A Look Back: Lords 2000
David Windram reflects on a test match that symbolised the changing of the guard..
30 June 2000
The Second Test of the 2000 Wisden Trophy had significance before a ball had even been bowled; the reverence with which English cricket holds Lords Cricket Ground would make sure of that. Not only was this to be the first Test match played at the ground in the new millennium, it also marked the 100th Test hosted at the historic venue. What transpired would mark this a significant Test not only in English record books, but the impact of one single day would be keenly felt in the Caribbean for the next two decades.
Since the introduction in 1963 of a formal trophy for series between West Indies and England, the Islanders had stuck it to their former colonisers with a vengeance.
Years of mistreatment inspired countless Test match wins through the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s. Indeed, England had only picked the trophy up twice, in back to back series wins between 1967 to 1969, in addition winning only 13 of 81 test matches.
However, come the turn of the century, Caribbean dominance was beginning to show signs of wavering. The previous two series held on English shores had been drawn, but the ignominy of their hosts plummeting to the base of the Test Match Rankings in the previous summer meant that West Indies arrived with no indication that they were about to relinquish control of the Wisden Trophy for almost as long as they had held it.
There was relative calm before the storm. This being long before the cringeworthy re-labelling as “Fortress Edgbaston”, the first test in Birmingham resulted in an innings win for the West Indies on the back of 8 wickets across the match for Courtney Walsh. The first day of the Second Test similarly showed no signs of the upheaval to come, although a slight collapse towards the end of the day meant West Indies ended on 267 with one wicket remaining. As evening fell in St John’s Wood on Thursday 29 June, nobody sensed the significance of what was to come.
Almost as if to predict the impending carnage, sinister grey skies greeted the teams on Day Two. The overnight total not troubled as Courtney Walsh was trapped LBW from the first ball of the day, closing the West Indies innings on a solid, but unspectacular, 267.
Those gloomy conditions had the destructive pairing of Ambrose and Walsh purring as they took the new ball in what was to be their final appearance at Lords. The duo couldn’t have hoped for a better start, Ambrose taking care of Ramprakash for a duck in the first over and Walsh dispensing of Atherton off the last ball of the second over. The third wicket quickly followed and England were in disarray with only 9 runs on the board, prompting Bob Willis to declare “these guys are just too good for England, it is as simple as that”.
The Windies quicks smelled blood, and although England somewhat recovered to get to lunch at 58 for 5, a West Indian victory seemed inevitable. Walsh and Ambrose did nothing to dispel that theory as they continued to bowl as well as they ever had, wreaking havoc on the English middle and lower order. The hosts eventually succumbing within fifty overs, all out for 134, with four wickets a piece for the Antiguan/Jamaican duo.
A lead of 133 laid the perfect platform and normal service certainly looked to be continuing.
With the skies remaining overcast, the bowlers could put their feet up as the batsmen conservatively saw out the remainder of the day and came back tomorrow to grind the English into the dirt. The Third Test being drawn would have meant this win secured at least a level series and in the process the retention of the Wisden Trophy. That is what should have happened; however by the end of the day Ambrose and Walsh would be back out marking their bowling run ups once again.
The second West Indian innings started ominously, Sherwin Campbell slashing at a ball well outside his off stump and Darren Gough taking an uncharacteristically athletic catch, the kind of strange circumstance at the start of an innings which could spark panic.
This was to be an innings contradicting the natural order and decades of West Indian maulings of England on their own patch. The weather should have dictated that the English bowlers pitch the ball up, moving it late and looking for the edge. However, the contrary tactics of short pitch bowling clearly caught the Windies batsmen off guard, Adrian Griffith was hit on the head, a number of the remaining top order were hit on various parts of the body and a slew of wickets caught at short leg. One by one the Windies batsmen came to the crease and one by one they were dismissed in mere minutes, like a runaway train with faulty brakes nothing could stop the slide.
The usually reserved Lords crowd ceased their constant background murmur and instead roared every ball, sensing the opportunity to get themselves back in the series and ultimately end the days of Windies domination. At 6.30pm Dominic Cork dismissed Reon King and the West Indies were all out for 54, having started their innings just after tea.
This still gave time for England to commence their second innings, thereby resulting in the unprecedented moment of a ball being bowled in all four innings of a Test match on the same day.
In hindsight it may seem inevitable that the Test would be lost off the back of such a collapse and from a position of relative security, however the Windies bowlers did make a gallant effort to recover the position on Day 3 but ultimately fell short, England knocking off the required 191 runs with only 2 wickets left. Having had more than one hand on the Wisden Trophy at tea on Day 2, the fact that the series was now level at 1-1 was a killer blow, after which England inevitably prevailed 3-1 in the series.
Things have been very tough on English soil since that fateful Friday afternoon, the dawn of a new Millennium proving to be the close of West Indian dominance on English soil and only fleeting moments of joy since; Darren Sammy’s 7 wickets at Old Trafford in 2007; Tino Best’s 95 in 2009 being, at the time, the highest score by a number 11 batsmen; and the well documented match winning centuries from Shai Hope at Headingley in 2017.
The West Indies return in to England in 2020 as holders of the Wisden Trophy and for the first time since 2000 considered to have more than a punchers chance of winning on English soil.
Given that the Trophy has lent itself to periods of extreme dominance Jason Holder may well be wishing that his men can banish any lingering reminders of that fateful Saturday at Lords.