Dear Editor,
What a day for West Indies cricket! The fourth day was all India’s as excellent bowling in the sessions available due to the cessation of torrents of rain, saw the rapid dismissal of the four top order WI batsmen. The feature of the final day was the scoreboard from five through eight:
Blackwood 63
Chase 137 n o
Dowrich 74
Holder 64 n o
Almost unheard of at any time or place in Test cricket.
That Chase joined a most exclusive club of which Sir Garfield is, naturally, the president, with a performance with the bat that bore the clear stamp of class, that Blackwood provided another glimpse of what Sir Viv predicted long ago, that Dowrich executed the sweep especially so deftly, and batted generally as Dujon had predicted long ago, and that the captain demonstrated such poise and skill, all augur very well for the future. Their efforts would not have meant as much were it not for their tight bowling on the third day for which coach Simmons had pleaded.
A notable negative, not so much for the team, but rather for the game, was the inability to correct the umpire error that might have deprived Dowrich of his first Test century, in consequence of the absurdity of permitting one country, for financial reasons, to reject a rule desired by the other nine Test-playing nations. The great Gavaskar, who was most sensitive and enlightening in his commentary generally, perhaps embarrassed, found it necessary at that point to refer to the high rate of correct umpire decisions in Tests.
The most annoying moment came with the assertion of Jadeja, a rather average batsman in his day, that there was no thinking in limited overs batting. I was heartened by Bishop’s promise to address the inanity of that assertion, but unfortunately I was not able to watch all of the remaining broadcast, so I do not know whether Bishop kept his promise.
I am not sure that it was a good idea for the Presidents of the WICB and WIPA respectively, to make appearances at the end of the game, but other than that, one couldn’t ask for much more. I hope, for the sake of the players, that more people will turn out to watch the remaining matches.
Yours faithfully,
Romain Pitt