England v West Indies - Cricket is back!

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England v West Indies:

Test Cricket is well and truly back! With an upset no one was expecting, West Indies have steamrolled over England and have won the first test at Southampton by a margin of 4 wickets.

Both teams had ups and downs throughout the game. But it was West Indies who prevailed at the end via winning more sessions. England did not necessarily do bad. They did lose the plot by batting first though. 

Stokes was terrific in his first-ever match as a captain. But personally, I'd have loved to see Rory Burns be the captain. Of course, Stokes is the better player, but Rory Burns has had the accomplishment of captaining Surrey to County title wins.

With only 17.1 overs of play possible on day 1, England were only 1 down. Come day 2, Jason Holder found good amounts of swing and seam. Holder picked 6 English wickets and ended with a career-best of 6-42.

Forgot due to Holder is Shannon Gabriel, he picked 4-62, including Burns, Sibley, and Denly, England's bats who faced the most deliveries. Buttler and Stokes promised to take the game away from West Indies, but an inspired spell from the West Indies captain meant Stokes and Buttler were dismissed two overs apart.

With England making 204, They were behind the 8ball from the outset in West Indies' first innings, with an excellent batting show from Shane Dowrich and Kraigg Brathwaite managed to make 318. Till this point, the captains had dismissed one another.

If it was not for Ben Stokes, England would have conceded a lot more than the 318 they did. With a handy 4fer, Ben picked 4/49 to dismiss Holder, Roach, and the rest. Jimmy Anderson picked 3/62 in 25 overs and he was excellent with the ball. Not only did Anderson pick 3 wickets, but also managed to be extremely economical in his 25 overs.

It was now Time for WI to bowl against a side that was looking to come back and what was the easiest day to bat on. England got off to a good start, with the opening pair making 73(213), Dom Sibley made 50(158), personally, that was too slow, someone like Stokes or Crawley would have made close to 80-90 and If England had those extra few runs, it could have been match-changing.

Nevertheless, it was an excellent dig but Dominic Sibley. The young man from Kent, Zak Crawley, made 73 in the second innings, which possibly means he's taken the other fellow Kent man's, Joe Denly's test spot. Rory Burns had good starts but unfortunately, he wasn't able to convert either of the starts into a score of substance. 

A good dig from England meant they were 230-3, then came the rather well known traditional English collapse where they lost wickets for 30 runs and fell to 280-8. With some late resistance, Jofra Archer managed to make a career-best 26 and managed to take the Englishmen to 199, which meant they set a total of 200 for the West Indies.

Jofra Archer came steaming in and bruised John Campbell's toe first ball. With Campbell off the field, it effectively became 7/1 which soon was followed by 7/2 with Jofra Archer picking the wicket of the main man in Kraigg Brathwaite. Shamarh Brooks was trapped in front by Jofra to reduce them to three down.

Hope struck two excellent cover drives before Mark Wood managed to get one through him and leave West Indies effectively stranded at 27/4. England looked in front at Lunch even though West Indies had won more sessions across the test. After lunch, Roston Chase and Jermaine Blackwood combined to take West Indies past 100. Roston Chase was dismissed by Jofra Archer with a bit of chin music and a rip-snorter. 

Dowrich and Blackwood then combined to take West Indies within 40 runs of victory, when an inspired Ben Stokes had Dowrich edging behind following the previous delivery which Dowrich had also edged but was a no-ball. With 40 runs to get it was game on, it wasn't sure whether Campbell would return, out came the skipper in Jason Holder. 

He dug in along with Jermaine Blackwood who was only dismissed with 11 runs from Victory, Jermaine, who was finally dismissed for a magnificent 95 dispelled all doubts about his carelessness with this innings after he threw away his wicket in the first innings. Finally, Campbell tucked one to deep square off his legs to all but seal the victory for the Men in Maroon. 

Shannon Gabriel was deservedly awarded Man of the Match for his outstanding performance which included a 9-wicket match haul. Mark Wood and Jofra Archer were exceptional in this test, with Wood regularly breaching the 90mph mark, with his average speed in this test being 91mph. 

Final takes:

Mark Wood will probably make way for the old stalwart in Stuart Broad, but I would like to see Wood play at Old Trafford since that wicket would suit him much better. Personally, I would like to see Joe Denly play the second test because he is very capable and has done his role of not exposing the middle order to the new ball by eating up deliveries. That is unlikely though and we will most probably see Joe Denly make way for Joe Root and Zak Crawley be bumped up to 3 with the bat. England truly lost this test when they elected to bat under cloudy skies which meant the ball did a lot and Jason Holder decided to take full advantage of it. In his first game as Captain, Stokes was not bad, but neither was he impressive. We can expect Broad to come in for Wood and Root for Denly as the changes in the second test at Old Trafford from the Eglish side, while West Indies will probably go into the second test without any changes if Campbell heals his toe. If Campbell doesn't play, we may well see Nkrumah Bonner on his test debut. Or a surprise pick could be Joshua Da Silva from the reserves to open the batting who made a 100 and an unbeaten 50 in the warmup games as an opener. Joshua Da Silva should be handed a test cap, but it all depends on hoe Campbell's toe heals and what Jason Holder and Phil Simmons decide among themselves.

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