WEST INDIES TOOK all morning to remove the English night watchman. At blogging time, with lunch looming, England were nearly 400 ahead with seven wickets in hand. Will Captain Strauss hold the declaration until after lunch? Until Cook makes a century? Until the Allen Stanford lynching?
The West Indian commentators on Line & Length – the new name for the radio coverage team – have been pulling up the stats of supposedly unattainable fourth innings run chases after confident declarations that left the declaring captain vanquished and embarrassed in the bargain and Vic Marks & Co have been gracious enough to indulge them and stretch the chatter out like Fidel Edwards' runup– but the West Indies fans – such a misleading word for the miserable clutch still left doing their best to support the rump of what was once a fine team – the West Indies-ics Anonymous know the real debate is when the collapse will come. Before tea? Before stumps today? Lunch tomorrow? Before the end of this sentence?
It would be nice to think that Chris Gayle and Devon Smith would stand up and bat out the draw and keep the series lead – but that would require thinking ahead of the next ball. The probability is the template for the West Indies second innings was cut yesterday by Dinesh “Shot-A-Ball” Ramdin.
Once again, it’s not so much a case of Ye of Little Faith as much as We of Much Firetrucking Experience.
But who knows? God is good, ent?