Whenever West Indies have won a Test match in recent times, we have always seen at least one among Jason Holder, Shai Hope, Kraigg Brathwaite, Kemar Roach or Shannon Gabriel coming up with a mesmerizing performance, and it was no different when West Indies registered a 4-wicket victory over England in the first Test of their three-match series at Southampton on Sunday.
Barring Hope and Roach, all three of Holder, Brathwaite and Gabriel made significant contributions towards their victory. Gabriel was even adjudged the Player-of-the-match for his splendid match figures of 9/137 which included a five-wicket haul in the third innings as well. However, in spite of such fine efforts, the performance that took our breath away came from Jermaine Blackwood — a name that we least expected.
Even though it was Gabriel who kept breaking the back of the English batting lineup with his fiery spells across both innings, it was Blackwood’s knock of 95 in the fourth innings, and on the fifth day of the match, that swept everyone off their feet.
Chasing a target of 200 for victory, West Indies had found themselves in trouble as the English bowlers had reduced them to 27 for 3. That was the time when Jermaine Blackwood walked out to bat and what followed next is going to be remembered forever.
Blackwood is an aggressive batsman by nature and has always been known for throwing away his starts in this format of the game. That’s why he hadn’t been a part of West Indies’ first XI in the last two and a half years. The only time he made an appearance in Tests for West Indies during this period was as a concussion substitute against India in 2019.
However, he was selected for this tour on the back of a terrific performance in their first-class season during which he was the highest run-scorer with 768 runs to his name in just 15 innings for Jamaica. These runs included a double century against Leeward Islands as well and that sums up the kind of form he was in.
The 2019/20 domestic season was a big one for Jermaine Blackwood. He topped the run-charts and also made an epic career-best 248 for Jamaica against Windward Islands.
Blackwood had credited former WI opener Devon Smith’s advice for the performance. Can he help WI here?#ENGvWI pic.twitter.com/bf6tuAmoPh— Stat Doctor🩺 (@stat_doctor) July 10, 2020
While it was his inconsistency in this format that took away his place from West Indies’ first XI, his newly found consistency in the domestic season worked as the main reason for his comeback. According to him, the reason behind his improved performance was his effort and determination to ‘bat time’.
“Over the years people have got the wrong impression about me, like I’m a ball-beater or whatever. But it’s just natural for me, I’m from the Caribbean, it’s only natural for me to score runs. I want to add a little bit more to my game and bat time. I’m really pushing hard for that and I’m really putting the mental work as well in to bat time. Once I bat time, I will score runs,” Blackwood had told the Press Association a couple of weeks back.
And he followed the same mantra during his knock of 95 at Southampton. His innings came off 153 deliveries which means he scored his runs at a fairly high strike-rate of 61.68. The high strike-rate might give an impression that he attacked a lot but he hit a total of 12 fours which means there were only 12 deliveries out of a total of 153 deliveries that accounted for boundaries. His remaining 47 runs came in 141 balls and that sums up how patient he was in his approach.
Instead of trying to manufacture shots out of good deliveries, Blackwood waited for the bad balls and sent most of them to the boundary. He took a measured approach in which he took calculated risks from time to time. He played on the merit of the ball and that’s how he succeeded. The only time he tried to go for a big heave with West Indies needing just 11 runs to win, he was out caught at mid off. But he had done his job by then. His 95 runs constituted half of West Indies’ total till then and he didn’t need the validation of a three-figure mark to prove how good his innings was.
.@JBlackwood100 now has the sixth best batting average for @windiescricket players against 🏴 in Tests (min 500 runs).#ENGvWI pic.twitter.com/t7MC8vc6gK
— Stat Doctor🩺 (@stat_doctor) July 12, 2020
In fact, this wasn’t Blackwood’s first big score against England. If we look at his record, he has always been a menace for the English side. The first and only century of his career came against England at Kingston back in 2016. Moreover, he has an average of 55 against England which is the highest among the current set of West Indies batsmen. Only former West Indies greats like Lawrence Rowe, George Headley, Viv Richards, Brian Lara and Garry Sobers have a higher Test average against England than Blackwood.
The 28-year-old was one of West Indies’ better performers with the bat during the tour of 2017 to England as well. He scored 79* in the first innings of the first Test at Birmingham which they lost to England. Blackwood even contributed with scores of 41 and 49 across the two innings during their memorable win at Leeds in the second Test. If these performances aren’t enough, Blackwood’s knocks of 85 and 47* at Bridgetown in 2015 had formed the base for another memorable victory over England.
Interestingly, Blackwood has scored 605 of his total of 1469 Test runs against England. That constitutes 41 percent of his total runs and hence, sums up his liking for the English bowling attack. His memorable knock of 95 on Sunday has now given his Test career a new lease of life. While most batsmen found themselves struggling against Jofra Archer, who was breathing fire with the ball on the fifth day of the match, Blackwood thwarted the pacer’s threat with grit and determination. He even showed good technique to deal with Archer’s shot-pitched deliveries and thus gave an idea about how much he has grown as a batsman.
Blackwood shouldn’t let this performance go in vain now. There are two more Test matches to go in this series and he would be eager to perform well in those as well. A measured attacking approach is the key to his consistency in this format and he should continue with that in the road ahead.