By Tony Becca , Contributing EditorBIRMINGHAM:
THE SECOND Test of the npower series between the West Indies and England opens at Edgbaston this morning with the home team bubbling with confidence, the visitors, the once mighty Windies, on their knees and praying that God, or probably Corey Collymore, will help them.
Winners of the first Test at Lord's by a commanding 210 runs and one-up in the four-match contest, England, with seven victories from their last eight matches, including four out of five against the West Indies, are gunning for a victory that would ensure that they cannot lose the series.
After Lord's, with a batting line-up of the solid Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss, Robert Key, Michael Vaughan and Graham Thorpe plus the explosive Andrew Flintoff and wicketkeeper/batsman Geraint Jones, with bowlers like pacers Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Simon Jones, and left-arm spinner Ashley Giles, plus Flintoff if necessary, they are confident it will be mission accomplished when it is over. After losing at Lord's where they scored 416 in the first innings, however, the West Indies, with 29 losses in their past 39 matches away from home, are trembling, and with Chris Gayle scoring 66 and 81, Shivnarine Chanderpaul 128 not out and 97 not out at headquarters, with Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan, plus the promising Devon Smith and Dwayne Bravo and the experienced Ridley Jacobs, it has nothing to do with Harmison, Hoggard and company certainly not after what happened at Lord's.
At Lord's, Harmison, England's deadly destroyer in the Caribbean a few months ago, picked up only two wickets and, as captain Lara said after the match, while Harmison represented their biggest threat going into the match, that should no longer be so.
The feeling, the general feeling, is that the West Indies batsmen can deal with England bowlers especially if the weather is kind to the tourists. The West Indies problem, therefore, is the England batting and as solid as it appears, as well as Key, Vaughan and Flintoff batted at Lord's, as good as Strauss and Thorpe are, it has nothing to do with them.
BOWLERS
The problem for the West Indies is the West Indies bowlers.
For some time now, in Zimbabwe, in South Africa and in the first Test against Bangladesh, the Windies bowling has been weak, it has been disappointing, it has been easy pickings, and at Lord's it was worse.
It was so bad that West Indians, including some great past players, hung their heads in shame. In fact, it was so bad that even non-West Indians were embarrassed for West Indies cricket for West Indies bowling as they saw it at Lord's in both innings but more so on the first day when England chipped to 391 for two off 84.3 overs.
"Tony, I have been watching, as a player or a commentator, West Indies cricket for 38 years, and this is the worst bowling I have ever seen by your bowlers," said former England opening batsman Geoffrey Boycott at the end of the first day.
"They did not know where the stumps were. I am a great admirer of West Indies cricket, I don't get any fun out of what is happening, but what happened out there today was shocking."
That was saying it as it is, that is similar to what West Indians have been saying and that is what is troubling the West Indies as they prepare for round two.
The pitch at Edgbaston is expected to be better for batting than the one at Lord's and if it turns out to be so, if the West Indies again go in with pacers Pedro Collins, Tino Best and Fidel Edwards and offspinner Omari Banks, unless God is on their side, their only hope is a draw.
Even if it turns out to be a bowler's pitch, one of the pacers should go, and it should be one of Best even if he has recovered from his back injury, and Edwards for Jermaine Lawson, preferably, or Collymore who joined the team on Monday as replacement for the injured Ravi Rampaul. In fact, both Best and Edwards should go and both Lawson and Collymore should come in.
