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The weather radar doesn’t look very good I’m afraid. With the late start we are also losing overs as we speak. Maybe they’ll get back out for a truncated game later but they ain’t taking those tarps off any time soon.
Still raining here at The Oval and even more covers are being hauled on. We might have a sizeable delay here I’m afraid.
Rain stops play
It’s been threatening for a while and now the wet stuff has landed in South London. The big sheets are being dragged on here at The Oval, it looks a bit grim out there currently.
15th over: West Indies 82-3 (Carty 24, Rutherford 32) Brook does indeed shuffle his deck and Will Jacks comes on for a twirl. There’s a leg slip in place and a man on the ’45. Jacks is resolutely outside off stump though, Rutherford nudges a single and Carty punches for one more down the ground. Just two off it and time for a slurp of electrolytes (the players) and a big fat shot of Kenco (me). DRINKS.
14th over: West Indies 80-3 (Carty 23, Rutherford 31) Hold the pose! Rutherford leans on a full ball and picks up a sublime four down the ground off Mahmood. Shot of the day for mine. Might be time to switch things up, Mr Brook?
13th over: West Indies 73-3 (Carty 23, Rutherford 24) Carse once more, around the wicket to southpaw Rutherford. He’s in the mid 80smph on the speedgun which is no mean feat considering it looks like November in the Baltics out of the press box window here at The Oval. Just four runs off it as both sides size each other up.
12th over: West Indies 69-3 (Carty 21, Rutherford 22) Mahmood continues. Carty shonks a drive but gets enough on it to beat the fielder and pick up four.
“Does Mahmood have what it takes – in your esteemed opinion – to make the grade in red ball cricket?” Asks Mike Jakeman.
“Obviously Potts and Carse have shown promise in their outings, without making themselves indispensable like Atkinson. I haven’t seen much of Mahmood though.”
Well, I knoorr nuthin’ Mike Jakeman but my two penneth is that Mahmood definitely has the attributes to be a success in Test cricket, he’s fast, accurate and a very clever bowler. The thing is he has had terrible injury problems, stress fractures of the back that are so common in fast bowler’s and very hard to come back from. The intense workload required in Test cricket would be a constant concern. I wouldn’t rule it out though, England need all the bowler’s they can get their hands on for the summer and you-know-what this winter.
11th over: West Indies 64-3 (Carty 16, Rutherford 22) Carse into his fourth over, he’s looked a little less potent today. Five runs collected from the over and no dramas.
10th over: West Indies 59-3 (Carty 11, Rutherford 22) Potts offers width and is lashed by Carty to the fence at cover point. Carty then picks up three with an airy drive that Harry Brook does well to claw in from the boundary sponge. Gah. Potts is too straight and flicked away for four to end the over and the powerplay. England on top but this pair rebuilding nicely.
9th over: West Indies 48-3 (Carty 4, Rutherford 18) Carse is too full and Rutherford doesn’t miss out, driving through cover for four. SIXAH! (adopts Mark Nicholas voice) a short ball is hooked for a big one into the crowd by Rutherford, the breeze helped but that ended up ten rows back.
8th over: West Indies 37-3 (Carty 3, Rutherford 8) Potts continues, muscular derrière straining against his britches, a fast bowler’s behind that would make Fred Trueman and Jilly Cooper happy. Pardon? Just a Keacy Carty poked single into the leg side off the over.
7th over: West Indies 37-3 (Carty 3, Rutherford 8) Sherfane Rutherford replaces his captain after that seconds long stay at the crease. Ping! A cover drive whistles to the fence to get Rutherford going and then he follows up with a rasping back foot punch for four more. West Indies need this pair to stay for a good time and a long time.
WICKET! Shai Hope c Carse b Mahmood 0 (West Indies 28-3)
Oh no! Why would you do that Shai Hope!? A short ball from Mahmood is shonked on the hook straight down Carse’s throat on the square leg boundary. This could get nasty for West Indies.
6th over: West Indies 27-2 (Carty 1, Hope 0) West Indies Captain Shai Hope arrives in the middle…
WICKET! Brandon King c Bethell b Potts 16 (West Indies 27-2)
Matthew Potts replaces Brydon Carse. Hello Gruesome! Brandon King greets his first ball with a drive on the up down the ground for four! Potts has the last laugh though – and a needley little send off to boot – King forces in the air straight to Bethell at point. Windies two down for not many!
5th over: West Indies 21-0 (King 11, Carty 0) England bowling some *tight lines* (vision dreams of passion) just the one single off Mahmood as King flicks off his pads to fine leg.
4th over: West Indies 20-0 (King 10, Carty 0) Impressive wicket maiden from Carse. Keacy Carty is the new batter and he blocks out the final delivery. His century on Sunday was somewhat overshadowed by Joe Root’s but, like the latter, was full of sublime stroke-play
WICKET! Evin Lewis c Smith b Carse 8 (West Indies 20-1)
Pulled away in the air and caught! Jamie Smith takes a sharp chance at midwicket and Lewis is on his way.
3rd over: West Indies 20-0 (King 8, Lewis 10) King plinks Mahmood down the ground for a couple before connecting with the next full ball and lofting for four over cover.
2nd over: West Indies 14-0 (King 4, Lewis 8) Brydon Carse from the Pavilion End. Lewis latches on to a ball outside off and carves for four before pouncing on another bumper and pulling away through the leg-side for an emphatic once bounce boundary. He looks in fine fettle in his first game back from injury and no doubt has fond memories of this ground – he racked up 176 here in 2017 albeit in a match that England went on to squeak on Duckworth Lewis.
Our man Simon Burnton has the travel gossip:
“I got off the tube at Oval and as I emerged Joe Root and Adil Rashid walked past. West Indies might not have turned up until 12.40pm after the coach got stuck in traffic on its 3.5-mile journey from their Chelsea hotel but England didn’t beat them by much, and even then only after resorting to unusual measures: their coach also got caught in the chaos and sat still for so long that all the players abandoned it – some came the rest of the way by tube, some by Lime bike, and some by foot. Anyway, the only thing that still hasn’t arrived is the rain, and that looks imminent…”
1st over: West Indies 3-0 (King 1, Lewis 0) A quiet over to start with, Mahmood gets some decent bounce and carry off the pitch but slams down two wides to get West Indies going. King then takes a quick single that was drenched in risk – there’s a shy at the stumps but it missed by a fair way, it think Lewis was struggling to make his ground too. All eyes on England’s fielding today, not the best start so far.
Apologies I didn’t post the teams after the toss. England are unchanged from Cardiff. West Indies have made three changes – Shamar Joseph, Sherfane Rutherford and Evin Lewis for Matthew Forde, Shimron Hetmyer and Jewel Andrew.
England: 1 Jamie Smith, Ben Duckett, 3 Joe Root, 4 Harry Brook (c), 5 Jos Buttler (wk), 6 Jacob Bethell, 7 Will Jacks, 8 Brydon Carse, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Matthew Potts, 11 Saqib Mahmood
West Indies: 1 Brandon King, 2 Evin Lewis, 3 Keacy Carty, 4 Shai Hope (c & wk), 5 Sherfane Rutherford, 6 Justin Greaves, 7 Roston Chase, 8 Alzarri Joseph, 9 Gudakesh Motie, 10 Jayden Seales, 11 Shamar Joseph
Here come the players. A stiff breeze flapping the player’s shirts. Thankfully no rain falling though. Yet. Saqib Mahmood is going to start for England. Brandon King and Evan Lewis opening for West Indies. PLAY!
England’s players got their Timmy Chalamet on for their commute to the ground. Begs the question, do they have a joint ECB account with associated perks or do they all have to do the Lime bike dance individually? Park properly, take the photo, upload the photo.
My money is on Joe Root parking very precisely and neatly in a designated bay and maybe Brydon Carse leaving his back wheel in the way of pedestrians. What’s in his basket*?
*A pair of boots? A couple of energy drinks? Gwyneth Paltrow’s head?
England win the toss and will BOWL first
Harry Brook inserts the visitors upon getting the call of the coin. No surprises there with grey clouds lingering in South London.
“If this was in our village league, West Indies would be conceding the toss and losing one over of batting per 3.5 minutes after the start time that they weren’t ready to play. Presumably it’s similar in ODIs?” Phil Russell takes no prisoners. Terrifying.
“I’m not superstitious but I’d be worried if I were an Australian cricket fan.” Writes Charlie Tinsley.
“Given how their batsmen react to a bail being rotated at the end of an over, this must be sending shockwaves through the home dressing room…”
That is some sardine. Creepy. We’ll take anything to help us out Down Under this winter I reckon – A maiden Joe Root Test ton in Australia, Jofra Archer fit and raring, a MASSIVE apocalyptic fish…
Go on then, sling us your tales of when you’ve been woefully late for an important occasion. I don’t want any wedding jilters, ideally, but everything else is fair game.
Toss at 1pm – the match is due to start at 1.30pm
That’s if the rain stays away, it’s greyer than Gandalf on a hangover at The Oval at the minute.
Meanwhile… Ashes fever building Down Under:
England’s players are doing their keepy-uppies on the outfield, it is gloomy but crucially not raining at the moment.
You’ve got to feel for West Indies, we’ve all been there – arriving sweaty, harangued and late to an important date. Word is that they’ve now arrived at the ground. A quick check of Google maps suggests there were some snarl ups around central London, Kensington looked particularly nasty or maybe Shai Hope left his Oyster card in his hotel room?
Play delayed by… traffic
It isn’t the weather that is delaying the start here at The Oval but good old London traffic. It looks like West Indies didn’t do what any Londoner worth their salt does, the old ‘give yourself an hour at least to get anywhere’.
An ECB note pings around the press box:
“Due to a delayed arrival of one of the playing teams, who are stuck in heavy traffic north of the river, the scheduled start of play will be delayed.
Once all members of the playing teams arrive, the match officials will coordinate updated timings and discuss any impact on the schedule of play.
We will update spectators with the schedule of play as soon as we are able to.”
Preamble
Hello and welcome to the third and final ODI of the series between England and West Indies from The Oval.
Harry Brook’s England side are sitting pretty having secured the series already, largely thanks to one of the most sublime fifty over centuries you are ever likely to see courtesy of Joseph Edward Root.
Sophia Gardens shimmered under Root’s batting spell on Sunday, 166 runs of the highest order as England chased down 308 runs without really getting a bead on. Don’t just take my word for it, Jonny Liew felt compelled to dip his quill about what he calls Root’s “greatest white ball innings.”
The winning moment is perfect. Perfect in concept, in balance, in execution, in placement, in flourish. The ball disappears through mid-on, and before it has even reached the boundary the lid is off and the smile is unsheathed, and for some reason it matters a great deal that the stroke to complete a towering one-day chase of 309 is not a wallop or a swipe, but an artful on-drive for four.”
The series may be in the bag but Captain Brook has spoken a lot about wanting his side to be ‘ruthless’, he’ll want his side to make it a clean sweep in the ODI series before the T20 portion of West Indies’ tour gets underway in Durham on Friday.
Also – whisper it – but England’s fielding also left a lot to be desired on Sunday, dropped catches, fluffed run outs and mis-fields in the deep showed they still have plenty of work to do before they become slicker than a Brylcreem’d BP salesman and transform into a well drilled winning machine.
Shai Hope’s side put up a much better display in Wales than the first game capitulation in Birmingham, Keacy Carty continued his excellent form to rack up his fourth ODI century and they’ll be desperate to get a win under their belts on this tour.
Play is due to get underway at 1pm but there is some weather around here at The Oval, fingers crossed the grey clouds lift and we get a game in. As ever, drop us a line if you are tuning in.
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