Another bore draw, albeit one that carried moments of intrigue. The second Test in Barbados ended in an anti-climatic draw. Another pitch has sapped the efforts of both sets of players for no reward. And yet, both West Indies and England have positives to nourish them between now and the third Test which begins on Thursday.
Just as it was in the first Test, England dashed and declared, only this time the target of 282 was too much for West Indies to entertain and the 65 overs too little to effectively manufacture 10 chances on a slow, unhelpful track. Even after four and a bit days of cricket on it. For all the effort and endeavour of Joe Root’s charges, only five wickets were produced.
England’s enthusiasm hit a quick high with the fall of three wickets across 38 deliveries. Jack Leach got the first before Saqib Mahmood capped off an impressive debut with some devilish movement and bounce to get the tourists up and about. Given the conditions over the last five days, Mahmood stood out as a point of different, able to garner late movement with a slingy action, particular with the old ball.
Leach would get a couple more, finishing with innings figures of three for 36 and ticking off 94.5 overs in the Test. You have to go back to January 1962 to find an England bowler who sent down more than that - Tony Lock with 115 overs against Pakistan.
The honour, if not quite the spoils, was taken by an equally belligerent Kraigg Brathwaite. The captain’s 184 balls faced took every bit of sting out of England’s attack. An ever-present throughout those 65 overs, with 56 runs to his name for a 35th score of fifty of above in his career. He was pretty much always out in the middle: since Thursday, he had scratched his guard and repelled for 673 deliveries to score 216 for just once out.
As ever once the captains shook hands, thoughts turned to whether Root might have declared that little earlier. But who’s to say Brathwaite wouldn’t have seen off those, too.
The intent from Alex Lees and Zak Crawley was there from the off as they started Sunday on 40 for no loss. They ticked off their first half-century stand as an opening duo before Lees’ noble attempt to slog-sweep Veerasamy Permaul was caught on the square leg boundary by Alzarri Joseph. A second came the left-arm spinner’s way, again through an awry slog-sweep: this time John Campbell taking the catch running in. Catch of the day, though, went to Jayden Seales for a sprint and dive at long leg to catch Crawley (40) after he was rushed on a hook shot by Joseph.
That brought Lawrence and Ben Stokes together at 74 for three, leading by 170, neither with a run or ball to the name but both with the capacity to change that quickly. After a bit of settling in, Stokes lifted Kemar Roach over cover for four, then smeared a six over midwicket. The following over, Lawrence snapped his wrists to hit Joseph into the stands of the same side.
That impetus was snuffed out by yet more rain on 106 for three, the lead at 202. Unfortunately by the time play was able to restart, overs had been lost meaning only 72 remained in the day with both lunch and tea still come.
The players returned and, six balls later, Stokes (19) was walking back the other way, drilling Roach straight to cover. In came Jonny Bairstow and so continued the selfless batting: two sixes and a four in his 29 off 25 before holing it down the ground to Roach for Seales’ first dismissal of the innings.
Lawrence continued on, two sixes of his own amid swam of excellently delivered yorkers. As the last of the decent hitters, he had to farm the strike from Ben Foakes and eventually fell attempting an outlandish lasso of a straight hit that nestled into the hands of Joseph to gives Seales figures of two for 34. Foakes and Chris Woakes nudged for a bit before more rain took us to lunch and that declaration.
In the sixth over, England introduced their most threatening new ball bowler (Leach), and it took him just six deliveries to make the first incision. What started as an appeal for LBW soon increased in volume when Alex Lees caught the ball at short leg. Umpire Joel Wilson was unmoved, but DRS showed a small spike on Campbell’s glove.
The second wicket two overs later did not require much forensic work as Shamarh Brooks offered a full-blooded edge to give Saqib Mahmood a first of the innings. The scorecard will say caught Root (first slip), but the ball raced to Crawley at second, who reacted well to palm the ball in the air as it burst through his initial attempts at a catch, allowing Root to complete the dismissal and take all the credit.
The England captain didn’t have to do much for his second catch either. A delivery short of a length from Mahmood reared up and caught the shoulder of Nkrumah Bonner’s bat, flying straight into Root’s hands at stomach level. At that point the question had to be asked - was this on?
First innings centurions Brathwaite and Jermaine Blackwood, captain and vice, steadied matters through to tea, on 65 for three. The pair absorbed 411 deliveries in tandem for their 183-run partnership for the fourth wicket earlier in this piece and proving just as tough to crack. The task in front of them was to see out a more manageable 34 overs, knowing light would almost certainly ensure not all of those would be bowled.
But on 150 balls between them, Leach managed to find an edge from a defending Blackwood, straight to Bairstow, crouching in a helmet, at a comically close gully. And when Jason Holder inexplicably bunted Leach to cover - Lawrence with an outstanding one-handed grab just above the turf - England had five to get from the remaining 20 overs (or so).
The floodlights came on after drinks, given England access to every minute of the last hour as the sun set around them. But the only one illuminated from above was Brathwaite as he moved to a defiant half-century from 157 deliveries.
The series moves on to Grenada for the final Test. One hopes the players will get a chance to scrap with each other to force a series win, rather than the surface.
