Shamar Joseph’s act of defiance gives embattled West Indies fighting chance

To hit the roof, phrase, informal: to become very angry indeed. Also, what Shamar Joseph did to the Larwood & Voce pub at Trent Bridge at the point in West Indies’ innings when everything for England, like the tiles the ball sent showering in shards over the fans below, fell apart.

It is hard to tell whether Brendon McCullum figuratively hit the roof after Joseph literally did so – England’s coach is not really one for obvious demonstrations of fury, or even obvious demonstrations of paying much attention to the game happening in front of him – but at the very least he must have been extremely ticked off. England contributed massively to the last‑wicket stand that took West Indies from a deficit of 30 to a lead of 41 at the end of the first innings – but perhaps they could be excused for being taken by surprise by what unfolded.

Joseph was famously working as a security guard just a couple of years ago, and at 24 has only played 17 first-class innings, in 29.4% of which he was out without scoring. He has batted four times in limited-overs cricket, and scored more than nothing once. Ollie Pope has faced more balls in this series than Joseph has in his entire professional career, for all teams and in all formats. England’s gameplan was predicated on him being rubbish, but it turned out it was their gameplan that was not up to scratch.

It was not only England who were surprised by the quality of Joseph’s batting: his teammate Joshua Da Silva spent a few overs doing everything possible to hide him from the ball, facing 16 out of 18 deliveries and scoring just two, before he launched the last of them into the stands to bring up his half-century. That left Joseph to deal with the following over, which he did, handsomely.

It became a session of two halves, in one of which England played well, and in the other they completely abandoned all sense and reason. Across the first 15 overs West Indies scored 28 runs and lost four wickets: the bowling was disciplined, the ball suddenly discovered the thrill of lateral movement, given a first chance in a previously sun-kissed week to fly under thick clouds and floodlights, and chances followed. But having found a method that was working, England abandoned it.

Da Silva’s only Test century came in similar circumstances and against the same opponents in Grenada two years ago, when he and Jayden Seales put on 52 for the last wicket. “I expected exactly what happened,” he said of England’s tactics here. “The same thing happened in Grenada, so I was trying to replicate the innings I played there.” England’s plan seemed to be to offer him singles, make no effort to get him out, and wait for Joseph to surrender his wicket. It was passive cricket, completely lacking the ambition and aggression that is intended to be the hallmark of this side.

Joseph proved disinclined to cooperate, and after he obliterated a Gus Atkinson over for 16, sending one six into the Fox Road Stand and another on to that pub roof, everything turned very ragged indeed.

“It’s one of the periods of a cricket match which over the history of the sport has always caused people problems,” Chris Woakes said of the last-wicket stand. “You just have to commit to the plan you’re going with. You know it’s not always going to be perfect. Generally there’s an in batter in – once the field goes out as a bowler it’s easy to not try and get that guy out and think about the No 11, but at the same time you don’t want to give away easy boundaries. And also you don’t expect the No 11 to hit a couple of them into the stands.”

England tried a few overs of spin, none of it very impressive, an experiment that ended when Da Silva destroyed a Joe Root over for 18, and were on approximately Plan L by the time Mark Wood was asked to flog himself through another spell. It took him only five balls to finally force a mistake from Joseph, and a revealing and often bewildering period of play was over. It may in the end make no difference to the outcome of this match, but the scoreboard would look much better for England without those 71 runs on it.

Source: The Guardian