England fight to save series
The draw is heavy favourite but, if England can bowl out West Indies by lunch today, it is by no means curtains yet, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian .
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
The draw is heavy favourite but, if England can bowl out West Indies by lunch today, it is by no means curtains yet, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.
West Indies were clinging on tenaciously in the face of some beautiful, controlled spin bowling from Monty Panesar, on whom most of all, the evidence thus far suggests, rest England's hopes of squaring the series, and mercurial pace from Amjad Khan, who produced some wicked deliveries, one of which disposed of Ramnaresh Sarwan in between giving Matt Prior a torrid time behind the stumps.
Doubtless if West Indies hang grimly on to win this series there will be dancing in the streets. While they are about it, the revellers might as well jig up and down on the coffin containing Test cricket, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent.
Test cricket, as patented by generations of battle-hardened players who would no less have recognised the events of the first two days than they would have appreciated them, returned to the Queen’s Park Oval yesterday. Conditions remained batsman-friendly but at least the willow wielders were made to work hard for their runs by bowlers intent on taking wickets, writes Mike Atherton in the Times.
Having received an unexpected boost after Chris Gayle, the West Indies captain, retired hurt after taking his hundredth run, England’s chances of levelling the series ran into the brick wall that is Shivnarine Chanderpaul and his apprentice, Brendan Nash, writes Derek Pringle in the Telegraph.
It has been an agonising time for the Test debutants. In what other sport do they have to wait for two days after receiving that coveted first cap to make any sort of contribution? Lendl Simmons and Amjad Khan were unable to influence events for what must have seemed to them an eternity, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian
For Chris Gayle, the physical pain would have been trifling compared to the mental anguish. As soon as the West Indies captain felt the sharp pain at the back of his right thigh after completing the sharp, risky single to raise his hundred yesterday, he knew his team's chances of protecting their 1-0 lead in the series were out of his hands, writes Tony Cozier in the Independent.
George Binoy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo