"Ashes to Ashes - Through the night with the England cricket team" - Part 3

Episode 7 of "The Blackford Book Club" is also the third part of 5 from my self-published book of May 2023 entitled "Ashes to Ashes".

Here we return to the ill fated tour of the West Indies in 2022 and England's ignominious 1-0 series defeat and the nadir before the revolution under the tutelage of new coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes that would soon spring into life on the tour of Pakistan later in the year.

But first, the end of the West Indies tour, here is my reading of it from a chapter entitled "Brathwaite leads West Indies to dominant victory" and a brief taster from the book itself:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C5Z3FVYC

"It was highly appropriate as well as some beautiful sporting poetic justice that West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite was not only at the wicket at the denouement of this Test Match but in fact scored the winning runs that gave his side a momentous victory and a 1–0 triumph both today and across the 3 Test Match series. 90 minutes was all it took in this morning’s session as England doggedly extended their overnight lead of just 10 runs to 27 and for the West Indian openers Brathwaite and John Campbell to rattle off the 28 runs required for victory. Chris Woakes gained a “life” when he successfully reviewed a catch against him but 1 run later was miraculously caught at Leg Slip by Jason Holder. It was a ridiculous catch, with Holder grabbing it one handed and seemingly behind him! 6 runs later and Jack Leach’s 55 ball stay at the crease ended with another wicket for Kemar Roach and another catch behind the stumps for Joshua Da Silva.

Just 28 runs were required and Brathwaite and Campbell clobbered them in double quick time.

Brathwaite was rightly named as the “Man of the Series” and the official stamp applied for the series top run scorer and far and away the most impressive player across all 3 Test Matches.

He’s seemingly batted all day, every day!

The stories are as legion as the statistics he’s posted throughout the series and he’s truly led his fledgling and much changed side to a thoroughly deserved series victory".

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