West Indies’ Jason Holder. Associated Press / Mahesh Kumar A., File
Caribbean Life, JULY 3-9, 2020 29
By Nelson A. King
West Indies Captain Jason
Holder had another short stay
at the crease as the tourists’
second and final intra-squad
match before next week’s first
Test against England finally
got under way at Emirates Old
Trafford, England, according to
ESPNcricinfo.
It said Holder has been
recently troubled by an ankle
niggle; “and while the Windies
have played down concerns
about whether he is still
hampered by the injury, he is
running out of chances to get
some match sharpness under
his belt.”
ESPNcricinfo said Holder
was out for a golden duck and
did not bowl in the Windies’
first internal match last week,
adding that Holder “looked ill
at ease during his brief time in
the middle on Tuesday, when
the all-rounder was dismissed
for only five off 13 balls.
“In truth, he could have
departed for a second successive
nought after he clipped his
second ball to midwicket, only
for Preston McSween to spill
a relatively straightforward
chance,” ESPNcricinfo said.
It said Jermaine Blackwood
was also out for a singlefigure
score as the intermittent
rain, which had wiped out the
first four sessions of this fourday
fixture, relented to allow
play to start at 2.20 p.m. local
time under floodlights.
ESPNcricinfo said the wickets
of Blackwood and Holder
were “part of a top-order wobble
that saw the side led by
the latter lurch from 79 for 1
to 108 for 5 against a Kraigg
Brathwaite XI before closing
early on 120 for 5 due to bad
light.”
ESPNcricinfo said the decision
to abandon plans to pursue
first-class status for this
contest meant Oshane Thomas
was drafted in to open the
bowling.
“The paceman made an
immediate impression as a precision
yorker castled Sheyne
Moseley first ball,” it said. “It
was a dramatic start to the
game but, thereafter, Thomas
over-pitched in an effort to find
early swing while Keon Harding
was wayward and bowled
several no-balls to allow Joshua
Da Silva and Sunil Ambris to
build a platform.”
ESPNcricinfo said Da Silva
was “the aggressor and the
mainstay of the innings, getting
off the mark with a streaky
flash over the slips off Harding
but then gradually warming to
his task with a series of silky
front-foot drives.”
The pair went along at five an
over in a 79-run stand, which
was ended when Ambris, on
25, got a top-edge off Chemar
Holder (2 for 15), which looped
to short-leg, leaving Marquino
Mindley to run in and take a
stooping catch, ESPNcricinfo
said.
It said Blackwood, aiming
for a recall at the Ageas Bowl
on July 8 nearly three years
after his last Test start, made
just 1 off six balls before Mindley
found the outside edge, and
John Campbell took a simple
chance at second slip.
ESPNcricinfo said Campbell
“had no problem also snaffling
Nkrumah Bonner, who failed
to trouble the scorers after an
attempted drive off Chemar
Holder caught the edge.”
But it said McSween would
give the paceman’s namesake a
chance early in his innings.
“Jason Holder, though, could
not capitalize on his reprieve
as the frugal Anderson Phillip
(6-3-9-1) put the ball on a good
length and the skipper tentatively
prodded forward, nicking
to Shamarh Brooks at a wide
third slip,” ESPNcricinfo said.
Holder’s form a concern as rain
hampers Windies warm-up