Kraigg Brathwaite – 116 v England at St. George’s, Grenada
The fifth test hundred at the St. George’s ground, the third by a West Indian, and the first by a Barbados man (the two others were by Jamaicans) was a triumph of application and temperament over doomsaying and dismissal. I’ve rarely been more appalled by a commentariat so ignorant and so dimissive of a ton, excused as it was because it was made on a road that was killing test cricket. Rant over. I like this man, and hope he has a top future.
For those who commentate and ignore anything outside the England bubble, this would not have come as a surprise. It was Brathwaite’s 4th test hundred in 19 tests (Samuels has 7 in three times as many games) and his second highest. His best was against Bangladesh, when he made a double (212) and one of his other four was made against South Africa in Port Elizabeth (another “dead” track). I don’t expect miracles from a youngster, but he’s doing well. Did you know he’s hit just the one six in test cricket?
This was the third highest score made at St. George’s, below Root and Gayle. It was his third century in the Caribbean (the others were made at Kingstown (St Vincent) and Port of Spain).
This was the 67th score of 116 in test cricket. As is usual, I’ll look back at some of the older scorers of this amount for any statistical frippery. Archie MacLaren made the first 116 in tests, back in 1901. This was in the first test of the 1901/02 Ashes and England won by an innings and a few against the hosts at the SCG. That was as good as it got for England, as we lost the next four. No doubt the Selvey and Newman’s of the age would have been hootering and a hollering about the SCG and telling us all to pipe down and nothing was wrong!
The last 116 was scored by Mushfiqur Rahim of Bangladesh against the West Indies in Kingstown (when Brathwaite got his double). I’ve seen a test 116, and it was by everyone’s favourite Bedford schoolboy, when he hit a doughty and defiant innings of that score at the WACA in 2006.
Mark Butcher and Chris Broad (as well as Cook) are Englishmen with two scores of 116 to their name. For the West Indies, they have just five scores of 116 out of those 67 – Clyde Walcott, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Kraigg Brathwaite and two for Shiv Chanderpaul.
Kraigg Brathwaite’s 100 came off 228 balls and contained 11 fours. He made his 116 in 252 and added three more boundaries to his total.
Being Outside Cricket 
Well said, sir. You are spot on.
This boy is the real deal, and I will be amazed if he is not still breaking bowler’s hearts at least a decade from now.
He is boring to watch – in exactly that way that Test cricket lovers love to be bored.
Pain-staking, full of heart and application. Nothing pretty.
He is the workman who will begin laying the foundations for West Indies to become a decent Test-playing side again – and with the likely imminent departure of Shiv Chanderpaul, by Heaven they need him!
For over 10 years West Indies have been in thrall to Chris Gayle, and he and his cavalier imitators have done the West Indies Test side a disservice.
The dismissals of Samuels in the 1st innings and Blackwood in the 2nd are prime examples of their particular brand of lazy, self-indulgent cricket.
Samuels had a hundred under his belt, and could have taken his side to a possible match-winning total.
But he gets bored easily at the crease (unlike Kraigg, who leaves boredom to the onlookers) – and when he feels the need to impose himself wields his bat like an apprentice samurai – and lives and dies by the sword.
Blackwood is made of the same stuff. With his place secure after a 1st Test century, he chucked his wicket away in the 2nd with the frivolity of a millionaire.
West Indies cricket does not have so many riches to indulge such luxury – they are on the ‘bread line’ of the ICC rankings (and at the financial mercy of the BCCI too).
Brathwaite is a frugal accumulative miser with the bat who gives nothing away.
West Indies need a few more Ebeneezers in their batting order, and a few less Rockefellers.
God bless you Mr Scrooge!
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I thought Brathers and Chanders together would drag Windies up a little in the standings. Sadly, it seems that, instead of working together, the baton has been passed on. Still one test left to prove me wrong, Shiv!
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I missed the innings during an evening out in London, but I heard Aggers and Swanny and Boycs and the others predicting a WI meltdown. While I was returning home, I heard the summit up podcast and I was amazed how both Aggers and Boycs downplayed this century. For them it was more about England bowling badly. It was yet another dent to the view that Boycs says it how he sees it. It was an hilariously awful, one-eyed summing – up. Who pays these clowns to deliver such tripe?
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We all do, unfortunately.
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Thought I saw Boycott be quite good to him on Twitter.
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