Mike Selvey/Grenada / The Guardian
England can move on to Barbados in good heart. The win in Grenada, sparked by an inspired Jimmy Anderson on the final morning, came at a time when most people were expecting the match to drift to a soporific end. The best cricketers are those who can elevate their game to a different level when the call comes and Anderson had the force with him. It turned the game on its head and the belief in the players, which is strong, rose visibly with it.
So coach Peter Moores, an enthusiast for whom being merely cheerful means he has had a bad day, had every reason to smile the morning after. “I think when we arrived it was an unexpected outcome,” the coach said at the team hotel, “because we’d bowled very well the last session of the first day. But they were 79 for one off 36 overs and they played really well.
“We couldn’t have given much more. I think we knew the second new ball was going to be the key and we’d have to bowl very well with it, and things would have to go our way: both things happened.
“It was a great win and a great feeling. In many ways it felt like a reward for all the hard work that you’ve seen going on by the players and the coaches, everybody. It all comes through and you can feel the euphoria of the win. It is a great release.
“It was fantastic and it was great to see everybody enjoying themselves. We came back to the hotel, there were lots of fans there and it was great.”
Anderson was superb. He has always maintained that when he really needed it he had an extra gear and he proved that with his new-ball spell, pushing his speed up noticeably.
“It was a world-class spell of bowling,” Moores agreed. “The areas he bowled, the plans he delivered, the pace he bowled – I think he bowled close to 90mph – was Jimmy at his best. And on that sort of pitch you need a world-class performer, sometimes, to open the game up. I’m not surprised.
“How Jimmy goes up on the fifth day of the second Test back to back, I think it was a great advocate of what playing for your country means. You’ve got the new ball, you’re going to go and he found something in him that pushed him to another level again. He was like a youngster again. He needed something because if you look at the wickets on that pitch, often it was when someone really got to the top with their pace. Stuart Broad in the first innings really clicked, he got his rhythm just perfect because it was a very tough pitch to bowl on.”
However understandably euphoric things might be in the aftermath, though, the win does not mean that all is yet right with the team. The final Test does not start until Friday and there has been no discussion yet about the team for that match, certainly without seeing the pitch first. There has to be concern about the way in which Jonathan Trott has played, although Moores, perhaps unsurprisingly, seemed to be supportive of the manner in which he batted and of the opening partnership continuing in Barbados.
Trott made a studious, important 59 in the first innings during a century stand with Alastair Cook but his other three innings in the series have been a pair of noughts, each from three deliveries, and four. The manner in which he throws himself across the crease and tries to work round his body does not inspire confidence, except in the away swing bowler. In the second innings, he played each of the three deliveries inadequately.
Clearly Moores sees things differently. “I don’t think his temperament changed. For me, it was more of a technical thing. But he’s a very experienced player and has done a lot of work, and the way he played in the last Test was more like Jonathan Trott. He tends to go at the bowler a bit and I thought he played well in the first innings.
“Second innings, he got out on his third ball. I think he’d admit in Antigua he hadn’t quite got himself where he wanted to be, he was a little bit overbalanced. He sorted that out and I thought the partnership between him and Cook was a really good partnership. So I think he’ll come out of that Test match thinking: ‘Yeah, actually I feel in good nick. I feel like I’ve got myself going.’ We’d look at every spot, as we always do, but I was really pleased at how they played.”
