West In-Dies

There was a time when the West Indies were the team to beat by all oppositions.The then West Indies team included the like of hard hitting batsmen in Vivian Richards, Clive Lloyd and deadly fast bowling Andy Roberts, Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall that could rip out any opposition apart. That was once upon a time. Then, the next generation players for the West Indies saw the Batting great Brian Lara, with some decent performers like Richie Richardson, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Carl Hooper and the next generation deadly fast bowlers in Ian Bishop, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh who carried the good work done by Andy Roberts and co.

Even though the West Indies could not make it to even the semis after the 1983 world cup until the next generation players as said above made it in 1996 after beating the Proteas. However, despite the presence of Courtney Walsh, Brian Lara, Ambrose and Chanderpaul, they could not make it to the second round of the 1999 world cup after collapsing at 110 in the crucial match against Steve Waugh's Australia after having an early loss to Pakistan. It was as though that, the standard of the West Indies cricket had completely gone out of the way since then. Of course, West Indies never dominated the cricket world like they did in the 70s.

But, they were considered to be a decent opposition by all teams. However, their test performance after this can never be taken into consideration. Now, in the recently concluded one day series against England, even their one day performance is found to follow suit. Whatever be the case, West Indies until now was a major challenge for only teams like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe when it comes to playing test cricket. But, now, after their 2-0 loss to England in the Natwest series, it looks like they are suited only for minnows even in their ODI. Perhaps! This can be evident from the fact that they lost to Bangladesh in the inaugural edition of the ICC world T20.

For that matter, even England are way behind in one day cricket compared to other teams barring Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and the West Indies offlate. When it was not possible for the West Indies to pull even one out of the two one dayers played, one can imagine the capability of the West Indies team. No doubt that the West Indies put up a decent 270 on the board in comparison to England's 328. But, can the 58 run defeat that the West Indies sufferred be forgiven? If not for Owais Shah, none of the England batsmen showed any signs of pressure while facing the West Indian bowlers. If not for 2 bowlers who bowled 10 overs, rest of the bowlers ended up with a run rate of 6+, with 5 others going in for 7+.

An Upperhand Does Not Win The Game

This is something that the England players would be kicking themselves for, after their 1-0 loss at the hands of the West Indies. In the previous two occasions, England had won test series' twice against the West Indies in between 2004-05. And not only that, the England team had won 7 out of 8 tests that were scheduled in that season, with the remaining one test ending up in a draw. The then England team beat West Indies first on its home ground which is even today remembered for the fourth test at Antigua where Brian Lara scored an unbeaten 400 to reclaim the record that he had lost to Mathew Hayden 6 months ago.

And this time, yet again a similar test series has been scheduled, with the first 4 match test series to be played in the West Indies and the next 4 match test series to be played in England somewhere in May. And this time also, England were the favourites to win the series. But, just imagine what a nightmare it has been for the English team that has toured the West Indies? Despite having the upperhand in two out of three matches, England were not able to end up victorious at the end of the series. The series result read 1-0 favoring the West Indies.

Forget about the second where the pitch had everything to say. The second and the third test match ended in a draw, with the West Indies making most out of the lead that they had so far in the series, thus leaving the English team with only having a chance to level the series and in the process retain the Wisden trophy. But, that was not at all to be. Struass had no plans ragarding how to tackle the West Indies team. Ameteurity of Andrew Struass is quite evident when he declared the England innings just after lunch, leaving the West Indies just four hours to either defend the series.

West Indies had, at the end of the 5th day scored 113 /8, meaning just two wickets were needed for England to level the series. But, the English bowlers had no time to get those two wickets. It is either the English bowlers who failed to take the last two West Indian wickets or else the West Indian tail was too strong to be cut. All the West Indies needed was a draw to ensure that they ended up victorious which they did. I wonder how come someone like Nash who was just playing his 9th test match could score a century? This is the beauty of a test match that there can be atleast one result and that being a draw. One has to snatch a victory from the jaws of draw or else, the result is evident from Andrew Struass' face.