The second Test between a buoyant West Indian team and a desperate England got under way at Antigua on Friday following an opening match in Kingston that yielded a shock result which few would have predicted. Darragh O’Donoghue offers his analysis of the opening match and predictions for the team’s future.
Wake-up Call
All the talk leading up to this series was of an English side tuning up for the Ashes by emphatically dismissing their beleaguered hosts, who were, in the words of former captain Michael Vaughan, ‘there for the taking’. An innings defeat will be a bitter pill to swallow for a side disrupted and demoralised by the removal of Peter Moores and demotion of key man Kevin Pietersen in the lead-up. Despite these distractions, the newly-appointed Andrew Stauss and his shell-shocked team can have no excuses for one of the more pitiful collapses in recent times, as they threatened to set a new low for Test match ineptitude before eventually crumbling to 51 all out. Read the rest of this entry »
