I waited for history to
happen on this day 12th July 2020 ~ for people like us under
lockdown from Mar 24, 2020 – this indeed is interesting ! – yes a test match
happening after 4 months – amidst Covid and the touring West Indies emerging
winners. A significant win to Jason
Holder and West Indies !
There was nothing particularly
festive about Nicola Sturgeon’s recent visit to the Cold Town House, a newly
reopened Edinburgh pub, but maybe that was the point. Sipping coffee and
surveying plexiglass dividers, Ms. Sturgeon, the leader of Scotland’s
government, warned customers not to expect the jolly, sweaty intimacy of
nightlife before the coronavirus pandemic. “No beer garden or cafe should feel
the same as it did before,” she said as a drenching rain fell, obscuring the
stony ramparts of Edinburgh Castle that tower above this once-teeming
establishment.
As Scotland emerges from a
three-month lockdown, it is moving more carefully than neighboring England, a
divergence that owes a lot to Ms. Sturgeon’s cautious style and her conviction
that England, under its more freewheeling leader, Boris Johnson, is taking too
many risks in a headlong rush to resume public life. For now, Scotland’s
approach has made it a bright spot in coronavirus-ravaged Britain. New cases
have dwindled to a handful a day, and deaths to a trickle. If Scotland
maintains this progress — a big if, given its open border — it could stamp out
the epidemic by the fall, public health experts say. Such a goal seems fanciful
in England, which is still reporting hundreds of new cases and dozens of deaths
every day.
On to the playing area, he
was peppered with shortballs and sometimes he was shaping clumsily, was hit too
on a couple of occasions but he stayed.
Michael Holding wielding the mike said, we were instructed to stay till
the cows returned home (sound familiar) and went on to explain, in Caribbean,
the farmers would go out with their cattle & return late in the evening when Sun would be
setting !
Though he displayed dour
attitude, he is a n aggressive batsman from Jamaica. Jermaine Blackwood broke into the West Indies
Test squad in June 2014, during the home series against New Zealand, after a
successful first-class season. If there were any doubts about the kind of
cricket Blackwood was going to play, he laid them to rest with his second
scoring shot - a six over long-on off New Zealand seamer Trent Boult. Blackwood
went on to score 63 runs but was left out in the third Test as West Indies
opted for an extra bowler.
Back home, on Dec 20,2012,
England played India in a T20I at Pune
in the newly built MCA stadium (Maharashtra Cricket Association), it has hosted
few International matches too. England
set a target of 158 only to be overhauled with 13 balls to spare and 5 wickets
in hand. You cannot think that India had this bowling line up. Ashok Dinda, Ravi Ashwin, Parvinder Awana,
Ravindra Jadeja, Piyush Chawla, Virat Kohli & Yuvraj Singh !
Some parts of England will
run out of water within the next 20 years unless "urgent action" is
taken, is the view of the Public
Accounts Committee (PAC) in a report on the state of water supplies. It's
calling on the government to establish a league table for water companies to
pressure them into dealing with leaks. It also wants efficiency labels on domestic
products like washing machines and dishwashers to be made compulsory. The
government responded by saying it had already initiated a programme to improve
performance in the water industry.
Lot happening in United
Kingdom. The PM Boris Johnson is urging
people to act "safely and sensibly" as lockdown is eased from this
Saturday. Many businesses - including
restaurants, pubs, hairdressers and cinemas - have been allowed to open their doors for the first time
since March. At a press conference on
Friday, the PM will warn "we are not out of the woods yet" when it
comes to the virus. The pub industry said the re-opening was
"fantastic" but urged customers to respect staff and changes in
practices. Pub-goers are being encouraged to book tables in advance, while live
gigs and standing at the bar will not be allowed.
England has resumed Test
Cricket in a bold move by having a Test match under bubble environ, and are
planning more of the game. All 18
first-class counties will compete in a shortened red-ball tournament named in
honour of Bob Willis, the ECB has confirmed. A majority of counties voted to
play both red-ball and white-ball cricket when the season resumes on 1 August. The truncated T20 Blast will begin on 27
August, although a full fixture schedule is yet to be announced. Neil Snowball,
the ECB's managing director of county cricket, said: "The enforced break
due to Covid-19 has provided a challenging period for the county game, during
which time the 18 first-class counties have been united with a common goal to
get back to our core function of playing cricket. "The commitment of the
chairs and chief executives of the first-class counties to work together to
achieve that ambition has been resolute, and we will remain in close discussion
as we continue to assess risk factors that need to be mitigated in order to
ensure the safety and welfare of their players, coaches and staff.
Meantime, the First Test
against the touring West Indies was played at the Rose Bowl, Southampton,
England. Formerly known as The Ageas
Bowl, West End, the ground home to Hampshire was rebuilt by Hopkins Architects
(formerly Michael Hopkins and Partners), a prominent British architectural firm
established by architects Sir Michael and Patricia, Lady Hopkins. The practice was established in 1976 by
Michael and Patty Hopkins and is now run by five Principals. The practice has won many awards for its work and
has completed prestigious projects including London Velodrome, Evelina
Children's Hospital, Portcullis House
and Westminster Underground Station. The
practice's first building outside of the United Kingdom was the headquarters
for GEK in Athens in 2003, followed by Tokyo's Shin-Marunouchi Tower in 2007.
The test was engrossing at
Tea with West Indies needing 60 odd runs with 6 wickets and 41 overs at
hand. That was a very comfortable
position. When they started their chase
of 200, at the end of 4th over
John Campbell hobbled
off. A broken toe, suspected, as he took a yorker from Archer on the foot – he retired hurt. Not
sure, whether he could return but certain that he cannot run.
In earlier days, a runner
was allowed [in local parlance, help-runner]
to run between the wickets for an
injured batsman. This was covered by Law 25 of the Laws of Cricket. When a runner was used, the batsman would stand in position and play shots as normal, but would not
move – as the runner would do the running.
When the injured batsman moves off strike, he
would take up the position near the
square leg umpire (not at the bowler's end), as the runner would stand in the
bowling end. In a strange incident in
2003 in the 4th test match of the series
in Guyana against Australia, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and wicket-keeper batsman
Ridley Jacobs both had runners in Wevell Hinds and Marlon Samuels.
After Campbell hobbled
off, wickets fell in a heap and at 27/3 the future looked bleak. FoW : 1-7 (Kraigg Brathwaite, 5.4 ov), 2-7
(Shamarh Brooks, 7.3 ov), 3-27 (Shai Hope, 11.4 ov), 4-100 (Roston Chase, 35.4
ov)
From there Blackwood
really stood tall, winning it for the Windies with good support from Chase and
Dowrich – earlier their bowlers Jason Holder and Shannon Gabriel had bowled
their hearts out. When Blackwood got out
at 95 – he had placed WI well and truly in sight of a win – injured Campbell
walked in to complete with the winning shot !
In case, you wonder the relevance of reference to Pune Stadium, this too was built by Hopkins Architects
Good for Test
Cricket and good for the island Nation
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
12.7.2020 @ 22.25 hrs.
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