Alex Massie Alex Massie

England vs West Indies

Intriguing. Interesting. Fascinating. All words often used to spruce up slightly dull cricket. But the first days’ play in Kingston has been intriguing. And interesting. And good.

A slow outfield may have cramped scoring, but once England had won the toss and elected to bat there’s little doubt Chris Gayle would have been happier than Andrew Strauss had you told the skippers that the visitors would finish the day at 236/5. 350 may well prove a competitive score on this pitch, though there’s also every prospect that it will be flattest, and best for batting on days two and three.

Not that it was a minefield today, mind you. Who would have anticipated that there’d be nearly 50 overs of spin bowled on th first day of a Sabina Park test? While there was novelty in this, it offered another reminder that test match wickets are sadly pedestrian these days and, far too frequently, much of a muchness. A good deal of the old variety has gone. The WACA at Perth isn’t what it once was and nor, clearly, is Sabina Park.

Still, Sulieman Benn bowled beautifully and was the undoubted star of the day. Unusually tall for a spinner, he disguised his pace well and showed some loop too. With merely an average dollop of luck he’d have picked up five, rather than two wickets. Time and again he flummoxed Kevin Pietersen and the other English batsmen with bounce, pace and turn. The rest of the West Indies attack was pretty benign, mind you. Nonetheless, armed with a new ball tomorrow morning they will return knowing that an early breakthrough gives them a good chance of dismissing England for fewer than 300 runs.

As for the England batting, Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen seem likely to receive brickbats.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in