West Indies delivered a huge shock to England in the first Test of their ongoing series, and on Thursday they will be looking to secure the series when the two sides meet for the second match in Antigua.
England got a huge wake up call in Barbados and have to bounce back in Antigua if they are going to have the chance to win the series, which would have been their primary aim when they got on the plane to the Caribbean.
West Indies
There was always a dangerous team lurking in this West Indies unit but their problem is that we don’t get to see it anywhere near as often as we should do. We saw it at Headingley the last time they were in England, and we certainly saw it in Barbados, where they had the match all but won as early as the second day.
Their bowlers got them into a wonderful position from which to dominate the game but it was one special partnership in their second innings that got them over the line. That is certainly no bad thing in that both facets of the game delivered for them, although those huge partnerships don’t come along too often so they will need their top order to stand up and be counted at some point.
England
As horrendous performances go England delivered one of their very worst in Barbados. To be fair it started when they totally misread the wicket and went in with two spinners on a pitch that offered nothing for them and never really got any better from there. They offered hope to their supporters with a good fightback on the opening day but that promise soon vanished.
To be bowled out for 77 in their first innings is clearly unacceptable but at the same time they never exactly came out of their second dig covered in roses either. What would be more of a concern is in decent bowling conditions for the seamers, their main two offered little apart from a burst late on the opening day. It needs a huge improvement if England are going to level the series here.
Team News
If there are no late injury concerns then you would think West Indies are going to be unchanged for this encounter after such a wonderful performance. Shane Dowrich is said to be over the niggle he picked up in the previous match.
England have already confirmed that Joe Denly will come into their side at the expense of Keaton Jennings. Their only other decision to make is whether to play Jack Leach or Stuart Broad unless they drop Moeen Ali. Adil Rashid has gone home to be at the birth of his child.
Sir Vivian Richards Stadium
There have been five previous Test matches at this ground as well as that infamous abandoned match back in 2009. West Indies have a couple of wins, a pair of draws and a loss to India in those games. The only completed match England have played here ended in a draw four years ago.
There have been some very low scores on this ground mixed in with the odd good score so there is going to be something in it for the bowlers but if batsmen do get in they should be able to score if they play selectively. That should make for a decent cricket wicket and a good match to go with it.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets in this match. The wicket in Antigua is good for batting if you let yourself get in so I’m expecting Joe Root to bag a few runs in the first innings. When you get shot out for nothing you need your captain to step up and be counted and that is what Root needs to do here. He is batting in the position he desires so now he needs to make the most of that and put up a score worthy of doing so. His first innings line is 32.5 runs and really he should be bettering that here. I’ll take the over.
Shane Dowrich bagged a ton at the other end to Jason Holder’s heroics in the second innings last week and based on that he surely has to be too big to top score for the home side in the first go here. He went into that Test off the back of scores of 81 and 65 in a First-class game so he is clearly in good nick. Dowrich has eight 50s and three tons from just 52 innings which isn’t a bad conversion rate by any means for a number seven in this team. He’s worth a punt at 16s.
Tips
Back J.Root – Over 32.5 first innings runs for a 4/10 stake at 1.87 with BetVictor
Back him here:
Back S.Dowrich Top West Indies 1st Inns Batsman for a 1/10 stake at 17.00 with Betfair
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2019
