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 »Early Bird: Monty who? Blackwood brings WI batting coach into sharp focus
It’s not cricket that is my editor’s forte; it’s football. So it’s mainly the beautiful game we’d discuss if, instead of walking by himself on evenings, he decided to walk on mornings with Bobby and me. But today he called about the game of glorious uncertainties. “I just sent you …
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 »Apex Peek: Lawrence upstages centurion, Joe puts down roots, Brathwaite loses it and Alzarri poops
Day One of a Test match spawns an almost indescribable feeling. I was only one of probably 200 West Indians at the Kensington Oval in Barbados, the venue for the Second Apex Test; the other 25,000 or so packed in were unmistakably English. Near capacity! The Barmy Army announced their …
Read More »Slim pickings for WI bowlers; Lawrence misses out but Root gets Test ton number 25
Had gun-shy West Indies skipper Kraigg Brathwaite decided to risk a review off the last ball of the 20th over in the Second Apex Test at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados today, England might have found themselves—not for the first time—in a spot of bother before lunch. He did not …
Read More »McWatt: WI Women shine again, WI men batted too slowly but credit to CWI for Academy plans
“[…] West Indies cricket fans all over the world should now be overjoyed with the most wonderful news of Cricket West Indies’ announced intentions to create an Antigua Coolidge Cricket Centre-based Emerging Players Annual Academy. “[…] Many will expect that legends such as Sir Andy Roberts, Sir Vivian Richards, Sir …
Read More »Crawley gets comfy on Antigua featherbed as England take three-figure lead against WI
West Indian supporters may long remember Day Three of the First Apex Test between Kraigg Brathwaite’s West Indies and Joe Root’s England at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua. Day Four they will want to hastily forget. It rained—H2O from the skies intermittently and runs from the …
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 »“It’s evenly poised!” Brathwaite seeks bright WI start as Holder and Bonner defy England
Rain interrupted proceedings five times in the course of the second day of the First Apex Test match at the Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound in Antigua. But at the end of the kind of day that frustrates West Indian cricketers, thanks largely to an unbeaten 75-run partnership between …
Read More »Early Bird: Insularity’s alive and well and coming soon from a place near you in T&T
“[Joe] Root won the toss…” It was a joke, not meant to be taken seriously. It was. Bobby had clearly prepared himself for the eventuality. “Check the record, bro,” he hit back. “[Brian] Lara recaptured his record in the Fourth Test, not the First. And when a class batsman is …
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 …
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