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From Alec Stewart’s famous double to a Brian Lara classic against Australia, we look back at some of Bridgetown’s finest moments

Andrew Miller16-Jan-2019From Alec Stewart’s famous double to a Brian Lara classic against Australia, we look back at some of Bridgetown’s finest moments2015: Blackwood puts England on the back footWest Indies have rarely needed much incentive to raise their game against England, but when on the eve of the 2015 tour they were disparaged by Colin Graves, the incoming chairman of the ECB, as “mediocre”, the temptation to ram that jibe straight back where it came from proved overwhelming.Phil Simmons, their coach, duly pinned the quote to the dressing-room door to provide a constant reminder of their opponents’ perceived arrogance, and in batting out the final day of the first Test in Antigua to salvage a creditable draw, West Indies showed from the outset that they were not going down without a fight.England did, however, regroup to pull off a nine-wicket win in Grenada, and when Alastair Cook, their beleaguered captain, launched the decider with a six-hour 105 – his first Test hundred in almost two years – the stage seemed to have been set for England to close out only their second series win in the Caribbean since 1968.James Anderson, fresh from becoming England’s leading Test wicket-taker, certainly thought so. He was peerless in West Indies’ first innings, claiming 6 for 42 to secure a 68-run lead that might have been much, more more but for an idiosyncratic 85 from Jermaine Blackwood that hinted at further upsets to come.In their second innings, England imploded – for all the bravado from their chairman, this was a frail and unsettled squad, still reeling from their humiliation at the World Cup six weeks earlier, and distinctly unsure of their roles within the team. The top five were duly skittled inside 20 overs as Shannon Gabriel and Jerome Taylor led the line, and it took a brace of hard-hitting 30s from Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes to scrape England to 123 all out, setting a tantalising target of 192.At 80 for 4, with Shivnarine Chanderpaul bagged for a duck, England believed the match was back in their grasp. But Darren Bravo demonstrated his Test-match pedigree as he dropped anchor for a chase-breaking 82, and his cool example drew hitherto unrecognised discipline from Blackwood, who shelved his natural impetuosity in a crucial stand of 108. Bravo fell with four runs needed, but Blackwood made no mistake, flogging Moeen Ali for the winning boundary over mid-on to finish 47 not out and seal a hugely satisfying win.Brian Lara’s thrilling 153 not out against Australia in Bridgetown•Ben Radford/Getty Images1999: Windies revived by Lara’s finest hour In 1994-95, Australia’s bruising victory over West Indies had signalled the official end of an era. The Aussies were the new top dogs of world cricket, and when, four years later, they marked their return to the Caribbean by routing their hosts for 51 in the series-opener in Trinidad, the stage was set for humiliation.Brian Lara, however, had other ideas.Lara had been under extreme pressure in the build-up to the series. His status as a modern-day great was without question, but since assuming the captaincy from Walsh, his team’s morale and results had gone into freefall. A historic maiden Test tour of South Africa had ended in a 5-0 drubbing, and the knives were out for a man whom many felt would serve the team better as a pure run-scorer, freed from the pressures of leadership.His response was belligerent and captivating – a sparkling 213 turned the second Test in Jamaica on its head after West Indies had lost their first four wickets for 34, but his best was yet to come as the series switched to Barbados, locked at 1-1 and with the mood of the islands shifting like the winds.Initially it seemed that the moment had been lost, as West Indies’ batting folded once again, to 98 for 6 – Lara included – in reply to Australia’s hefty 490. But after one of Barbados’ own, Sherwin Campbell, had shored up the lower order with a plucky six-hour century, Walsh and Ambrose took their cue to rout Australia’s second innings for 146. The target remained an imposing 308, but it was no longer insurmountable.Lara joined the fray late on day four, after the loss of three wickets for six runs had undermined an encouraging 72-run stand from Campbell and Adrian Griffiths. But on the fifth day, Lara stood supreme, wielding his bat like a guillotine as his score mounted in harness with his adrenalin.Lara’s only real concern was what was happening at the other end. Jimmy Adams provided cool-headed support in a stand of 133, as the requirement was whittled down to 70, but when Glenn McGrath grabbed three quick wickets for 10, Australia were poised for the kill.Lara, however, kept up his assault, adding 52 with Ambrose, who managed 39 balls of invaluable obduracy, before lacing the winning drive through the covers off Jason Gillespie to cue bedlam in Bridgetown. Walsh, at the other end, had seen off five strokeless deliveries to guard against West Indian heartbreak. It had arguably been the greatest innings of his life as well.Alec Stewart during his twin hundreds in Barbados•Getty Images1994: Stewart and Fraser storm the fortressEven for a team used to crushing defeats in the Caribbean, little could have prepared England for their day of reckoning in the third Test in Trinidad. Chasing 194 for a victory that would have kept them alive in the series, they once again ran into that man Curtly Ambrose at his knee-pumping, nostril-flared best. A total of 46 all out in 19.1 overs left Mike Atherton’s men shattered and strewn across the outfield during the post-match presentations. At 3-0 down after three, they were staring directly at their second blackwash in three Caribbean tours.What happened next would have been extraordinary in most contexts, let alone against that sort of a backdrop. Another crushing defeat in a tour match in Grenada confirmed that England’s morale was approaching rock-bottom, so when Richie Richardson won the toss in Bridgetown – a venue where West Indies had not lost for 59 years – he had no qualms about asking England to confront their pace demons.But, from the very outset of the innings, Atherton and Alec Stewart set about transforming the narrative. Ambrose’s first spell was seen off without alarm, and when Courtney Walsh was no-balled for three consecutive bouncers, two of which were hooked for four by Stewart, it was clear that England’s spirit was more resilient that appearances might have let on.England’s first wicket eventually fell at 172 shortly before tea, when Atherton was caught behind for 85, and West Indies hit back, inevitably, with a trio of scalps for the aggressive Winston Benjamin. Stewart, however, powered on through to his fifth Test century, and first in two years, and though England’s first-innings 355 was not the riches they might have anticipated, it was a world away from their Port-of-Spain woes.West Indies responded with predictable intent through Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes, but when Haynes – on 35 – was forced to retire hurt with a badly cut index finger, England had their opportunity to regroup. Angus Fraser, his tall, probing action extracting every last semblance of seam movement, grabbed two quick wickets in four balls, then a further 4 for 1 in 17 balls after tea, en route to his then career-best figures of 8 for 75.If England could avoid slip-ups, retribution for Trinidad was in their grasp. Stewart duly obliged with a magnificent 143, making him the first visiting batsman since Sunil Gavaskar in 1970-71 to score twin Test hundreds in the Caribbean. Andy Caddick then applied the coup de grace with five second-innings wickets, as England pulled off a result that counted for little in terms of the series scoreline, but was nevertheless one of the most stunning turnarounds in their history.Curtly Ambrose acknowledges the crowd•Ben Radford/Getty Images1990: Ambrose shatters England’s resolveThis was a pulsating, desperate context, flecked with controversy but decided – in the bitterest of denouements for England’s battered batsmen – by a giant among West Indian fast bowlers.Against every expectation, the tourists had not merely competed but bossed the key moments of the series to date. Under Graham Gooch’s hard-bitten leadership, they had won sensationally in Jamaica before being denied, cruelly, by rain in Trinidad. Then, a washout in Guyana had pushed West Indies back to the brink, and left them with two Tests in which to preserve an unbeaten series record that had extended for the best part of a decade.Their opponents were weary. Gooch had suffered a broken hand in Trinidad that ruled him out of the final matches, and England’s most disciplined seamer Fraser had gone lame as well. But Allan Lamb, the stand-in skipper, stepped up with another hundred to keep his side afloat in the first innings, before Rob Bailey’s dismissal in the second, erroneously given out caught off the thigh pad, lit the blue touchpaper.England limped to the close of the fourth day on 15 for 3, their target of 356 beyond reach. But, after a rest day dominated by off-field recriminations, they returned emboldened, and determined to finish the job they had started. Fundamental to their resistance was the dogged, idiosyncratic wicketkeeper, Jack Russell, pushed up to No. 5 as a nightwatchman and charged with digging in for the long haul. With Robin Smith alongside him, the pair stretched England’s rearguard into the 70th over </of the final day, until Ambrose returned, armed with the new ball, to devastate their dreams.On 55, and after more than five hours of resistance, Russell had no answer to a wicked shooter that smashed into the base of his off stump, and little more than an hour later it was all over. Technically 12.2 overs remained in the match when Ambrose claimed his fifth lbw of the innings for figures of 8 for 45, but with the bad light encroaching, England surely would have been safe within minutes. Instead they decamped to Antigua to be crushed by an innings inside four days, a bruising 2-1 series defeat leaving them little to show for one of the greatest challenges that West Indies had ever faced in their glory years.Jeff Dujon portrait•Getty Images1988: Pakistan thwarted in Championship showdownFew teams of the 1980s had the talent or tenacity to mount a sustained challenge to the West Indian Mean Machine, but Imran Khan’s Pakistanis came closer than anyone to toppling the titans in a monumental tussle in the spring of 1988.With Imran in full cry as a bone fide allrounder, Javed Miandad nearing the top of his game as a batsman, and Wasim Akram and Abdul Qadir peerless in their fields as left-arm quick and legspinner respectively, Pakistan had a range of weapons to rattle the very best. They duly cantered to a 1-0 series lead with a nine-wicket win in Guyana before clinging on in a thrilling draw in Trinidad a fortnight later. The unofficial World Championship was at stake as the teams converged on Barbados for the decider.Fittingly, there was a fig leaf between the teams at the halfway stage of the third Test as the big guns traded blows: four wickets for Marshall in the first innings, three apiece for Imran and Wasim in the second, even if West Indies were indebted to the unlikely batting talents of Winston Benjamin at No. 10 as they reduced their deficit to a meagre three runs.With Marshall steaming in once again, Pakistan had Imran’s coolly compiled 43 not out to thank as they recovered from a wobbly 182 for 7 to 262 all out. But that looked like being plenty when, on the fifth morning, West Indies slumped from 154 for 5 to 201 for 8, with Viv Richards, crucially, among the victims, bowled by Wasim for 39.However, Jeff Dujon, in his 50th Test, refused to be budged, and with Benjamin emboldened by his first-innings batting, West Indies barrelled towards their total – Benjamin in particular seizing the initiative with two flogged sixes off Qadir, followed by the winning boundary to finish 41 not out.Despite their disappointment at failing to seal a maiden series win in the Caribbean – a feat that would elude them until 2017 – Pakistan were able to take pleasure at their role in one of the most overlooked classics in Test history.”It was real tit-for-tat, in your face, no-holds-barred cricket,” wrote Miandad in his autobiography. “It probably represents some of the best cricket that’s ever been played anywhere.”For the perfect holiday in Barbados, including how to get here, where to stay and what to do, go to VisitBarbados.org

After a rollicking Powerplay, Mumbai Indians’ spinners strangled Sunrisers Hyderabad with eight overs for 43 runs and the wickets of Williamson and Vijay Shankar

Ankur Dhawan in Mumbai03-May-20197:31

‘We have the bowling attack to defend totals’ – Rohit Sharma

The Wankhede Stadium is a weird ground. It can be a batting beauty one day, seam around on another, and, occasionally, as though hexed, turn square.But that’d be an aberration, like in the match between Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore earlier in the season, when a seemingly straightforward chase nearly turned on its head once Moeen Ali came on. Most days it offers bounce, but that’s not a fair trade-off for the short boundaries, massive bats, and, particularly in the second innings, a dew-soaked ball.So when Krunal Pandya and Rahul Chahar were introduced into the attack on Thursday night, there was enough that could have gone wrong. Except, it did not. You may point out – correctly – that it’s their home ground, so these are factors they’d be well accustomed to. But consider the situation: Mumbai, having opted to bat, had scraped to 162; not a bad score but perhaps not a winning one. Then, the quicks had been bullied through the Powerplay and Sunrisers Hyderabad had raced to 57, and only required 7.42 per over. Since last season, spinners have conceded 7.87 runs an over at the Wankhede. That would have been more than enough for Sunrisers to get home. But they didn’t.A little slice of luck, or genius – whatever you prefer – that they were the beneficiaries of was the sixth over bowled by Man of the Match Jasprit Bumrah. Having already ended Wriddhiman Saha’s cameo, he also got rid of Martin Guptill before Chahar came on. It meant there were two new batsman at the crease, Manish Pandey and Kane Williamson. And while Pandey made a blazing start, the wicket of Guptill meant he’d have to at least briefly rebuild.The first ball from Chahar was a legbreak taken almost from the keeper’s gloves and dabbed fine to slip’s right for four by Pandey. After that, the old middle-overs squeeze was on. Chahar adjusted his line and length, going straighter and fuller next ball. Pandey pushed it back to the bowler. Another dot, then another dot, and after that a couple of singles. Despite the boundary off the first ball, Chahar had conceded only six. The required rate had crept up to 7.53. Still, it was Sunrisers’ game.By the time Krunal finished his first over, though, the match was beginning to turn Mumbai’s way. It started with the first ball. While Pandey was batting fluently, Williamson, with only 54 runs in six matches this season, had started slowly; three off six. In a bid to keep things moving from his end as well, he gave away his intention of playing the fine sweep a bit early. Krunal held the ball back slightly, pitched it on a length. and angled it into middle stump, with Williamson having shuffled across too far. It missed the bat and struck him on the thigh, and while the umpire ruled in Williamson’s favour, Krunal immediately asked Rohit Sharma to take a review. Three reds meant Williamson had to go. Five singles were taken off the next five balls and the required rate was now 7.75.Krunal Pandya appeals for lbw•BCCIOut came Vijay Shankar. Even at that stage, with two seasoned Indian batsmen at the crease and two spinners in operation with a wet ball, you’d be tempted to back the batting side, particularly at this venue. But as Rohit later asserted, the two spinners he has are quality bowlers. According to him, the next few overs, plus the two before, was when the match turned.”Those eight overs of the spinners in the middle were very, very crucial,” Rohit said at the post-match press conference. “Sometimes it can get difficult for the spinners to bowl eight overs in tandem but those two spinners are quality, they understand the conditions really well. Vijay and Manish were batting and they have played enough cricket with them, so they kept varying the length and kept it real tight.”Those eight overs were the turning point in my opinion because if they would have gotten away from that, probably things wouldn’t have fallen into place. So I thought they did a terrific job in the middle, with a wet ball, it is not easy.”To put things in perspective, the required rate climbed from a manageable 7.75 to a much steeper 10.06 by the time Chahar and Krunal had finished their spells: none for 21 for Chahar and 2 for 22 for Krunal. The fact that they bowled out without a break was a testament to their control and the pressure they were able to exert, despite not running through the opposition. It was slow poison.Only two boundaries were scored through this period; there were 11 dot balls, and runs trickled along in ones and the occasional two. Then, in his final over, having preyed upon the patience of both batsmen, Krunal induced a false stroke from Vijay, who holed out to long-on. For the first time during the chase, ESPNcricinfo’s Forecaster had Mumbai as favourites, albeit marginally. The match ended in a tie and the brilliance of Bumrah won the day for Mumbai in the one-over eliminator, but Chahar and Krunal had set it up for him, reciprocating what he’d earlier done for them.

With another accomplished performance with bat and ball, he may have leapt above Jadeja, Vijay Shankar and Washington Sundar in the T20I pecking order

Sruthi Ravindranath05-Aug-20191:38

Quite happy with the way I’ve bowled – Krunal Pandya

Keemo Paul is running in to bowl the first ball of the 20th over. He bowls a full toss, which Krunal Pandya flicks over deep square-leg for a six. The next ball, he stays deep in his crease and lofts a full delivery straight over the long-off boundary.Those, and another six that Ravindra Jadeja, his partner for the sixth wicket, launched a couple of balls later turned out to be match-defining hits. And following this cameo, Krunal starred with the ball as well, and bagged the match award in India’s DLS win.In November last year, India were in trouble while chasing a modest 110 against West Indies at Eden Gardens, and out came Krunal, on debut. India were 83 for 5 after 15 overs, and with 27 more to get, he took a couple of balls to settle in, and took charge of the chase almost all by himself, winning the match with more than two overs to spare with a nine-ball 21. Earlier in the match, his frugal spell of 1 for 15 in four overs had kept West Indies in check. It was a memorable international debut.In Lauderhill on Sunday, Krunal’s consecutive sixes off Paul came when the pitch had slowed down considerably during the second half of India’s innings. He finished with a 13-ball 20, having come in at No. 6 after India’s middle order had failed for a second successive match, and day.Krunal has been a consistent contributor for India in T20Is. Of course, there has been the odd blip – for instance, when he gave away 55 runs in his fourth match, in Brisbane last year, just weeks after his debut. But he bounced back just four days later in Sydney, when he picked up the best T20I figures for a spinner in Australia.Krunal made his IPL debut in 2016, and his career-defining moment came in the 2017 final, when he established himself as a valuable middle-order contributor with a 38-ball 47, which helped Mumbai Indians recover from 78 for 6 and win a low-scoring game. As a lower-order hitter, partnership-breaker and a reliable wicket-taker, he has been indispensable for Mumbai. At IPL level at least, he is no longer just the lesser-known Pandya brother.It does not stop there either. Just before the T20Is in Lauderhill, he impressed against the West Indies A team, picking up seven wickets in three games, including a five-for, and scoring a 56-ball 45 in the second unofficial ODI. He bats up the order – usually at No. 3 – for Baroda in domestic one-dayers, averaging 39.22 at the position.Krunal Pandya’s twin strikes derailed West Indies•AFPWhich is why, on being asked how he is enjoying his role with the bat, Krunal said that it wasn’t new to him.”I guess that role I’ve been doing for my team in IPL as well,” Krunal told the host broadcaster after the match. “I’ve been playing domestic cricket and, for India A, I guess that’s my role and when you bat at No. 6 and 7 sometimes you click sometimes you don’t. But it’s important to be in a good frame of mind and work on your game.”So I guess today I was lucky to go there and hit two good shots, I was happy with the way I bowled, especially, because it helps when you score some runs. You carry some confidence to your bowling, so it goes together.”On the two-paced pitch, Krunal kept Rovman Powell and Nicolas Pooran in check just when they had begun building a promising stand in a chase of 168, and snared both of them in the same over.”This was our second game [at this ground] so I knew the pace of the wicket well,” Krunal said. “I was trying to bowl outside off stump to left-handers because the wicket was double-paced. Some were sticking and some were skidding, so I thought I’d make sure I won’t bowl in the arc and just bowl outside off stump and that worked.”India’s long-standing middle-order issues are now creeping into the T20I side as well, with Rishabh Pant not cashing in on his chances yet in the absence of MS Dhoni. With the T20 World Cup just over a year away, India’s main focus would be to hunt for the perfect middle-order fits, one of whom is a second allrounder alongside Hardik Pandya.At the moment, it seems like Krunal’s closest competitors are Washington Sundar, Jadeja and Vijay Shankar. The injury-hit Vijay might get more opportunities when he is back to full fitness, while Jadeja’s return to the T20 side hasn’t been noteworthy so far. Washington, meanwhile, is yet to prove himself with the bat for India. At the moment, with the kind of performances Krunal has been putting up for all his teams, and his regular inclusion in the India side, it seems like the second allrounder’s role is his for the taking.

Over the last couple of years or so, England’s captain has not quite kept pace with Smith, Kohli and Williamson

Alan Gardner13-Aug-2019Let’s cut to the chase here: Joe Root is in danger of becoming the Fab Four’s Ringo. The grouping of Root, Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson and Steven Smith as the leading talents of their generation has always felt a little arbitrary – what about the claims of AB de Villiers, David Warner or Babar Azam, say? – but no matter, they were locked in. However, just as Smith has taken things to a new level with his Test form, Root has experienced an appreciable dip.Now, we’re not suggesting he should turn in his membership card. Only Kohli comes close to averaging 50 in all three international formats, and Root’s white-ball records are superior to that of both Williamson and Smith. But Root is, for now, the only one of the four to average below 50 in Tests – the format that, for obvious reasons, carries the most weight in the greatness debate. Root slipped below that mark in the Caribbean earlier this year, and currently sits at 48.94 – respectable but just short of exceptional.ALSO READ: Why Steven Smith is the best of the Fab FourIt is actually 50-plus years since an England batsman finished his career with a 50-plus Test average – and there is still time for Root to join what we’ll call the Ken Barrington Club. But what is incontrovertible is that right now Root – England’s leading run scorer on the way to World Cup success last month – is enduring his toughest spell in Test cricket since he made his debut in 2012.Two things stand out as obstacles to the fluid accumulation of his early years: the weight of the Test captaincy, and an unsettled top order that has made Root shuttle between Nos. 3 and 4. Several of his predecessors found their batting form compromised by leading the side – notably fellow Yorkshireman Michael Vaughan, who averaged 36.02 as captain compared to 50.98 in the ranks – but after starting his tenure with an innings of 190 against South Africa, Root’s stats show an increasing disparity.