Tailenders unite: Saqib Mahmood and Jack Leach saved England’s fortunes with a remarkable stand
(Picture: Action Images via Reuters)When Saqib Mahmood walked down the pavilion steps and out to join Jack Leach in the middle on day one of the Third Test against West Indies, his England team-mates provided all the motivation he needed.
Some of them – those whose slew of single-figure scores saw them limp to 114 for nine – were putting their whites on, ready to field. They thought England’s innings was not long for this world.
“I did see that!” Mahmood laughed. “So I said to Leachy: ‘those cheeky f*****s have got their whites on’!”
Two-and-a-half hours later, they were still wearing their whites, only standing to applaud Mahmood and Leach from the field after a record stand that had saved England’s fortunes. Mahmood had been dismissed for a career-best 49 in the final over of the day, with Leach 41 not out. A stand of 90 had changed the complexion of the game.
“It did spur us on a little bit,” laughed Mahmood. “I had a glance over later to see if some had taken them off but they left the whites on throughout. But we did spot it.”
The partnership had kept England in the contest, but could only paper over the cracks in the top order that were exposed by the first spicy pitch of a series dominated by batters.
Every landslide starts with the rolling of a single pebble, and Zak Crawley’s dismissal – after a quiet start to the game – was particularly disappointing.
By caps if not age, Crawley is England’s senior opener these days and should know that the first hour of a Test, having been put in to bat, is no time to drive a medium-pacer on the up through cover. Later, Dan Lawrence and Ben Stokes’ dismissals were soft, while Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow need not be fiddling outside off.
While it is facile to get carried away with direct comparisons between the top and tail of the order – bowlers are fresher, the ball is harder – the batters were shown up. The last was the highest partnership of the innings by 66 runs, and both men scored more runs, faced more balls, and hit more boundaries than any of their team-mates. There had even been a crispness to their strokeplay before stumps, when Mahmood was bowled by Jermaine Blackwood.
There is an idiosyncrasy and entertainment factor to tailenders making runs, and it can have an inconsequential feel. Leach’s batting has assumed cult hero status thanks to 93 iconic runs for once out across two innings in England wins in the summer of 2019. Here, he added an overworked headband to the spectacles completing his legendary look.
These were truly vital runs in the context of this match. It kept weary West Indies in the field a whole session longer than they might have been, after 10 days’ toil, and took England to a score that the excellent Jayden Seales felt was “decent” on a pitch he thinks will break up.
These runs do not happen by accident. Leach knows that England have often found it easy to leave him out of their XI, and the ability to bat a place higher – he is no longer the rabbit he was on Test debut – can shift selection debates.
So he has spent so many hours in the nets with Marcus Trescothick, England’s batting coach on tour and his former Somerset team-mate, that elements of that economical technique have filtered into his game, and members of the touring party have started calling him “Tres”.
He is an increasingly well-rounded cricketer with all the heart in the world. It does not feel unreasonable that he could end up at No8, while Mahmood will not be No11 for long.
“We work hard at our batting, all the time,” said Mahmood. “We know as bowlers when you've got tailenders scoring runs against you it's really frustrating. We tried to do the same out there.”
They were not perfect – each was dropped – but they showed the sort of batting smarts sorely lacking a little higher up. Let’s hope that underestimating the tail is not the only lesson learnt by the top order.
