th highest score by a no.8-11 batsman in 4th innings of a Test. Highest: 140 by Vettori v SL. http://t.co/FdTAyGrz3v
— Andy Zaltzman (@ZaltzCricket) April 17, 2015
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127th over: West Indies 338-7 (Holder 95, Roach 11) minimum 3 overs remaining Tredwell fizzes a couple in at Holder, but drifts onto the No8’s pads and is punched away through the leg side for two. And he follows that up with a calm push through the off for a couple more. He leaves the last alone so, Roach will be on strike next over.
126th over: West Indies 334-7 (Holder 91, Roach 11) minimum 4 overs remaining Joe Root now. Fairly aggressive field …
Roach has a big flap at the second ball of the over, connecting with nothing but Antiguan air. Holder, sensibly, Has Words. And they do thr trick – four dead-batted blocks.
125th over: West Indies 334-7 (Holder 91, Roach 11) minimum 5 overs remaining Holder slams a drive against the man at silly point, the ball flicks up off his ankle and loops towards the bowler. Tredwell dives … gets his fingers to it … but can’t quite hold on. A slider finds the outside edge but it’s played with soft enough hands to drop well short of the man at slip. After a flat period, a bit of tension creeps back in. Holder looks to release it by flapping Tredwell away behind square for four.
124th over: West Indies 330-7 (Holder 87, Roach 11) minimum 6 overs remaining Jordan returns. Again Holder drives for three off the first. And again Roach is good enough to keep the rest out, even flicking the last to fine leg for four.
123rd over: West Indies 323-7 (Holder 84, Roach 7) minimum 7 overs remaining Holder, playing the innings of his life, drives Tredwell through the covers for a couple more. We’re heading into England v Sri Lanka at Lord’s territory here.
122nd over: West Indies 320-7 (Holder 81, Roach 7) minimum 8 overs remaining Roach blocks out a bevy of full Broad deliveries. The yorker is the plan, but Roach has looked very comfortable in dealing with them thus far. He even picks up a couple of runs.
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121st over: West Indies 318-7 (Holder 81, Roach 5) minimum 9 overs remaining Bridge Over Troubled Water spurts from the Tannoy between overs. The DJ is clearly off the leash, just seeing what he can get away with. “What’s the most incongruous piece of music I can play at this moment in time?”
Tredwell returns. Holder drops his bat on everything.
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120th over: West Indies 318-7 (Holder 81, Roach 5) 10 overs remaining Holder whips Broad away into the leg side, and slightly oddly they decide to run three. Not that he’s thinking it, I’m sure, but what a time it would be for him to record a first Test hundred. Roach calmly plays out two balls but then is groping outside off from the next, the ball missing the outside edge by a whisker. Still, another over is chalked off … 10 to go.
119th over: West Indies 315-7 (Holder 78, Roach 5) Another classical drive through the covers from Holder brings him four more off Stokes, then takes a single to give Roach more work to do. And it’s work he does well, particularly with the last, which is a fizzing toecrusher of a yorker. Just 11 overs to go.
Want more Jimmy Anderson-related content? Well, here’s his six best Test bowling moments.
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118th over: West Indies 310-7 (Holder 73, Roach 5) Stuart Broad (18-4-56-1) comes back for one last blast. Again Roach is utterly surrounded by fielders. He blocks a couple outside off then ducks underneath a bouncer, not entirely successfully as the ball cannons through to Buttler off his shoulder. He blocks the rest. After a start in which he looked like a walking wicket, Roach has settled down a bit here.
117th over: West Indies 310-7 (Holder 73, Roach 5) “Why am I, as an England fan, willing the West Indies to survive the last fifteen overs?” wonders Tim Sanders. “It might go back to 1973 when my favourite player ever, Keith Boyce (Barbados, Essex and West Indies) was player of the series. Is it because it would be healthy for Caribbean and world cricket for a generation of young cricketers to be inspired by their team? Is it a true cricket fan’s love of a good last-day resistance? Would I feel differently if the selectors had listened to me, and Rashid were twirling away at one end whilst the quicks took turns at the other? Cricket does funny things to the middle-aged mind.”
Ben Stokes enters the fray and pins Holder back with one that slaps the pad. It’s going down, though, and the appeals are no more than half-hearted. Holder responds by rocking back and playing yet another of those elegant off-drives, this one squarer, for four. Stokes denies him the single off the last, so Roach will be on strike next up.
116th over: West Indies 306-7 (Holder 69, Roach 5) Holder times a full one sweetly down the ground for three. Which means Anderson v Roach …
He plays and misses at the first, but bunts away the final ball of the over confidently enough.
115th over: West Indies 302-7 (Holder 66, Roach 4) With 16 overs to go Joe Root trots in again. Holder drives … and it looks like an edge might have been spilled by Buttler. “Spilled” is perhaps a bit harsh as it was very full, but there was definitely a noise as the ball passed the bat. Anyhoo, it’s a maiden.
114th over: West Indies 302-7 (Holder 66, Roach 4) Now then is this No385? Roach feels for one outside leg, the ball hits something and flies through to Buttler, and Bowden’s finger goes up! But Roach reviews, and the DRS shows the ball flicking pad not bat. Roach, however, does not look long for this knock.
You can tell we’ve been waiting a while for Anderson to take that wicket:
113rd over: West Indies 300-7 (Holder 66, Roach 2) Holder thwacks Root through the covers and they opt not to take the run. Could be ominous, though I don’t mind that too much. They don’t need to run from the next, a forceful drive fro, Holder whistles away for four.
Great moment for Jimmy and his family..... Congratulations you deserve it .... Awesome !!
— Ian Botham (@BeefyBotham) April 17, 2015
112nd over: West Indies 296-7 (Holder 62, Roach 2) My theory at tea was: if England get one, they win it. And Anderson certainly fancies adding to his tally against Roach, who prods about rather uncertainly, before pushing down the ground to get off the mark.
“Well done James Anderson,” writes John Starbuck. “The Burnley Express finally reached the terminus. It was fitting he got the opposition captain, too, rather than a tailender.”
WICKET! Ramdin c Cook b Anderson 57 (West Indies 294-7
That’s it! Anderson has done it! Ramdin is beaten all ends up by a beauty, a leg-cutter that finds the outside edge and flies to Cook at slip. He’s out on his own – the most prolific wicket-taker in Test cricket for England.
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111st over: West Indies 294-6 (Holder 62, Ramdin 57) Joe Root comes in for a twirl, round the wicket at the right-handed Ramdin. The West Indies captain has a couple of looks and then smashes a sweep out to midwicket for four. Root responds by sliding one past the outside edge. Well bowled.
110th over: West Indies 289-6 (Holder 62, Ramdin 52) A big play-and-miss from Holder, who just for once gropes airily outside off. Anderson was a whisker away from No384 there. He looks for a yorker later in the over, but is a touch too short and Holder is able to play out without too much fuss. A maiden.
109th over: West Indies 289-6 (Holder 62, Ramdin 52) Holder pushes Tredwell into the off side to bring up the 100 partnership. It’s been exceptional work from these two. Although, as Lizzy Ammon pointed out on Twitter earlier, they have a fair way to go to beat the West Indies record for the seventh wicket.
Just 21 overs remaining …
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108th over: West Indies 288-6 (Holder 61, Ramdin 52) James Anderson, England’s joint leading wicket-taker in Test cricket, restarts his quest to become England’s leading wicket-taker in Test cricket. One from the over, but he has both batsmen playing which I reckon is a good sign.
@john_ashdown that Ian Bell Small Talk is weirdly fascinating...like a cricketing version of James Milner or Michael Owen
— huwneill (@huwneill) April 17, 2015
Michael Owen was very much like Michael Owen. And I always remember my chat with Jason Leonard very fondly.
107th over: West Indies 287-6 (Holder 60, Ramdin 52) Holder unfurls another one of those easy-going laid-back drives for a single. Tredwell opts to go round the wicket at Ramdin, to no avail. Must be time to let Joe Root turn his arm over.
106th over: West Indies 286-6 (Holder 59, Ramdin 52) Holder punches Jordan behind square for four – this innings is now his best knock in Test cricket. England need to stay positive – nine, 10 and jack in the West Indies XI could topple quickly once they’re exposed. Kemar Roach isn’t exactly the strongest No9 in international cricket at the moment.
105th over: West Indies 279-6 (Holder 54, Ramdin 50) England apparently do not lose their review after that DRS decision in the last over – you don’t lose your review for a no ball. Odd. Ramdin calmly plays out Tredwell’s latest.
One hundred and eighty balls remaining …
“There is a danger in assuming that victory is the sole preserve of Tredwell,” honks Damian Clarke.
Updated
104th over: West Indies 279-6 (Holder 54, Ramdin 50) A huge appeal as Jordan whups Ramdin on the pad. Bowden isn’t interested, but England go pretty much straight for the review. We get as far as the side-on view of the bowler, which reveals it’s a no ball. Not to worry, though, as Hawkeye shows the ball only clipping leg stump. It seems to have unsettled Ramdin a touch, though – he’s as edgy as he’s looked all innings here. This will settle him down, though – a flick to leg to bring him his half century. And more importantly he’s used up 113 balls doing it.
Inane chat overload! Because I’m good with URLs I can provide you with a link to all our cricket-based Small Talks – right here. There are some gems in there. The king of Small Talks, though, was Nick Harper.
103rd over: West Indies 277-6 (Holder 54, Ramdin 49) Tredwell continues and there’s hands on heads as Holder leaves one that rips back towards the bails, missing by a few inches. That’s the only scare, though.
@garynaylor999 @John_Ashdown Well, if there was ever a man to get England out of a jam...
— R. Marr (@RolloTreadway) April 17, 2015
102nd over: West Indies 274-6 (Holder 52, Ramdin 48) Jordan continues – I’m not really sure why. It’s not that he’s bowling badly, but it’s all just a little flat.
Speaking of inane questions, I Small Talked with Ian Bell many years ago. Pretty unremarkable other than a broken tape recorder and the fact that his favourite tipple is Carling which, as we all know, shouldn’t be anyone’s favourite tipple. A young Stuart Broad made better copy.
101st over: West Indies 273-6 (Holder 52, Ramdin 48) Tredwell wheels away at Holder, who leans into another elegant drive to bring him four runs and a Test half century. He’s a very good player. Could be a great one in a few years. The next, though, skids past the outside edge, bringing yelps of anguish from the fielding team.
“You can tell a lot about someone by their quick-fire responses to inane questions,” writes Kieron Shaw. “Apparently James Tredwell’s favourite food is ‘home-cooked’, his favourite brand of car ‘the one that does the job’, and he is most likely in life to ‘be very early’. Tells you all you need to know about the man, really. Other than the fact that his most annoying habit is apparently “catching flies while asleep.
“It all seems to paint a picture of the most boring man on earth who, under cloak of darkness, suddenly mysteriously turns into Mr Miyagi.”
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100th over: West Indies 268-6 (Holder 48, Ramdin 48) Chris Jordan, rather surprisingly, is given the first over after tea. He’s looking for the lbw with Ramdin and an inswinger almost does the job, the batsman just getting an inside edge there in time.
@John_Ashdown If England don't take a wicket in the half-hour after tea, they'll be in a bit of a pickle. Time to call for Tredders!
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) April 17, 2015
I’m sure he’ll be relishing the challenge. Etc and so forth.
Out come the players. 31 overs. Four wickets. Or 170 runs*
*Though that’s not especially relevant. Yet.
Updated
TEA
A minimum of 31 overs remain to be played, still plenty long enough for England to win this match, but if these batsmen can be as focused and conservative in the next hour of play as there were in the last the draw will be there for the taking. John Ashdown will be back shortly to lead you through the final session. Bye!
99th over: West Indies 268-6 (Holder 48, Ramdin 48)
A single puts Holder on strike, and a cover drive earns him four and puts both batsmen two runs from a half-century. And that’s how it ends. A fine session for West Indies, who head to the dressing-rooms with the scent of draw filling their nostrils.
98th over: West Indies 263-6 (Holder 44, Ramdin 47)
Jordan bowls, Holder hangs out his bat and he’s lucky to miss it. The next delivery is better, tempts the batsman into a half-hearted drive and he just misses that one too. The next is straighter, and is sent to the long on boundary. A couple of singles follow. We’ll have time for one more before the interval, and as it stands the tea will taste sweeter in the home dressing room.
Updated
97th over: West Indies 257-6 (Holder 39, Ramdin 46)
Tredwell bowls, Ramdin cuts and two fielders give chase gamely, but neither of them can stop it hitting the rope at deep cover.
You've got to like Tredwell. Almost certainly the only international cricketer to take his home made chutneys and jams on tour
— Nick Hoult (@NHoultCricket) April 17, 2015
I’m not a big fan of chutney myself, but I’d be happy to give Tredwell’s jam a, erm, spin. As Tredders himself said last year:
I’ve got a bit of a patch where I grow my own fruit and veg so I make some chutneys and jams if I have a bit of a glut. I’ve got a couple of chutneys this year which I might sneak into the bag to Sri Lanka but customs tend to be a bit tight these days.
When we’re in Bangladesh and places like that, where the food can be quite temperamental at times, it can be quite nice to have a bit of home comfort. At other times, it’s just a good way for me to get rid of it. I have that many jars of it in the cupboard, it’s nice to take it away and let the boys enjoy it.
96th over: West Indies 253-6 (Holder 39, Ramdin 42)
Ramdin works Jordan’s fifth ball square off his hip for a single, but for which that would have been a third successive maiden. Anyway, it wasn’t. A couple of overs left, three at a push, before tea.
95th over: West Indies 252-6 (Holder 39, Ramdin 41)
“They can’t help themselves, always looking for it over the top!” Comes the cry, as Tredwell prepares to bowl. “They don’t have the patience for it, Tred!” There’s a muted lbw appeal third ball, which turned past the bat and thundered into Holder’s back pad, but it was missing leg stump by a great distance. Still, nice bowling; for all the talk of Anderson, Tredwell and Root could end up being key here.
94th over: West Indies 252-6 (Holder 39, Ramdin 41)
Jordan replaces Broad. They’re a vocal bunch, this England team. Thanks to the stump mic we know that every moment between deliveries is filled with encouraging cries. If only the actual action was quite as uplifting, though. Time to try some spin...
93rd over: West Indies 252-6 (Holder 39, Ramdin 41)
Stokes bowls shortish and just a fraction wide, and Holder works through the gap between gully and the slips, and away for four. There are 37 overs still to come today, and no cause for panic, though England’s stress levels must be rising gently northwards.
92nd over: West Indies 247-6 (Holder 35, Ramdin 40)
Broad keeps switching his angles, around the wicket one minute, over the wicket the next, but for all his efforts the over yields two singles and no chances.
Updated
91st over: West Indies 245-6 (Holder 34, Ramdin 39)
Anderson’s record will have to wait. Ben Stokes replaces him, and his first delivery is tickled fine by Holder, racing away for four. A single later Ramdin hits past mid on for another four, a fluid, timed push (a description which does make it sound a little bit like diarrhoea, but them’s the breaks).
Updated
90th over: West Indies 236-6 (Holder 29, Ramdin 35)
Oooh! Another scream of anguish from Broad, as Holder edges but the ball fails to carry to second slip, who misjudges its bounce and lets it go through for four.
89th over: West Indies 231-6 (Holder 24, Ramdin 35)
The new ball seems to be little keener than the old to offer the bowler’s any encouragement in its youth. Time is the batsmen’s greatest enemy here. Holder works the ball to backward point for three, and a couple of singles follow.
88th over: West Indies 226-6 (Holder 20, Ramdin 34)
Ramdin hits to mid-on, where Anderson misfields to turn a single into a three. And then Holder pulls the next, and Trott’s stuck at deep square leg to collect it, but the ball lands two feet short of the onrushing fielder and Broad screams with anguish.
87th over: West Indies 222-6 (Holder 19, Ramdin 31)
Hello again! So, here we are. Decisive moments. Four wickets need to fall if England are to win, and the tourists will want at least one of them to go in the next hour before tea. With a bit of luck it might already have happened: Anderson takes the ball, and he gets one to straighten and beat Holder’s bat, then the batsman tries to leave the next delivery, only for it to hit his handle and bounce into the ground, six inches from the stumps. After that one-two, the next is perfectly played past extra cover for four.
86th over: West Indies 217-6 (Holder 15, Ramdin 30) Holder looks to pull Broad off towards St John’s but can only inside edge onto his pads. But this is better – another easy, almost cushioned drive for a couple more. Then he tries that pull again and makes much better contact, lofting down to cow corner for four.
And that’s drinks. Simon Burnton will be back with you to take you through to tea in just a sec.
Meanwhile... pic.twitter.com/pNy9sjp2wS
— Ed Aarons (@ed_aarons) April 17, 2015
85th over: West Indies 211-6 (Holder 9, Ramdin 30) Anderson strays to leg, allowing Holder to flick away for a single and escape to the non-striker’s end though only for one ball – a leg bye from the next brings him back into the firing line. And another single is dabbed away to the on side. Anderson hasn’t quite got it right here so far.
84th over: West Indies 208-6 (Holder 7, Ramdin 30) Broad gets his hands on the almost-new ball from the Richards End. Holder plays another one of those languid drives, this time a touch straighter for three. And later in the over Ramdin plays a quite gorgeous on drive for four more.
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83rd over: West Indies 201-6 (Holder 4, Ramdin 26) Anderson steams in from the Roberts End. There’s a hint of shape away, but not much more than that from the first four deliveries, all three of which are played confidently enough by Ramdin. And from the fifth, he’s short and wide enough to allow Ramdin to free his arms and baseball-bat-drive for four through the covers. And the last ball is a cracker – angled in, shaping away – that catches the outside edge and flies just wide of the diving Root at fourth slip. It races away for four, bringing up the West Indies 200.
82nd over: West Indies 193-6 (Holder 4, Ramdin 18) Um, nope. Anderson does a few stretches in the outfield, while Jordan runs in once more. Jason Holder stands firm and drives in gentle, relaxed fashion – like someone applying a final coat of paint to a garden fence – to add a couple to the total.
OK. New ball taken. Cap off. Time for Jimmy …
81st over: West Indies 191-6 (Holder 2, Ramdin 18) Root takes one more over, presumably so Anderson can have the first use of the new ball from his preferred end. Holder works a single. And that’s that.
Right then …
Updated
80th over: West Indies 190-6 (Holder 1, Ramdin 18) Blackwood has a good third of the way down the pitch there. Bonkers, obviously. Awful, of course. But also slightly brilliant as well. Anyway, Holder gets off the mark with a shambolic single – Tredwell misfields, there’s a hint of hesitation but nowhere near enough to justify Stokes’s shy at the stumps at the non-striker’s end with no one backing up. Fortunately for Stokes it pings of Holder, thus saving four overthrows.
Updated
WICKET! Blackwood c Buttler b Jordan (England 189-6)
Urgh. This is a pretty ugly way to get out. To be fair, Blackwood has played with a mixture of passivity and raging aggression and it had served him well thus far, so to criticise would be a bit harsh. But with a new ball six deliveries away? Hmm. Anyway, he dances down the track at Jordan, has a huge heave, and sends an inside edge through to the keeper. Blerg.
79th over: West Indies 189-5 (Blackwood 31, Ramdin 18) Joe Root returns. He drags one down a touch and Ramdin pulls airily for a couple. And then repeats the trick via a painful blow on Gary Ballance’s fingers at short leg.
“If we’re accepting stories of abject dismissals from amateur cricket then I can offer up my own sorry tale,” writes Simon Roberts. “Coming into the final game of last season with a career average of 3 and a high score of 10, I had clawed my way to the giddy heights of 35 in a hopeless chase. Mainly by feasting on some juicy short wide balls served up by the oppositions first change bowler, called up from the under 14s.
“Seeing the ball well, with the 50 and the teams highest ever individual score of 40 within my grasp I set off for a sharp, but comfortable single. Was close enough to my ground to slow down and walk and start chatting to my batting partner. Crucially I forgot the basic rule of running and left my bat dangling in the air whilst doing so. At which point the under 14s bowler had his revenge by running me out with a direct hit from the midwicket area.
“There’s that or the time I square cut my own stumps whilst facing a 15-20mph spinner …”
78th over: West Indies 185-5 (Blackwood 31, Ramdin 14) Over the past couple of years England have been guilty of getting to the 65th-ish over of a ball and then sitting in and waiting for that new ball. That hasn’t really felt the case in this Test … until now. Jordan sends down another thankless over outside off. Blackwood has a full swing at the fifth delivery, just beating Root at short cover and sending the ball zipping away to the boundary.
77th over: West Indies 181-5 (Blackwood 27, Ramdin 14) Ramdin’s turn to get after Tredwell, first punching straight then slapping dismissively square for back-to-back boundaries. The third is miscued over Anderson at mid on, but safely enough and they run two as Anderson stretches his legs with a chase to the boundary.
76th over: West Indies 171-5 (Blackwood 27, Ramdin 4) Jordan sticks to a tight line outside off. The increasingly impressive Blackwood leaves and blocks, blocks and leaves.
75th over: West Indies 171-5 (Blackwood 27, Ramdin 4) Tredwell tries to tease and tempt Ramdin outside off. Unsuccessfully on this occasion, though he does worry the batsman with a little bit of bounce from the last.
74th over: West Indies 171-5 (Blackwood 27, Ramdin 4) Three slips and a short cover for Jordan as he steams in to Ramdin once more. When you think of West Indies cricket, you never really think of wicketkeeping and the fact that Ramdin’s average of 26.55 puts him fifth on the all-time list (min: 10 Tests) does say something of their struggles in that department. He struggles to get Jordan away here, but they take a leg bye off the last.
73rd over: West Indies 170-5 (Blackwood 27, Ramdin 4) It’ll be James Tredwell at the other end. Blackwood dances down the track to the first and drives low to mid off – one of the more entertaining dot balls of the day – and next up he has another shuffle and this time gives it the full beans, thunking over the top of the bowler for four. And two balls later he’s at it again – another dance, another smash, this time clumped wide of mid off for four more.
72nd over: West Indies 162-5 (Blackwood 19, Ramdin 4) Chris Jordan charges in to bowl the first over after tea. A hat-trick and couple of wickets in the next over from Joe Root would tiddle on a few fireworks. He almost squeezes one through Ramdin – a good-length inswinger that catches just enough of the inside edge – but otherwise the West Indies captain is untroubled. A maiden.
Players back out. Here we go then …
And on the subject of abject dismissals, this is a particular favourite …
Thanks Simon. Hello all. Guardian Towers is beside itself with excitement today, for two reasons. The first is the arrival of a new printer – the old one has been subjected to an Office Space-style beatdown …
… and the second is of course James Anderson’s proximity to a new Test record. We’ve got nine overs of the old ball after lunch, which will be spread between Root, Tredwell, Stokes and Jordan. Then it’ll be time for Jimmy (and, with Friday deadlines a little earlier all over Fleet Street, the entire English print media will be pretty keen for him to get on with it).
Such is the clamour over Anderson’s record that the actual result of the actual Test match is in danger of getting a bit lost. You’d imagine England will wrap this up some time shortly after tea, but West Indies have got their captain and a man with a first-innings 100 under his belt at the crease. Holder can bat certainly, but after that the pickings are pretty slim.
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LUNCH: West Indies 162-5 (trail by 275)
That’s an excellent session for England. Three wickets, including one for the history-chasing Anderson, leaves West Indies needing to bat through two sessions with five wickets in hand and a new ball not far away. John Ashdown will be here shortly take you through the first hour of the second session. Bye for now!
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71st over: West Indies 162-5 (Blackwood 19, Ramdin 4)
Blackwood adds a couple from the final over of the session, bowled by Root, and that’s LUNCH. “What about Chris Read and the Chris Cairns slower ball?” proposes William Sutton, apropos abject dismissals. “I think he might have ducked but it when between his legs.” Here it is, complete with “hilarious” Phil Tufnell commentary:
70th over: West Indies 160-5 (Blackwood 17, Ramdin 4)
Ramdin hits Stokes’ final delivery through midwicket for four to get off the mark. “Any discussion of abject dismissals has to include this from David Gower,” says Jezz Nash. With lunch very much around the corner, it does seem appropriate.
Here’s a Small Talk with Gower at which the subject crops up:
Small Talk can just imagine the look on your face as you unwrap them. It must be a little like the one Graham Gooch wore when you flicked the final ball before lunch straight to square leg at Adelaide in 1991 ... Ha, yes. I made sure that as I walked off Gooch was behind me, so it wasn’t the look on his face that bothered me so much as the sounds of huffing and puffing, and the steam coming from his ears. It was a fairly frosty atmosphere in the dressing room, despite the fact it was about 40 degrees outside.
69th over: West Indies 155-5 (Blackwood 16, Ramdin 0)
That, as Mike Atherton points out on Sky, is the first lbw of the match. “Did Billy chase after the hat?” asks Tom Hopkins. “There’s nothing more foolish than a man chasing his hat.” Chris Jordan chased his hat down for him. How foolish is a man chasing someone else’s hat?
WICKET! Chanderpaul lbw b Root 13 (West Indies 155-5)
He’s hopelessly out. Emphatically out. West Indies might as well review on the off chance – it’s a key wicket, that – but it looked out in real time, and HawkEye just proved it.
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REVIEW!
Is Chanderpaul out lbw here? England think so, the umpire thinks so, West Indies hope not …
68th over: West Indies 155-4 (Chanderpaul 13, Blackwood 16)
Stokes bowls, and Blackwood edges! I don’t think it carried, and anyway it flew straight to third slip, and England had only two. There’s then a delay while Billy Bowden’s hat blows off his hat and rolls around the outfield for a while.
Even Billy Bowden's hat is an attention seeker.
— Daniel Harris (@DanielHarris) April 17, 2015
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67th over: West Indies 151-4 (Chanderpaul 13, Blackwood 12)
Tredwell has put in a good shift, occupying one end for the first 100 minutes of the day, but now Root comes on to give him a breather. There’s an lbw appeal, after Chanderpaul kicks away the third delivery, and when it’s turned down Cook and Buttler come together with the bowler to consider a review, but the whole thing was ludicrously optimistic and they correctly decide against it. The following dismissal, meanwhile, is just too ludicrous. Can it really have actually happened?
Worst Cricket Dismissal Ever: http://t.co/dIS13hxM5l @Simon_Burnton Erm....not sure I can explain this one.....he just walks too
— Bryan (@TheFettz) April 17, 2015
66th over: West Indies 149-4 (Chanderpaul 11, Blackwood 12)
“You cannot discuss abject cricket without including this classic from Mark Alleyne,” sniffs Ashley Roberts. OK, this isn’t a wicket, and it isn’t a drop, but it is ludicrous.
65th over: West Indies 146-4 (Chanderpaul 10, Blackwood 10)
It may look like not much has happened for a while, but there’s still tension in the air, and Tredwell’s overs are fascinating, with the bowler relying on intelligence over natural brilliance, toying with minor variations of pace and length. “Geraint Jones’ final innings in test cricket, featuring him completing a pair by being run-out whilst awaiting an lbw decision, was a bit of a clunker,” recalls Gareth Fitzgerald.
64th over: West Indies 145-4 (Chanderpaul 9, Blackwood 10)
Stokes replaces Anderson, and West Indies score four runs in singles and a two, all the runs coming in the second half of the over. England would like another wicket before lunch. Well, they’d like another six, but one would be a start. “If its abject cricket you are after,” writes Phil Russell, “can I supply this?” Well I’m not really after abject cricket in general – it’s wickets in particular I’m looking at – but since you’ve gone to the trouble of emailing, and it really is a very beautifully dropped catch, I’ll take it.
63rd over: West Indies 141-4 (Chanderpaul 8, Blackwood 7)
A Tredwell maiden. I must admit I missed most of it while I hunted down that OBO snipped from 2012. It was worth it, though, I think.
62nd over: West Indies 141-4 (Chanderpaul 8, Blackwood 7)
Anderson bowls. Two runs. It seems everyone’s picking on poor Ian Bell.
@Simon_Burnton England 69-4, a mere 452 in arrears on an Ahmedabad road, and Ian Bell skys his first ball to Tendulkar at mid off. ABJECT!
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) April 17, 2015
Or as the OBO had it, at the time:
WICKET! Bell 0 c Tendulkar b Ojha (England 69-5) l cannot not believe this. I mean really, really, that may be the single most idiotic, pathetic, embarrassing, humiliating, disgraceful, desultory, excruciatingly awful dismissal I have seen from an English batsman in five years of writing over-by-over cricket coverage. Really, that’s not a joke, or an exaggeration. It is a good thing Ian Bell is about to fly home to be there for the birth of his child, because if he wasn’t - barring a hundred in the second innings - I would really suggest that he should have been dropped from the team on the strength of that shot alone. Mercy me. To recap: Ian Bell walked out to the middle, in the most jaunty, cocksure fashion, marked his guard, took a step down the wicket and chipped a catch straight - and I mean straight - to mid-off. It was, truly, the shot of a moron. He’s gone for a golden duck.
61st over: West Indies 139-4 (Chanderpaul 8, Blackwood 5)
Oooh! Chanderpaul edges the ball, but it bounces just in front of gully! “My pick would be Ian Bell in the second innings of the second Test against Pakistan in 2012, where he was bowled by a ball that he had defended but which eventually trickled onto his stumps,” suggests Michael Avery. “I don’t wish to overemphasise Bell’s contribution to that shambles of a series, but it seemed to sum up perfectly how bad England were at that time. They needed 145 runs to win the match but were in such a shoddy state that a slowly bouncing ball was enough to take the wicket of one of their most talented batsmen.”
60th over: West Indies 138-4 (Chanderpaul 8, Blackwood 4)
Anderson’s first delivery is poked past point by Chanderpaul, and that’s the scoring donw. The game’s changed a lot over the last half-hour or so, not least because the ball has started moving around exuberantly.
Surely the most abject dismissal ever was Inzamam falling in his own wicket against England? @Simon_Burnton
— Bryan (@TheFettz) April 17, 2015
Decent shout: part Monty Panesar, part Monty Python.
59th over: West Indies 134-4 (Chanderpaul 4, Blackwood 4)
Chanderpaul cruelly denies Tredwell another maiden by scoring a single off the last.
58th over: West Indies 133-4 (Chanderpaul 3, Blackwood 4)
Anderson bowls, and Blackwood hoists it back over the bowler’s head, high in the air. There’s nobody remotely near it when it comes down to earth, though. And then he tries an inswinging yorker, which hits Blackwood at ankle-height causing a noisy appeal. Bowden shakes his head, probably because the ball would have missed leg stump by about two feet. “Well done to Jimmy Over-ratedson, on drawing level with a first-change fat all-rounder, taking two wickets an innings,” sniffs Gareth Fitzgerald. “Averages count for more than totals. Cook has more runs than Bradman.”
Updated
57th over: West Indies 129-4 (Chanderpaul 3, Blackwood 0)
This is fascinating now, with two new batsmen and a reinvigorated fielding side crowding round the bat. “God love him, but the Sledgehammer could have a whole tumblr devoted to his particular brain fades,” writes Will Scott, on the subject of abject dismissals. “This, for instance, is an old favourite.” Yes, you can’t compare Smith’s to this, not in any rational way.
56th over: West Indies 127-4 (Chanderpaul 1, Blackwood 0)
A wicket maiden from England’s joint-greatest all-time wicket-taker. “Two abject dismissals occur,” writes Richard Woods from Sudan. “Botham at Lord’s 1981 in his last test as captain, and Boycott running out Derek Randall.”
Yes, Randall. Here’s the full story of that run-out. And here’s a quote about it, from Boycott:
I can see it now, me running head-down to safety while Derek gives up the ghost and Rodney Marsh demolishes the stumps. Artless, heartless Boycott sacrificing another victim. If the ground had opened and swallowed me at that moment it would have been a mercy. I have never felt so completely wretched on a cricket field. My own failure would have haunted me but to actually run somebody out … and Randall at that. I couldn’t have imagined anything worse.
WICKET! Samuels c Tredwell b Anderson (West Indies 127-4)
Anderson draws level with Botham! It’s a wide delivery, Samuels tries to drive and edges to Tredwell at gully!
Updated
55th over: West Indies 127-3 (Samuels 23, Chanderpaul 1)
Another six! Samuels thrashes Tredwell down the ground again! And then he’s nearly out next ball! He comes down the pitch again, misjudges the flight and is way out of his ground, only for the ball to rear up off the pitch and pass Buttler’s left shoulder.
54th over: West Indies 119-3 (Samuels 17, Chanderpaul 0)
Interesting. What’s the most abject dismissal you’ve ever seen in a Test match? Smith’s was a waste of a wicket, sure, but similar to a million others. Nothing like, say, the England wickets surrendered to Ishant Sharma’s short stuff last year, and there’s at least one Pietersen dismissal in the last Ashes series that stands out.
"One of the most abjest dismissals I've ever seen in a Test match." - @edsmithwriter on the wicket of Devon Smith #bbccricket
— Test Match Special (@bbctms) April 17, 2015
53rd over: West Indies 119-3 (Samuels 17, Chanderpaul 0)
“First ball, Treddy, come on!” comes the cry, as Chanderpaul prepares to face his first delivery. Short leg, silly point, slip, gully, pressure … but the batsman ignores the ball, Buttler collects, and the over is, well, over.
Tredwell loop-dupes Devon Smith into ending 174 balls of restraint with one ball of silliness. 7 wickets needed in 77 overs.
— Andy Zaltzman (@ZaltzCricket) April 17, 2015
Good pressure from England brought that wicket. Stand by your beds though, Shiv is in.
— mike selvey (@selvecricket) April 17, 2015
WICKET! Smith c Ballance b Tredwell 65 (West Indies 119-3)
A breakthrough! And it’s spin wot duz it, again – Smith attacks Tredwell, but spears the ball pretty much straight to Ballance at mid on.
Updated
52nd over: West Indies 118-2 (Smith 65, Samuels 16)
Smith grabs a couple off Anderson’s last. So little encouragement here for Broad and Anderson, who must just keep asking questions of the batsman – the same question, really – again and again and again, and wait for the moment their guard slips. Like an extended, six-hour-long Paxman-Michael Howard remix.
51st over: West Indies 116-2 (Smith 63, Samuels 16)
So much for those maidens – Samuels trundles down the pitch and slams Tredwell’s first ball down the ground for six! There’s also a four, struck through cover. So it is that over 51 contains as many runs as overs 38-50 put together.
50th over: West Indies 106-2 (Smith 63, Samuels 6)
Anderson bowls! The history boy, on his day of destiny! Nothing happens to make his destiny come any nearer, though Samuels does score a single.
@Simon_Burnton The problem re Jimmy is Broad. Neither seems capable of sustained spells at 85mph+ any more, which makes flat wickets flatter
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) April 17, 2015
This is a difficult period for them as a pair, though I expect they’ll both have periods of prolonged excellence again, some day.
49th over: West Indies 105-2 (Smith 63, Samuels 5)
Scent of blood in their nostrils, the batsmen take Tredwell to the cleaners, Samuels smiting the second ball to mid off for a single.
48th over: West Indies 104-2 (Smith 63, Samuels 4)
A run! West Indies canter past the 100 mark (well, to the 100 mark) when Samuels pushes the ball to cover and takes a single. And then, four! Four runs! All at once! Smith hits the ball into the ground, wide of the slips and away to the rope! Those five runs come from just two deliveries. It really is the most remarkable thing.
Devon Smith on 59 for 31 balls. Understandable nerves. This is his 14th 40+ score since his only Test 100. He's only converted one into a 60
— Andy Zaltzman (@ZaltzCricket) April 17, 2015
Devon Smith reaches 60. I repeat: Devon Smith reaches 60. For 1st time in Tests since his 88 at Gabba in Nov 2005, 24 Tests, 41 inns ago.
— Andy Zaltzman (@ZaltzCricket) April 17, 2015
47th over: West Indies 99-2 (Smith 59, Samuels 3)
West Indies have been rattling along at precisely 0.4 runs an over for the last 10 overs, the last six of which have all been maidens.
46th over: West Indies 99-2 (Smith 59, Samuels 3)
Samuels edges the ball, but it goes straight into the ground and is nowhere near carrying to second slip. It’s another maiden! “You’re discussing Jimmy Anderson entering his senior years and you still call him ‘the lad’?” queries John Starbuck. You’re never too old to be “lad”, are you? “Mind you, I’m a greybeard now and past the official retirement age but I got called ‘young man’ last week.” Everything’s relative.
45th over: West Indies 99-2 (Smith 59, Samuels 3)
Tredwell bowls, with a short leg, a silly point, a slip and a gully crowded round the bat. Another maiden. So much for “we definitely want to win the game” – West Indies have smashed one solitary single in five overs so far today.
44th over: West Indies 99-2 (Smith 59, Samuels 3)
Broad bowls, and by the end of the over there’s a silly mid on and a silly mid off in play, but still no chances, and no runs.
43rd over: West Indies 99-2 (Smith 59, Samuels 3)
There’s a lovely delivery here from Tredwell, flighted into the batsman before spinning away. Enough spin, it turned out, to miss the bat altogether, but a fine delivery, and a promising amount of turn. It’s another maiden: Tredwell has bowled 13 of the 43 overs (30%), and claimed six of the 12 maidens (50%, maths fans).
42nd over: West Indies 99-2 (Smith 59, Samuels 3)
Samuels raises his bat to let the ball pass through, only for the ball to come into him and eventually miss off stump by two inches, presumably a good deal less than the batsman had envisaged. Whatever, he’s safe enough.
I read this 1965 New Yorker profile of Bill Bradley today. Loved this little detail so thought I’d share it:
Last summer, the floor of the Princeton gym was being resurfaced, so Bradley had to put in several practice sessions at the Lawrenceville School. His first afternoon at Lawrenceville, he began by shooting fourteen-foot jump shots from the right side. He got off to a bad start, and he kept missing them. Six in a row hit the back rim of the basket and bounced out. He stopped, looking discomfited, and seemed to be making an adjustment in his mind. Then he went up for another jump shot from the same spot and hit it cleanly. Four more shots went in without a miss, and then he paused and said, “You want to know something? That basket is about an inch and a half low.” Some weeks later, I went back to Lawrenceville with a steel tape, borrowed a stepladder, and measured the height of the basket. It was nine feet ten and seven-eighths inches above the floor, or one and one-eighth inches too low.
41st over: West Indies 99-2 (Smith 59, Samuels 3)
A single for Samuels, as Tredwell pitches it up and hopes for the best. Stuart Broad is going to start from t’other end.
@Simon_Burnton My blog on Viv Richards' 56-ball Test century against England in 1986, if you get bored (doubtful): http://t.co/nquJFUNbNa
— Steve Pye (@1980sSportsBlog) April 17, 2015
In the near-certainty that I won’t be bored at all, for a single minute, all day, I thought I might as well just stick it up right away.
So this person actually exists. He looks like a horror-movie sadist.
And in other news, the cricket is about to start, in but a few moments’ time. James Tredwell has the ball.
The big news from Antigua:
Tourist tip: in the Caribbean, do try the locally brewed bottled Guinness, Nutty and world away from homogenised stuff. Cheeky 7.5% though
— mike selvey (@selvecricket) April 17, 2015
Nasser Hussain’s final question to Marlon Samuels: “Am I still your favourite player?” He is.
Classic Samuels quote: “Nasser has always been my favourite batsman. I have a few. Shiv, Steve Waugh and Sachin Tendulkar, but Nasser has always been my No1.”
“We definitely want to win the game,” says Marlon Samuels. “Devon Smith batted pretty well. The wicket’s still playing easy, but we have to fight for our start here. Everyone knows we have to start all over again. We’re going to mix aggression with patience. That’s the plan today. Get as close as possible to the total, wait and see how the day’s playing out.”
“That’s why we call him Lord,” writes Henry Lane of Selve’s, “won’t end a tweet with a preposition. Pure class.”
“Happy Jimmy Anderson day to you Simon,” writes Krishnan Patel. Thanks. You too. “Don’t you think it is too early to start writing about his decline seeing that this is the first test of the season and he is only beginning to get some rhythm? The best sides always have a pool of fast bowlers and manage them well. If we manage Anderson mixing him up with Broad, Finn, Jordan, Woakes, Plunks, Wood and maybe even Onions, I don’t see why he can’t survive the 17 tests.” Possibly several years premature: he’s only 32, after all – Glenn McGrath was still playing for Australia a month before his 37th birthday.
Mike Selvey, though, is optimistic:
last day then. ball just started to reverse for Broad last night so something with which to work
— mike selvey (@selvecricket) April 17, 2015
“I’m not sure I buy Selvey’s take on Jimmy,” writes George Rogers. “Talking about the Jimmy who bowled at 90mph on the regular is like going back to a different age. He’s been the same 80–85 guy for at least the last 5 years (or more) and has remained about as effective as he always has. And he’s never been a consistently world class bowler away from England. So to predict a steep decline on the basis of not taking a stack of wickets on a pretty flat pitch away from home seems to be like wild hubris to me. I get that every writer likes to pick up on the narrative of decline before everyone else jumps on the bandwagon. But I’ve seen Jimmy bowl worse than this, for longer than this before and no one was saying he’d be washing out within 12 months.”
I can see that, but there have been times before when England have flogged Anderson to seemingly within an inch of total physical breakdown, and given that he’s now approaching veteran status, and looking forward to what may be another extremely physically demanding day of remorseless slog with very little encouragement for a bowler of his type, part of me just feels sorry for the lad.
Broad on Anderson’s record: “In the changing room he’s not really mentioned it. I’m sure he’s desperate to get those wickets really quickly. Deep inside he’ll want two cheapos to get him moving.”
“It might go 20 overs with nothing happening, and then go a quick bang bang,” says Stuart Broad, who’s talking a long game. Nice turn of phrase, that.
Hello world!
So, today England will bowl until they have taken eight more wickets, or until they have definitively failed to take eight wickets. There’s a statistical monkey that needs to be removed from their back here, to do with James Anderson, Ian Botham, and history. Will this be Jimmyday? Yesterday was emphatically not Jimmyafternoon, that’s for sure, as he bowled seven joyless overs without reward. Might the conditions this morning favour swing as yesterday’s did not? Will this ball eventually be coaxed into some reverse action? Will the new ball do anything, once it’s taken after lunch? All these questions, and so many more, will be answered before the day is out. Exciting times.
Simon will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s Mike Selvey’s day four report:
There came a point either side of tea when it was easy to gain the impression that this Test match was primarily about getting Jimmy Anderson to a record. He came into the second innings requiring another two wickets to become the most prolific wicket-taker England have ever had and was faced with a West Indies side who will have known they had almost no chance of winning the game and were odds against not to lose it either, needing to bat for more than four sessions in order to draw.
They looked to be reeling on the ropes as England biffed their way to a lead of 437, a total that no one in the history of Test cricket has achieved in the fourth innings to win. The situation looked ripe for Anderson. The crowd, largely England supporters, were willing him on.
This is not the Anderson of old though, and we may be watching someone in the twilight of a magnificent career: a miracle if he lasts the 17 Tests England must play in 10 months. There was a time in his pomp when his pace could touch 90 miles per hour without any loss of movement. He was a real handful.
Sluggish this pitch may be, but twice the West Indies paceman Jerome Taylor has shown what is possible with the new ball and the sort of extra zip Anderson once possessed. He is 10% and more down on his best pace, and it shows in the manner in which the batsmen can line him up. He is not so much looking to break the record, as someone once said of Kapil Dev’s search for the world record, as exceed it. Seven fruitless overs in two spells was all he was allocated before stumps.
You can read the rest by clicking here.
