Joshua Da Silva had a steely glint in his eye as he acknowledged the plaudits of the crowd on Day Two of the Third Apex Test at the National Stadium in Grenada today. The wicketkeeper scored a critical, unbeaten, rear-guard 54 to push Kraigg Brathwaite’s West Indies past the 204 …
Read More »Apex Peek: Fresh England ready to fire; are resilient West Indies ready to resist?
The message on arrival and departure couldn’t be clearer. At the airport, large Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, Air Canada jets and more lined the runways. As I boarded Caribbean Airlines on departure after the Test match, busloads of visitors were still being shuttled in. Yesterday, on the ocean front, I …
Read More »Marathon man Brathwaite holds off England again, winner-take-all in Grenada finale
Led by another immense feat of endurance and concentration from skipper Kraigg Brathwaite, the West Indies earned a second honourable draw in the Second Test of the three-match Apex Series at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados today All three protagonists played their part to ensure that the predictable outcome was …
Read More »Brathwaite’s 489-ball century keeps England close, as WI head into Day Five
When bad light ended play at the end of Day Four of the Second Apex Test at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados, West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite’s led all scorers with a 710-minute, 489-ball 160. But all the other numbers seemed to say a draw. There were three sessions …
Read More »Apex Peek: West Indies make slow start in marathon chase; Campbell fishes and falls to Fisher early
On Thursday, when I arrived at Kensington Oval, the England team were already on the field doing their warm-ups. The English fans, piled in in their large numbers from just as early, had already draped their club flags on practically every available wall space. The West Indies, the home team, …
Read More »Brathwaite’s West Indies face uphill climb after England declare on 507 with Root and Stokes tons
After a battering by, above all, Ben Stokes in Bridgetown, Barbados today, Kraigg Brathwaite’s West Indies remained unbowed. And Brathwaite and Shamarh Brooks will resume the West Indian first innings in the Second Apex Test on Day Three tomorrow with one number uppermost in their minds: 308. That is the …
Read More »Bonner, Holder hold off England; Brathwaite praises 1st innings centurion after drawn Test
Nkrumah Bonner pulled the 48th ball he received in the West Indies’ second innings of the First Apex Test at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound today to the midwicket boundary for four. That took his team, chasing an unlikely 286 off 71 overs to beat Joe Root’s …
Read More »‘We have a fighting chance!’ Bonner solidifies West Indies, as hosts take charge against England
After a 354-ball, nine-hour marathon that had yielded 123 runs at a strike rate of 34.64, Nkrumah Bonner found himself at bat with only 14 more deliveries left in the day’s play. All arms and legs, part-timer Dan Lawrence ran in and served up an off-spinner that spun down the …
Read More »Roach, Seales give West Indies quick start but Bairstow stops them in their tracks
Kemar Roach and Jayden Seales got Kraigg Brathwaite’s West Indies quickly out of the blocks on the first day of the first match of the Apex Three-Test Series. But it was the in-form who built three successive partnerships to ensure that Joe Root’s England endured to the last, recovering from …
Read More »T2021 W/C PM: Why Carlos Brathwaite puts the peerless Prince in 2nd place
We does win, dem does lorse. Mathematically, defending champions West Indies were knocked out of the 2021 T20 World Cup when they failed to beat Sri Lanka on Thursday 4 November. In fact, Kieron Pollard’s side were effectively out of the World Cup after they could only muster 55 in …
Read More »T2021 W/C: Romanticising Carlos Brathwaite; how 2016 torpedoed Pollard’s WI in UAE
History, they say, is written by the victors. For just over a week, we still enjoy the title of defending T20 World Cup champions. Let us, therefore, while we still can, rewrite history. Not, like Christopher Columbus and the Spaniards and all the self-serving colonial powers, with a view to …
Read More »T2021 W/C: Pressure does buss pipe; Best considers the strain on Pollard’s troops
Today, I want to return to the subject of Chris Gayle’s angry public reaction to perceived provocation by Curtly Ambrose. Obliquely, not frontally. I want to suggest that, heated though it was, it may well conceal a submerged iceberg. We might properly begin with West Indian royalty. But it seems …
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