Amid the carnage and chaos that concluded England’s victory over West Indies in Bridgetown on Sunday, while Romario Shepherd and Akeal Hosein were showering the stands with sixes, Reece Topley was quietly compiling not only his most economical figures in international T20 cricket, but the second-best figures of his entire career.
After restricting West Indies to eight runs in the 19th over of the match – overs 18 and 20 went for a combined 51 – Topley had completed his allocation for the concession of 18. The only time he has bettered that in any of his 101 T20 outings was when conceding one fewer for Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League last month. Approaching the fourth anniversary of his decision, midway through the 2018 season, to give up cricket altogether under the continual assault of injuries, the 27-year-old finds himself in the form of his career.
“I think because I’ve had it slightly different than other people that play international cricket, in terms of the journey that I’ve had, I think my perspective is quite unique,” he says of Sunday’s match. “I just sort of embraced all the emotion after the game, or all the messages, whatever you want to call it. I embraced it all but then I’m very good at parking it, you know? I don’t really get too caught up in it. I’m lucky to be playing and I just really enjoyed it. Almost having a second opportunity just makes me value it all a lot more.”
Topley’s retirement lasted only a matter of months, before his passion for the game was reignited on a trip to Australia the following winter, but a return to international cricket has taken much longer: Sunday’s game was his first T20 since the 2016 World Cup. But there were no signs of nerves as he dismissed Brandon King with the second ball of the match, and in his second over executed a brilliant run-out to get rid of Shai Hope – replays later showed the batter should have been given out lbw anyway – to set England on what turned out to be an unexpectedly circuitous road to victory.
“When I’ve been injured so much, you’d almost bite someone’s hand off to play a T20 and bowl four overs for 40-something,” he says. “It’s almost like, at least I’m out there. It’s not like I haven’t got a competitive instinct, it’s just I’m very realistic about things now, and very level-headed. I think that has boded well for me since coming back and playing, because those pressure scenarios, I just embrace them. That’s the perspective that I’m pretty lucky to have stumbled upon really.”
Topley brought something different to England’s team, not just as its only left-arm bowler but because at 6ft 7in he naturally presents an unusual challenge – as England discovered at the hands of the similarly tall Jason Holder in Saturday’s opening match. But in his own opinion what set him apart in the game’s dying moments was the experience that had brought him there – in other words, what was going on inside his head, rather than how far it was off the ground.
“In that scenario I think you can just get wrapped up in everything,” Topley says. “The West Indies were behind the eight-ball for a lot of the innings, the fans were quiet, and then suddenly they get some boundaries and they’re all up out of their seats and then the noise was amazing.
“It’s the pressure – the whole match becomes a match within a match in those last few overs. You have to isolate each ball, forget what’s happened before and just commit at the end of your mark. There’s games where you’re the good guy, and there’s games where you’re the bad guy. The nature of being the guy that bowls in those key parts of the innings is when it doesn’t fall your way, you’ve got to get up the next day and be just as hungry for the game to be put on your shoulders again.”
