West Indies 243 & 120-4. England 398
England are still in control of this test match, but they aren’t quite in the unassailable position we’d hoped for at the start of play. It’s all because of two things: firstly, the ball actually swung for the Windies on Saturday, and secondly they have a batsman that seems impossible to dismiss – his name is Shiv Chanderpaul (you might have heard of him).
Let’s deal with the first point. England lost wickets at regular intervals because the Windies suddenly found the movement that Anderson and Co got on Thursday. People talk about visiting teams struggling against the swinging ball in England, but the truth is that all batsmen, of all abilities, of all nationalities, struggle when the ball swings – even English ones.
Let’s face it. It’s bloody hard to bat when the ball is moving around. You want to get on the front foot and drive, but every time you do so you risk being caught at slip. Today proved that. A good ball at Lord’s in May is a good ball at Lord’s in May, whether it’s Tim Bresnan facing the delivery or Adrian Barath.
Batsmen are oft criticised for the slightest mistake, but the truth is that sometimes bowlers bowl deliveries that get you out. Batting can sometimes seem like 50% luck. You either nick it or you don’t. Yesterday Andrew Strauss didn’t. Today he did. Yesterday England’s batsmen survived the close shaves, but today their luck deserted them.
Of course, some credit must go to the Windies bowlers too – they bowled persistently and didn’t let their heads drop, which helps – but tell me honestly that they didn’t bowl well yesterday too. They simply got the breaks today. And fair play to them.
Now I must come to Chanderpaul. Shiv crab / limpet / barnacle (insert your own crustacean here) Chanderpaul. Rarely has a batsman looked so ugly, been so persistently tedious to watch, nor been so consistently bloody brilliant, than Shiv Chanderpaul. The man is a total legend.
Chanderpaul thoroughly deserves his ranking as the number one batsman in the world. He is totally unflappable and his powers of concentration make Gary Kasparov, the chess grand master, look inadequate. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that Chanderpaul is Jonathan Trott times one hundred: He’s just as horrible to watch, but he’s been doing it a hundred times longer – and in a batting side that would fall to pieces without him. How exactly do you get the bugger out?
When Shiv Chanderpaul was a boy – just knee-high to a Gus Logie – he would have doubtless seen a cricket coaching manual at some point. The manual would have said ‘stand sideways on’, ‘don’t walk across your stumps’, and other precious titbits of information that have served batsmen well for decades.
Chanderpaul must have said something along the lines of ‘Nah, sod that. Reggae aint Mozart but it sounds pretty good to me; I’m gonna do exactly the opposite of what this manual says. It’ll work’. Well, it sure does.
Without Chanderpaul the Windies would have lost this match already. The rest of the batting line-up is soft. Some of them (like Darren Bravo) reputedly have talent, but they lack application and judgement at this point in their careers. Chanderpaul is the glue that holds them together. He’s a father figure.
If England get Chanderpaul early tomorrow, don’t be surprised if we still win by an innings. However, he’ll have to bloody nick one first.
James Morgan
Kudos to the West Indies today, they battled really well and might have been in a reasonable position but for a mad ten minutes prior to tea.
The 2009 Windies team, which still included the likes of Gayle, Sarwan, Taylor and Benn, was probably more talented but the 2012 side seems to have a lot more mental strength, which is an encouraging sign for the future.