The two Josephs took up where they left off the night before. From the moment Green shouldered arms and was pinned in front, the pace pair were in their element. Australia’s tail was simply blown away. 121 all out left the visitors with a lead of 204. Would this be enough? Time would answer that question all too soon. But praise is due in full measure to the intrepid pair. Alzarri took 5/27, Shamarr 4/34, and Australia’s innings had lasted a mere 37 overs. Would their batsmen back them up?
Alas, the answer was an emphatic no. Starc’s first over included three wickets: Campbell caught at second slip first ball, followed by Anderson trapped in front on the fifth, and King clean-bowled on the last. At three down for no runs the target now looked impossibly distant. Starc’s wicked inswingers were largely responsible for the carnage. The home side appeared hypnotised. They did not move their feet to any purpose. A half-hearted shuffle across the crease does not meet the needs of the situation in any way. The grinning left-arm quick took five wickets in his first 15 deliveries.
When Hazlewood had Chase caught behind by Inglis (substituting for the injured Carey) West Indies were 6/11, and beyond redemption. In a way, the best was yet to come. Scott Boland at first change broke through the seventh-wicket stand of 15 when he squared Greaves up and induced an edge to second slip. Greaves’ 11 was the innings top score. The next best was Mr Extras, with 6. On the next ball Shamarr was trapped leg before. Then Warrican was clean-bowled, completing Boland’s hat-trick. Starc concluded proceedings when he clean-bowled Seales. His final figures were 6/9. Boland took 3/2. And West Indies had succumbed for 27.
Roston Chase afterwards had no excuses. He used terms like ‘heartbreaking’ and ’embarrassing’, which was no more than the bedrock truth. Yes, the pitch was spiteful, and the bowling sublime. But this was a hideous capitulation from a side whose pride has been humbled in the dust. How they will fare in future is anyone’s guess. India awaits in October. We wish them luck. They will need it.
Meanwhile at Lord, India and England took time out from their mutual sledging, recriminations and juvenile nonsense to turn on one of Test cricket’s epic finishes. By lunch India were eight down and eighty-odd runs short of victory. The miraculously reborn Archer and Stokes were sending down deadly thunderbolts and India had succumbed ingloriously. Yet Ravi Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah had other ideas. For almost two hours they defied everything England could hurl at them. When Bumrah finally succumbed to a waft at a bouncer, the extra half-hour before tea would need to be invoked. And still Jaddu fought on, with the inept but brave Siraj holding the fort with him. The margin shrank, and dwindled. The capacity crowd held their breath as 80 became 60, then 40, then 20-something.
It took a cruel play-on from the spinner Bashir to break the last defences. England erupted with jubilation. Jaddu crouched on the field, inconsolable. Yet half the England side came to commiserate and congratulate, echoing Flintoff to Brett Lee twenty years gone by. Jadeja has made many Test centuries, yet his unbeaten 61 here may have been his finest hour as a batsman. It had been a superb innings, occupying four and a half hours’ worth of watchful defence, furious but considered strokeplay, and cool judgement in refusing singles until late in the over. It was good to see the English players cast aside their juvenilia to pay worthy tribute to a mighty warrior.