This has been a series full of batting collapses for West Indies. Seven wickets for 54 runs on the first day at Lord’s, five for 43 in their second innings there, eight for 52 in their second innings at Trent Bridge, five for 39 and five for 58 in the first innings at Edgbaston. This time their last six fell for just 29, the last five for 19, the last three for four in the space of a single over – and they could hardly be blamed.
Before this game the talk had been of Mark Wood bowling at 100mph; in the end he got nowhere near, but when the ball is moving and the bowler is full of confidence and whatever extraordinary fuel he had been fed at lunch it hardly mattered.
