The Wisden Trophy is now in the hands of the West Indies for the first time in a decade. Its transference from England was transcendental, the product of a reinvigorated West Indian engine with all its pistons firing – with the renewed forward momentum producing a team that has secured two wins against the bewildered and outplayed English visitors. Remarkably, and joyously, for West Indian fans, our team has decisively taken the lead in the three-game series.
The second Test was yet another confident performance by the West Indies, this time at the Vivian Richards Cricket ground in Antigua. West Indies were dismissed in their first innings for 306, but then in a display of spectacular cricketing on the field, England were routed for 187 and then 132 runs. Man-of-the-Match seamer Kemar Roach deftly held the reins, claiming match figures of eight for 82; all-rounder captain Jason Holder rode shotgun, picking up four for 43.
With a mere 14 runs for the victory, and the Wisden Cup, left-hander John Campbell smashed the 13th ball of the innings from veteran seamer Jimmy Anderson over the midwicket ropes. It was an emphatic, as it was a transcendental moment, with the West Indies finally shifting into a higher gear from its uphill, historical struggles with humiliations and losses; for in that moment the English loss was more than a narrative of the colonial blade cutting down an empire’s ascendancy – for us in the Caribbean, and the diaspora abroad, it was an indelible notch added to our cricketing history, a West Indian first series victory over a higher-ranked team after seven lean years of wandering in the wilderness.
Said Holder following the Second Test rout: “[My emotions] are difficult to describe now… I think we’re hungry, we’re hungry for success… I think it is something we really wanted, and obviously the way we ended last year was a bit daunting as well, and everybody wanted to turn things around.”
There were incipient signs of a turnaround during the first Test at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, and which continued into the Antiguan match last week. Worth noting in the first Test were the positive developments indicating a new chemistry in the team, and the records that were set. That the West Indies won the match by 381 runs made it their second largest margin of victory ever versus England based on this tally of runs. Then there was that undefeated seventh wicket partnership of 295, the third highest in Test cricket, when Holder and wicketkeeper Shane Dowrich produced the match-winning mix of run-getting prowess and defence at the stumps.
However, it was Holder’s all-around performance that lifted him into the rarified air of the ICC All-rounder rankings, a position previously held by just one West Indian player, another all-rounder, Sir Gary Sobers, which was acquired as far back as March, 1974; that it has taken another West Indian player so long to catapult to such a lofty height speaks not only to the depth where our cricket had fallen, but to the uplift and reinvigoration it received in January, 2019.
The reinvigoration continued with Holder’s name now appearing alongside Sir Don Bradman’s, making them the only two players who have scored a double century in the second innings of a Test match batting at seven or lower in the order. Also, Holder’s innings of 202 not out was the second fastest double century by a West Indian, the most against England in an innings by a West Indian, and the third highest by a West Indian in a Test innings.
The signs are positive for a West Indian resurgence from the performances by our team in the last two Tests; the team appears focused, and in Holder’s word, “hungry”. As fans at home, and abroad, it is our hope these are the indicators of an overdue turnaround in our game.