England v West Indies

At Leeds, August 25-29. West Indies won by five wickets. Toss: England.
Early on the Tuesday morning, the final day of the game, the West Indian players' phones started to ping, flash and buzz. Jason Holder, the captain, had sent a message to his team's chat group: "Just believe". It was a simple order to give, but a hard one to follow. West Indies needed 322 on a fifth-day pitch against an attack versed in the conditions. The only Test side who had made so many in the fourth innings at Headingley were Don Bradman's Australians, in 1948.

But they were one of the great Test teams. West Indies had just lost 19 wickets in a day at Edgbaston and, well as they had played in patches here, they had been horrible on the previous evening, when Root made an aggressive declaration. If Bradman's side were the Invincibles, Holder's were the Inconceivables.

Still, it had been a sinuous match, and one twist remained. At 6.43 on the final day, West Indies completed a famous victory, their first in England in 19 Tests stretching back to Edgbaston 2000. Even old hands tried to remember a more improbable turnaround. In The Times, Mike Atherton said he couldn't think of a bigger upset - this from the captain of the England team that had won at Bridgetown in 1993-94 after being bowled out for 46 at Port-of-Spain. In the wild excitement of the moment, fans felt new hope that Test cricket could be rekindled, not just in the Caribbean, but around the world.

All of which was precious little consolation to Root, who became only the fourth England captain to suffer defeat after declaring in the third innings. "I'm sure it was a great Test match to watch," he said glumly. "But it wasn't great to be on the losing side." After several years of complaints about Cook's caution, few were about to criticise Root for taking a chance now. And after five lopsided home Tests in seven weeks, plus five dispiritingly easy home series victories against West Indies going back over 17 years, a number of English fans seemed to think defeat a fair price to pay for a close, compelling game. Besides, as Root said, England's mistakes had been made earlier in the match. West Indies were a different side from the one who lost at Edgbaston six days earlier.

They recalled Gabriel and Bishoo, their two leading wicket-takers during the previous 12 months, and dropped Miguel Cummins and Alzarri Joseph. Somehow, they retained a belief that they could still compete in the series. It wasn't widely held. In the Daily Telegraph, Geoff Boycott described them as "the worst Test match team I have seen in more than 50 years".

England insisted that they, at least, were not taking West Indies lightly. But their focus seemed to have drifted towards the Ashes. They replaced Toby Roland-Jones with Woakes, who had bowled only 20 first-class overs in 2017 because of an intercostal injury. And there was much talk about whether the three greenhorns in their top five - Stoneman, Westley and Malan - could ensure selection for Australia. None did on the first day, all playing shots too ambitious for the circumstances. Since Cook had been caught at third slip early on, responsibility fell, not for the first time, on the middle order.

Gabriel, who bowled with rare speed and accuracy, should have had England 44 for four, but Powell missed Root at first slip on eight. It was the first of a dozen drops, the contagion spreading between the teams like an airborne disease. Roach, slippery quick, also had Stokes put down, by Brathwaite at second slip on nine, allowing England's vicecaptain and captain to extend their fifth-wicket stand to 69. Root eventually toe-ended a sweep off Bishoo, though not before he had reached 50 for the 12th consecutive Test, equalling A. B. de Villiers's world record. Stokes, in another of those shrewd and sensible innings that belie his swashbuckling reputation, pressed on towards his hundred. He was dropped again, on 98 by Gabriel at mid-on, after what he called a "brain fart", trying to wallop Roach back over his head. But he was finally caught behind for 100, and the last three wickets fell without addition, leaving Roach and Gabriel with four each, and the total a modest 258. Root later said he thought defeat had stemmed from their failure to realise the trickiness of the conditions.

West Indies, who lost Powell to Anderson on the first evening - a 150th Test catch for Cook - reinforced the point on the second morning. They had been perilously placed at 35 for three, with Anderson irresistible, but Brathwaite was holding his end, and the game turned when he was joined by Shai Hope. If Brathwaite had already established himself as a resilient batsman, Hope had offered little more than his surname suggested since his Test debut two years earlier: one fifty in 21 innings, and an average of 18.

On Saturday afternoon, a new star was born. Hope played with a panache that made spectators sigh: crisp cover-drives, pulls with one leg cocked, and clean, hard cuts past point. Brathwaite played like a man who knew his limitations, and those of the umpires, overturning lbw decisions on 35 and 46. But he did hit out against Ali, despite a couple of deliveries spinning, and raised his fifty by launching him for six over long-on; just before tea, he brought up his sixth Test hundred by doing the same to Westley.

Anderson aside, England struggled. Woakes lacked snap, and Broad never settled on the right length. Hope registered his first Test hundred shortly after tea, and the partnership was worth 246 by the time Broad bowled Brathwaite for 134 late on the second day. For once, this West Indian team lost nothing in comparison with the greats before them: it was their largest partnership at Headingley since Seymour Nurse and Garry Sobers put on 265 back in 1966. Not even the removal of Chase could dent their mood.

But Hope edged the first ball next morning to depart for 147, and Dowrich his second, giving Anderson his third successive Test five-for at Headingley, after two against Sri Lanka the previous summer. Had Ali not dropped Blackwood at mid-on off Broad - as easy a chance as an international batsman can offer - West Indies would have been eight down and only 75 ahead. Instead, Blackwood and Holder helped extend the lead to 169.

If they had been too carefree in their first innings, England were punctilious second time around. Although Westley drove loosely, and Root was dropped again - by Kyle Hope at gully on ten - Stoneman was sure-footed and steadfast. At stumps, they were three down, and two in front. The match was so finely balanced that Holder said he wanted to restrict the lead to 150; Stoneman wanted it to go past 200. In the end, England went way beyond. Root was out 45 minutes into the fourth day for 72, but Malan batted long into the afternoon for his slowest first-class fifty, in a shade over four hours.

Three quick wickets for Chase lifted West Indian spirits: Stokes lofted the first ball after drinks to long-off, Malan was bowled prodding down the wrong line, and Bairstow dragged on a reverse sweep. England were seven down, and just 158 ahead. But Ali, caught behind off a marginal no-ball from Bishoo on 32, rattled off 117 with Woakes, and Root called his batsmen in so his bowlers could have six overs before the close. It was carnival night for the West Indian community in Leeds, but the cricketers seemed to have no reason for jollity. The only man saying otherwise was bowling coach Roddy Estwick, who cited West Indies' victory at Lord's in 1984, when David Gower set them 342. In truth, it felt optimistic.

Even Stuart Law admitted his first thought had been to save the game. Over the course of the day, though, he and everyone else came round to Estwick's way of thinking. Brathwaite, missed at slip by Cook off Broad on four, and Shai Hope were reunited an hour in, after Powell skewed to fourth slip, and Brathwaite hit a hard drive back at Broad, who dropped the ball but deflected it on to Kyle Hope's stumps. The pair eased back into their first-innings rhythm. The pitch wasn't as wicked as expected and, with the field up and Ali below his best, England were caught short by the turn of the tide.

Hope's dashing strokes nearly took him past Brathwaite, but he slowed after passing fifty. Then Brathwaite, who was within five runs of becoming the first player to make two hundreds in a first-class game at Headingley, was finally caught at slip, just before tea, off Ali. It meant he and Hope had put on 390 together in the match, becoming the second West Indian pair - after Clyde Walcott and Everton Weekes against Australia at Port-ofSpain in 1954-55 - to register a double- and single-century partnership in the same Test.

When Chase was brilliantly held by the substitute fielder Mason Crane at mid-on, West Indies still needed 76. But, in an update on George Hirst's apocryphal line, Blackwood decided they would get them in boundaries. When England took the new ball, he backed away and clouted Anderson back over his head. Next over, Hope did what Brathwaite couldn't, and registered his second hundred of the game as the celebrations began. There was still time for two more drops - by Cook off Hope at slip, and by Stokes off Blackwood in the deep - and one more twist: determined to end in style, Blackwood removed his helmet, and was stumped two balls later. It meant, appropriately, that Hope hit the winning runs, with 28 deliveries to spare. "Someone had to do it," he said insouciantly. "I just put my hand up." Rarely had a cliche´ sounded so inadequate.
Man of the Match: S. D. Hope