Last week I was pretty surprised by the astonishing turn of events at the Sabina Park oval where England were playing the Windies. What an amazing game, England were 24/7 at one stage in their second essay after both teams scored over 300 runs in the first innings. England lost eventually by an innings when they were bowled out for 51.
Now, according to the form book England have done quite well recently and they played some good cricket while in India before their tour got abruptly shortened by the unfortunate events of 26/11. Then they had that bizarre showdown between the captain and coach resulting in both of them being sacked from their job. There was also some talk about players’ loyalty to either or both. Events such as these can be quite distracting and it demoralizes the team completely. Added to that was the anxiety about the IPL auction for season 2. I also think that Englishmen when they go to tour the Caribeans always get confused between holidays and work days. So they end up partying on work days. Some or all of these factors probably contributed to the amazing turn of events.
I don’t want to take anything away from the West Indies though. They batted really well to overtake the England score and then Jerome Taylor bowled that inspired spell of 9-4-11-5 in the second innings. Gayle and Sarwan scored centuries and were supported by some good batting down the order. Gayle also redeemed himself at the same venue where five years ago Steve Harmison took 7-12 and bowled out the West Indies for 47.
So I really don’t know if we are seeing a resurrection of the West Indies of the past or this is just a bad day at office for England, We will know as the series progresses, but let me tell you I for one will be very happy to see the Windies bounce back.
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