Key events
1st over: England 4-1 (Duckett 0, Pope 4) Nice from Pope, having a look at a couple of balls before forcing a flick through mid-on for four, and England are away.
“About Trent Bridge,” begins John Starbuck. “For all the fuss about sheer speed among our bowlers, what counts here is accuracy on a notoriously bat-friendly pitch. Much like some of those in the Caribbean. Also, we who follow Notts CCC have been referring to the Stuart Broad End all season.”
Yup, Broad was clear about that: bowl how you like, just hit your length. Though Joseph is finding joy from a little shorter, perhaps the cobination of pace and height changing the rules.
WICKET! Crawley c Athanaze b Joseph 0 (England 0-1)
This is a terrific delivery, back of a length with a bit of lift and away-movement, squaring Crawley up and he looks to fend, and Athanze takes a fine catch at three, fingers slid under ball. What a call at the toss!
1st over: England 0-0 (Crawley 0, Duckett 0) Nice loosener from Joseph, a bit of swing and Crawley moving bat inside the line; another dot follows.
Crawley to face, Joseph with the ball.
Broad now rings the bell but the players are already out, so we’ll have the anthems and get on.
Ah, this is lovely: SJ Broad officially opens the renamed Stuart Broad end, and he’s got his favourite coat on to do it. How lucky we were, mates. How very, very lucky.
I just got a PR email talking about “Turkish psych-folk”; my favourite of the genre is “Croatian ethno-noise”, but this is nice too. Feel free to send me your own examples, imaginary or otherwise.
Our teams
England: 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope, 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Ben Stokes (capt), 7 Jamie Smith (wk), 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Gus Atkinson, 10 Mark Wood, 11 Shoaib Bashir
West Indies: 1 Kraigg Brathwaite (capt), 2 Mikyle Louis, 3 Kirk McKenzie, 4 Alick Athanaze, 5 Kavem Hodge, 6 Jason Holder, 7 Joshua da Silva (wk), 8 Kevin Sinclair, 9 Alzarri Joseph, 10 Shamar Joseph, 11 Jayden Seales.
As a former captain of a rubbish team, my senses are telling me one reason West Indies are bowling is to avoid getting skittled before they’re into the match. This way around, obviously they’re risking making things worse, because there’ll be scoreboard pressure if England do well, but they trust their attack more than their top order, and the pitch oitentially offering help probably sealed the deal.
Ben Stokes won’t say what he’d’ve done, but does think it was a decision to be made. He’s excited to see how his Brandersonless attack copes, and how Mark Wood pulls up; he replaces Jimmy Anderson.
West Indies win the toss and bowl
It looks a good pitch, says Kraigg Branthwaite, adding that his bowlers need greater discipline and his batters need to build partnerships; Gudakesh Motie is absent with flu so Kevin Sinclair comes in.
Toss time…
Stuart Broad’s mum has been to C&A – he’s sporting another blazer of a blazer. Otherwise, he says he found it easier to get rhythm at Trent Bridge because the surface was always solid underfoot, and that length is key: you have to go fuller, and Bob Willis advised him not to aim for the top of off but for the sponsor’s logo.
Otherwise, he was happy being driven on this track because it got the batters forward which is what he was after. “You can do whatever you want her, as long as your length is good,” he concludes, noting that Vernon Philander and Jasprit Bumrah, very different bowlers, have both had success in Nottingham.
Gosh, he really likes it doesn’t he?
Also going on…
It’s a nice day in Nottingham, and thinking about pitches here, I wonder if England’s pacemen are the right fit – often, it’s a slow seamer that suits more traditional types. Or maybe Branderson were just freaks of nature able to make all types of track look made to order.
Mark Wood feels good; who knew? He’s not bowled much lately, he says, and is expecting to feel sore tonight, but he’s looking forward to it. He hopes he’s not expected to bowl like Jimmy, and is glad he’s still in the changing room with Stuart Broad also around. Otherwise, he hates falling over when delivering, but thinks the cuts and bruises make him look a bit harder.
Preamble
We hear the words often: “It’s called a Test match for a reason”. Well, however you slice it, last week was not remotely testing for England; though West Indies competed in moments, all across the piece they were barely present, and the fear now is that we see similar over the next five few days, then again next week at Edgbaston.
Of course, there is context: a rigged system in which the game’s biggest powers make the most money and play the most matches, the longest serieseseses reserved solely for when they meet each other. What we saw at Lord’s reflected that.
In fairness to West Indies, they bowled well in parts, and who knows how a bit of scoreboard pressure might’ve helped them. But it’s England’s Jimmyless attack we arrive at Trent Bridge excited to see, given the two quicks, Gus Atkinson and Mark Wood, who’ll be taking the new ball, with Ben Stokes, pace back and wobble-ball installed, also looking tasty; who knows, Shoaib Bashir may even get a bowl.
The thing is, this thing of ours has a habit of surprising us – just ask Australia. In recent times we’ve seen Chris Gayle, Shai Hope and Jason Holder all perform superhuman feats against England, and with the talent West Indies have, that possibility must never be discounted – it just shouldn’t be a necessity. But here we are so here we are, which is to say that all we can do is make sure to enjoy whatever it is we get, because even an untesting Test match is better than anything else the world has to offer us. Go well!
Play: 11am BST
