Ramnaresh Sarwan’s diligent 107, his 12th Test hundred, and his partnership of 202 with captain Chris Gayle were critical to the West Indies cause in the first Digicel Test at Sabina Park.
They were equally essential to Sarwan’s own peace of mind.
The past couple of years have been an emotional roller coaster for the talented right-hander, along with Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, a key component in the batting following Brian Lara’s retirement.
He was two Tests into his role as Lara’s successor as captain when he dislocated his shoulder in the field in the 2007 series in England and had to be temporarily replaced, first by Daren Ganga, then by Gayle.
He returned for the World Twenty20 Championships in South Africa but injury yet again intervened prior to the subsequent tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Gayle took over yet again and has been in the post ever since. While it was an arrangement that Sarwan maintained he was comfortable with, he must have occasionally wondered why fate had dealt him such a tough hand.
He was back for the home series against Sri Lanka and Australia last year, filling in for two Tests as skipper while Gayle recovered from a groin strain.
There was no hint that his misfortunes had bothered him. Quite the opposite. His class and experience at No.3 were intact.
His double of 57 and 102 against Sri Lanka at the Queen’s Park Oval guided the West Indies to a rare, series-levelling victory. His 65 and 128 were instrumental in earning a draw against Australia in Antigua.
He arrived for the tour of New Zealand last December as Gayle’s vice-captain. He was free of injury and in the runs with scores of 55, 45 and 62 in the three preceding ODIs in Abu Dhabi.
His surprise announcement on arrival in Auckland that he was quitting the vice-captaincy was the first sign that all was not right. As no explanation was offered, the rumour mill found its own reasons.
The most prominent was that he and Gayle, previously close friends, had fallen out, over what no one was sure but that didn’t matter.
Sarwan started with 158 in the warm-up match against Auckland but his approach to batting in the two Tests that followed only fanned the speculation. There was downright carelessness in his dismissals for 8, 11 and 1.
While he was more himself in the limited-overs contests that followed, there was still plenty to prove here when he walked to the middle on Devon Smith’s early dismissal, especially as Gayle would be his partner.
His start was as shaky as galvanise sheeting in a hurricane. He survived two umpiring referrals on lbw decisions. He acknowledged that he was lucky on one.
But he gradually settled and began to bat like Sarwan can bat. The cuts and the drives started to come readily off the middle. When England’s bowlers applied the pressure on either side of lunch yesterday, he, like his captain, buckled down to the job with the required care and determination.
They had put on 202 by the time Gayle, with the same composed, deliberate batting of his 197 in his previous Test innings against New Zealand in Napier in December, was bowled for 104.
Sarwan followed after lunch, two untimely setbacks earned by England’s disciplined bowling. By then, the troubles he had carried throughout New Zealand had clearly been erased.
