Reports of the death of West Indian cricket appear to have been greatly exaggerated. A pair of centuries, a sixth for opener Kraigg Brathwaite a maiden ton for youngster Shai Hope, helped the tourists to build on their impressive bowling performance of Friday to end the second day if not in control of the Second Test at Headingley, then at least in a competitive position for the first time in the series.
At 35-3, and with Jimmy Anderson looking so threatening that the fear among neutrals and partisans alike was that the tourists would capitulate as they had done in the first test, it was a completely different picture.
After he had Kyle Hope caught for his second wicket of the morning with 80 minutes of the session to go, it seriously looked as another collapse was and that the Lancastrian could run through the West Indies card to bring up his 500th Test wicket at some point during the day.
Watchfulness was the word for the next few innings, but then Brathwaite and the second Hope brother, Shai, started to play their shots, adding 64 runs to go in at Lunch on 109-3.
By now the turbulent skies of the morning, reminiscent of a Turner seascape, gave way to bright blue in the afternoon, and the West Indies reacted to the familiar weather by turning on the Caribbean flair.
With a ball to go before Tea, Brathwaite, who had spent a few nervous overs marooned on 96, threw caution to the wind and lofted one of Tom Westley’s part-time off-breaks for six to bring up his century in style and to bring the West Indies in at 206-3.
Shortly after the interval, Hope, who had accelerated during the afternoon, reached his maiden ton, and the tourists were closing in on England’s first innings total of 258.
Brathwaite, who richly deserved to bat through the day, was finally dislodged by Stuart Broad in the 90th over of the innings, beautifully bowled for 134 off 249 balls with the lead at 24. The partnership of 246 runs took up a shade under 70 overs and changed the complexion of the match entirely.
Although Roston Chase fell cheaply for five to Stokes, the positivity continued as the West Indies refused to send on a nightwatchman for the last half hour of the day. Jermaine Blackwood dispatched one of his first balls from Stokes to the boundary for four and remained unbeaten on 21.
At the other end, Hope ended the day just three runs short of 150, a magnificent innings having batted through from the ninth over of the day. The West Indies finished on 329-5, a lead of 71.
From flirting with a disastrous day that would have knocked the stuffing out of the tourists – and all interest out of the series – the day ended with the possibility of the West Indies compiling a substantial three-figure lead.
With the English top-order lacking runs and woefully short of confidence and time at the crease, the tourists have a genuine chance to cause an upset and level the series, a result that even England fans, enamoured as most cricket lovers are of the West Indian game, would be churlish to deny them.
T20 World Cup Qualifier
Final: Netherlands beat PNG by seven wickets
Qualified teams
1. Netherlands
2. PNG
3. Ireland
4. Namibia
5. Scotland
6. Oman
T20 World Cup 2020, Australia
Group A: Sri Lanka, PNG, Ireland, Oman
Group B: Bangladesh, Netherlands, Namibia, Scotland
MATCH INFO
Champions League quarter-final, first leg
Ajax v Juventus, Wednesday, 11pm (UAE)
Match on BeIN Sports
Rooney's club record
At Everton Appearances: 77; Goals: 17
At Manchester United Appearances: 559; Goals: 253
Student Of The Year 2
Director: Punit Malhotra
Stars: Tiger Shroff, Tara Sutaria, Ananya Pandey, Aditya Seal
1.5 stars
THE NEW BATCH'S FOCUS SECTORS
AiFlux – renewables, oil and gas
DevisionX – manufacturing
Event Gates – security and manufacturing
Farmdar – agriculture
Farmin – smart cities
Greener Crop – agriculture
Ipera.ai – space digitisation
Lune Technologies – fibre-optics
Monak – delivery
NutzenTech – environment
Nybl – machine learning
Occicor – shelf management
Olymon Solutions – smart automation
Pivony – user-generated data
PowerDev – energy big data
Sav – finance
Searover – renewables
Swftbox – delivery
Trade Capital Partners – FinTech
Valorafutbol – sports and entertainment
Workfam – employee engagement
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
RESULTS
1.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,200m
Winner: Lady Parma, Richard Mullen (jockey), Satish Seemar (trainer).
2.15pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,200m
Winner: Tabernas, Connor Beasley, Ahmed bin Harmash.
2.45pm: Handicap Dh95,000 1,200m
Winner: Night Castle, Connor Beasley, Satish Seemar.
3.15pm: Handicap Dh120,000 1,400m
Winner: Mystique Moon, Sam Hitchcott, Doug Watson.
3.45pm: Handicap Dh80,000 1,400m
Winner: Mutawakked, Szczepan Mazur, Musabah Al Muhairi.
4.15pm: Handicap Dh90,000 1,800m
Winner: Tafaakhor, Sandro Paiva, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
4.45pm: Handicap Dh80,000 1,950m
Winner: Cranesbill, Fabrice Veron, Erwan Charpy.
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup - Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
KYLIAN MBAPPE 2016/17 STATS
Ligue 1: Appearances - 29, Goals - 15, Assists - 8
UCL: Appearances - 9, Goals - 6
French Cup: Appearances - 3, Goals - 3
France U19: Appearances - 5, Goals - 5, Assists - 1
FIXTURES
New Zealand v France, second Test
Saturday, 12.35pm (UAE)
Auckland, New Zealand
South Africa v Wales
Sunday, 12.40am (UAE), San Juan, Argentina
bundesliga results
Mainz 0 Augsburg 1 (Niederlechner 1')
Schalke 1 (Caligiuri pen 51') Bayer Leverkusen 1 (Miranda og 81')
LAST-16 EUROPA LEAGUE FIXTURES
Wednesday (Kick-offs UAE)
FC Copenhagen (0) v Istanbul Basaksehir (1) 8.55pm
Shakhtar Donetsk (2) v Wolfsburg (1) 8.55pm
Inter Milan v Getafe (one leg only) 11pm
Manchester United (5) v LASK (0) 11pm
Thursday
Bayer Leverkusen (3) v Rangers (1) 8.55pm
Sevilla v Roma (one leg only) 8.55pm
FC Basel (3) v Eintracht Frankfurt (0) 11pm
Wolves (1) Olympiakos (1) 11pm
HER%20FIRST%20PALESTINIAN
%3Cp%3EAuthor%3A%20Saeed%20Teebi%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EPages%3A%20256%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EPublisher%3A%C2%A0House%20of%20Anansi%20Press%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
