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Kemar Roach set his sights on but extra success after the quick bowler grew to become simply the ninth West Indian – and first since 1994 – to take 200 Test wickets. Barbados quick bowler Roach reached the landmark when he had England’s Chris Woakes playing-on through the second day of the third Test at Old Trafford on Saturday. Despite Roach’s eventual return of 4-72, England nonetheless made 369 of their first innings, thanks primarily to tailender Stuart Broad’s dashing 62. And at stumps, the West CWSIndies had slumped to 137-6, a deficit of 232 runs, to offer England the sting within the deciding match of a three-Test sequence presently all sq. at 1-1.
But the 32-year-old Roach was understandably pleased with his achievement in turning into the primary West Indies bowler since Curtly Ambrose 26 years in the past to take 200 Test wickets.
“I guess I had that landmark on my mind a little bit too much, I had a few restless nights,” Roach, who amazingly went wicketless when the West Indies beat England within the opening match of this sequence, instructed the BBC.
“It’s good to get past that barrier now and see how many more I can get. 300 would be great.
“I’ll work laborious to get there and we’ll see what number of I can go previous 300,” added Roach, now in his 59th Test following a debut in 2009.
Roach was initially an express quick, capable of 90 mph bouncers.
But his career started to take a different direction in 2014 when he was involved in a car crash in Barbados after suffering shoulder and ankle injuries either side of that incident.
Struggling to regain speed, Roach became increasingly expensive and was dropped by the West Indies for 18 months.
But he was recalled for the last tour of England three years ago, and since then he has become an effective performer, with his use of the crease and greater movement through the air and off the seam compensating for a decline in raw speed.
Since 2017, he has taken 79 wickets in 22 Tests at a miserly average of under 23 apiece.
‘Relentless’ England
But whereas the likes of Ambrose found themselves operating on helpful home surfaces in attacks featuring fellow great fast bowlers such as Malcolm Marshall and Courtney Walsh, Roach has had nothing like the same quality of support at a time when Caribbean pitches increasingly favouring spin.
Another sign of changing times is that when the West Indies last won a Test at Old Trafford 32 years ago, in a crushing innings and 156-run success that featured Marshall’s second-innings 7-22, they had a four-man pace attack while England fielded two spinners.
Fast forward to 2020 and roles are reversed, with England fielding a seam bowling quartet of James Anderson, Broad, Jofra Archer and Woakes, while the West Indies play two spinners in Rahkeem Cornwall and Roston Chase.
At stumps on Saturday both Anderson and Broad, with over 1,000 Test wickets between them, had each taken 2-17.
And whereas the West Indies once enjoyed an enviable depth of seam bowling, England now have the likes of Mark Wood and Sam Curran waiting in the wings
“I believe what you wish to try to keep away from is 4 seamers that each one do precisely the identical factor,” mentioned Broad.
Promoted
“Whereas this seam assault actually does have a distinction in line of assault, seam and swing and wobble.
“It’s quite relentless.”
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