The West Indies batting and the nervous safe draw
Only West Indian batting could make a four wicket save feel so nervy.
England gave the West Indies a friendly-ish declaration at Antigua. But it was hard to see how the West Indies were ever going to chase it. Their ODI form is not exactly solid, and that was the kind of batting they would need. They have Nkrumah Bonner, Kraigg Brathwaite, Shamarh Brooks and Joshua DaSilva in their lineup, those are players with nothing above third gear. They are built for comfort, not for speed.
But if any lineup was made to block out an afternoon on a flat track, this was probably it.
Yet even then they had John Campbell and Jermaine Blackwood. Campbell is a ball counter, he can only go so long without swinging violently. Block, block, boom. Like a real estate agent in a club game who is trying to hit a six so his fiancee puts down her book to notice him.
Campbell tried to get dismissed by swinging lustily from the footmarks from Jack Leach. The first time he was dropped at slip, the second one somehow beat an outfielder. And the final time he was caught just after Brathwaite was dismissed.
They seemed to come every 20 balls or so, like Campbell had earned them.
Campbell is likeable, impulsive and frustrating. But he also averages under 24 after 16 Tests. He has six hundreds in 83 first class matches. He's fun, and he clearly has some talent, but if he is your opener in an innings where you need to survive, it’s not great.
Since the start of 2020, the bowling average for seamers in the West Indies is 22.65. Not only is that the lowest ever - but yeah - it's also five runs an over less than the 90s, and even almost that again lower than the 80s.
That was the period when the West Indies changed the game with four fast bowlers banging into the deck. Where they became one of the most dominant and unlikely dynasties in sport. Yet currently, batters are faring worse against pace than when these guys changed cricket forever.
Some people will point to the Dukes ball, which came in for 2019.
But the truth is, when you look at the numbers, even the five years before that seamers were pretty good, even if the dukes has helped them.
If anything has happened in the Dukes era, it's that spin has struggled.
But that's not the ball, it's probably because CWI have gone out of their way to ensure the wickets are more pace friendly, or at least, played on the pitches that aren't great for spinners. So the balls and wickets have been juiced for seam.
So that's it, the current West Indian bowlers are better than the fearsome lot of the 80s or 90s. But this includes home and away batters. And the bigger difference is really not the West Indian bowlers, but the West Indian batters.
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