It was the 1509th Test in cricket history. It was the 773rd Test for England and 364th for West Indies. It was the 126th Test match between these two sides (69th on English soil). Umpires David Shepherd and Daryll Harper officiated in their 52nd and ninth Test respectively. Nagamootoo made his debut for West Indies. He became 235th player to represent West Indies in Test cricket. Nixon McLean top scored for West Indies in the first innings while batting at number ten. He provided only the second instance of a number ten West Indian batsman top scoring in a completed innings. The only other instance took place in April 1972 when Vanburn Holder top scored with 42 in West Indies' second innings total of 194. The first wicket partnership of 159 runs between Mike Atherton and Marcus Trescothick is England's second best against West Indies at home soil after the record 212 run stand between Cyril Washbrook and Reggie Simpson at Nottingham in 1950. Brian Lara was dismissed off the first ball in the first innings. It was the first instance in his Test career when he was getting a 'golden' duck. Lara had earlier been dismissed without scoring on five occasions, but his previous worst performance came against India at Mumbai in November 1994 when he was bowled by Manoj Prabhakar off the fourth ball he faced. Mike Atherton top scored in both innings for England. It was the fourth such instance for him. The other three instances being against Australia (80 and 99) at Lord's in 1993, against South Africa (71 & 35) at Cape Town in 1999-00 and against Zimbabwe (136 & 34) at Nottingham in June this year. Atherton now joins countryman David Gower and Zimbabwe's Andy Flower who have also top scored in both innings on four occasions each. Now only India's Sunil Gavaskar with five such instances is ahead of Atherton. Mike Atherton also made fifty in both innings of the Testeighth such instance for him and first against West Indies. He is now just one short of Geoff Boycott and Graham Gooch's record tally of nine such instances for England. The wicket of Griffith in the second innings was the 50th for Andrew Caddick against West Indies in his 14th Test. He became the sixth Englishman after Fred Trueman (86 wickets in 18 Tests), John Snow (72 in 14), Angus Fraser (70 in 17), Ian Botham (61 in 20) and Jim Laker (51 in 13) and the 18th bowler in the world to do so. Brian Lara has now taken 36 catches in 22 matches against England. Only Garry Sobers (40) is ahead of Lara for West Indies. Just for the record, Australia's Greg Chappell holds the record of most catches by a non wicketkeeper against England-61 in 35 matches. Nasser Hussain achieved the dubious distinction of bagging a pair in the Test. He also suffered the ignominy of doing so while captaining his side. Hussain thus became the second Englishman after Ian Botham and the 14th captain overall to get this entirely unwanted record. The accompanying table has complete details:
Captain Country Opponent Venue Season
Joe Darling Australia England Sheffield 1902
Vijay Hazare India England Kanpur 1951-52
Harry Cave New Zealand West Indies Dunedin 1955-56
Frank Worrell West Indies Australia Melbourne 1960-61
Richie Benaud Australia England Leeds 1961
Imtiaz Ahmed Pakistan England Dacca (now Dhaka) 1961-62
Bishan Bedi India England Delhi 1976-77
Ian Botham England Australia Lord's 1981
Allan Border Australia West Indies Perth 1992-93
Mark Taylor # Australia Pakistan Karachi 1994-95
Stephen Fleming New Zealand South Africa Hobart 1997-98
Courtney Walsh West Indies Australia Rawalpindi 1997-98
Rashid Latif Pakistan Pakistan Port Elizabeth 1997-98
Nasser Hussain England West Indies The Oval 2000
Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose accomplished a rare feat of bowling 1000 maiden overs in their Test careers. By an odd coincidence both Walsh and Ambrose did so on the fourth day of the Test. Walsh and Ambrose became the sixth and seventh member of a club which includes four spinners and three pace bowlers. West Indian off-spinner Lance Gibbs with 1313 maidens leads the band and is followed by England's Derek Underwood (1239), Australia's Shane Warne (1193), India's Bishen Singh Bedi (1096) and Kapil Dev (1060), Courtney Walsh (1011) and Curtly Ambrose (exactly 1000). Brian Lara on 43 in second innings completed his 1000 runs against England in England. He became the ninth West Indian after Viv Richards (2057 runs in 24 Tests), Garry Sobers (1820 in 21), Gordon Greenidge (1570 in 19), Rohan Kanhai (1250 in 18), Clive Lloyd (1221 in 20), Desmond Haynes (1101 in 19), Basil Butcher (1041 in 13) and Frank Worrell (1031 in 14) and the 24th batsman overall to do so. Umpires Shepherd and Harper ruled eight Englishmen and six West Indians out leg before making a total of 14 lbw dismissals in the Test. This provided the sixth instance of 14 or more batsmen getting dismissed in a Test in this fashion. The Test record is of 17 lbw dismissals which was made in the West Indies versus Pakistan match at Port-of-Spain in 1992-93. The umpires were Dicky Bird and Steve Bucknor and they ruled eight West Indians and nine Pakistanis out leg before. The following table lists the instances of most batsmen getting out leg before in a match:
LBWs Countries Venue Season
17 West Indies (8) Pakistan (9) Port-of-Spain 1992-93
15 New Zealand (10) Pakistan (5) Lahore 1996-97
15 Australia (6) West Indies (9) Port-of-Spain 1998-99
14 Pakistan (8) Sri Lanka (6) Faisalabad 1991-92
14 Australia (5) West Indies (9) Bridgetown 1998-99
14 England (8) West Indies (6) The Oval 2000
Courtney Walsh's 34 wickets in the series just failed to equal the existing record of most wickets in a series against England in England. The record is still in the name of Malcolm Marshall who captured 35 wickets in 1988 @ 12.66. Incidentally Walsh's performance is also the second best by a West Indian bowler in a series against any country after Marshall's performance. Dominic Cork has now taken 46 wickets in 9 Tests against West Indies on English soil, which takes him past John Snow's tally of 45 wickets (in 10 Tests). Only Fred Trueman with 56 wickets in 10 Tests on English soil is ahead of Cork. Interestingly Cork has not played a single Test against West Indies in West Indies. At the end of the series Curtly Ambrose has a tally of 164 wickets in 34 Tests against England. Only Australia's Dennis Lillee has taken more wickets against England-167 in 29. Interestingly fellow teammate Courtney Walsh with 145 wickets from 36 Tests is placed third in this list. The series win (3-1) was England's first against West Indies since 1969 when Ray Illingworth's team beat Garry Sobers led West Indies by 2-0 margin in a three match series. West Indies has not won a single series on foreign soil since beating New Zealand 1-0 in a two match series. West Indies has played six series since then, lost five and drew one. Out of the 26 Tests that West Indies has played since 1994-95 series on foreign soil 23 have produced result with West Indies losing 18 and winning only five. At the end of the series:Overall record:
England: played 773, won 262, lost 223 and drawn 288.
West Indies: played 364, won 138, lost 96, tied one and drawn 129.
Captaincy record:
Nasser Hussain: played 14, won 6, lost 5 and drawn 3.
Jimmy Adams: played 10, won 4, lost 3 and drawn 3.
