A sadistic slab of real estate
On a drab pitch at the Kensington Oval, Fidel Edwards' figures of 3 for 192 don't do justice to the way he toiled on an unforgivable surface
Kanishkaa Balachandran
25-Feb-2013
On a drab pitch at the Kensington Oval, Fidel Edwards' figures of 3 for 192 don't do justice to the way he toiled on an unforgivable surface. He was easily the most threatening of the bowlers, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian.
When Chris Gayle declared on Sunday night at the fall of Ramdin's wicket, we spotted Edwards, pads and helmet on, brandishing his bat, before furiously withdrawing to the dressing room. He wanted to have a go on this sublime batting surface. Everyone else in his team had. Why should he be deprived? Like any self-respecting West Indian tail-ender he was desperate "to give it some licks". Instead he had to bowl again on this sadistic slab of real estate. And it was only when Edwards had a new ball in his hand that we had a contest worth watching. Why? Because he can bowl fast.
In the same paper, Mike Selvey writes that the real contest was not between bat and ball, but between bowler and pitch, won hands down by the latter.
One is to say that the surface (resurrected from a situation where the grass had been killed off towards the end of last year following the annual carnival held at the ground, to celebrate the end of the harvest) had rather more about it than that rolled into submission at the Antigua Recreation Ground for the third Test. Think a dormant volcano rather than an extinct one, where an exceptional group of bowlers might have had their say.
In the Times, Michael Atherton feels England's best bet to square the series is to hope for more spice in the Trinidad pitch.
Kanishkaa Balachandran is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo