England may have thought that if they trusted Woakes the opening of the bowling alley would increase its peak, but another lukewarm start set the tone in the wrong way. Kraigg Braithwaite and John Campbell calmly designed the third stand of the 50+ series, with the help of a new ball spell by the Woakes and Craig Overton that carried the full threat of a flower offering and a foot massage. Half of Woakes’ 30 deliveries left him alone and the numbers 5-2-11-0 raised his combined returns from the original spells to five innings in Antigua, Barbados and Grenada to 21-6-70-0. All this in the most spicy stadium of the tour, which allowed the athletes of the West Indies to fill their boots, reducing England to 114 for 9 on the first day. Circumstances may have eased – as they clearly did when Jack Leach and Saqib Mahmood did the last wicket rescue operation – but the comparison was not flattering. Jayden Seales, Roach and Co. It took a while to get things right, the English Open survived to 13th before the wickets started to fall – but by that point, according to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball calendars, the West Indies Fast Bowlers had caused 21 uncontrolled responses. in the same number of deliveries, England managed just nine. “I think in the first hour we could probably play a little bit fuller,” Woakes told BT Sport after the game. “We were probably a little short, we could have made the batsmen play a little more. But at the same time, I thought that when we got the ball in the right areas, the ball did not seem to offer much What we saw yesterday. “Maybe the cylinder left after an hour and after we got the ball in those areas more firmly, we saw that it was harder to knock.” That’s fair, but once again there was a sense that, no matter how admirable his abilities were, Woakes was missing something. Nasser Hussain wrote in his autobiography how Duncan Fletcher, the England coach during his tenure, rated Darren Gough for a quality referred to as “dogf * ck” – translated by Hussain as “ability do not stress and know what to do “. Woakes, to put it mildly, does not appear as the main “dogf * ck” candidate. But a player in the England squad undoubtedly has these qualities similar to Gough, tireless and resourceful. If Woakes was the de facto leader of the attack, in the absence of Anderson and Broad, then Ben Stokes was again the leader of the ring as tourists began to change things after a fruitless first hour. Stokes opened an opening by hitting hard on the pitch, causing him to pass and nail Brathwaite lbw. Saqib Mahmood had similar success against Shamarh Brooks and when Overton dug one up to create a foot glove from Campbell, England had their model of success on a surface that remained difficult to fight if it were no longer their green mamba Thursday morning. None of this seemed to bode well for Wooks and his unprecedented, orthodox approach when he was called up to battle again after lunch. But then you do not survive for more than a decade in international cricket, claiming almost 300 wickets as well as a World Cup winner medal, if you have nothing for yourself. Maybe “dogf * ck” was finally there, or maybe it was just a change of fortune, but Woakes had suddenly turned from a school prefect into a bearded brawler in the thick of action. Chris Woakes hit twice on one over Getty Images Immediately began to gain a more aggressive line, England unsuccessfully reconsidered for an edge under the foot from Blackwood, and then saw a similar decision made against Nkrumah Bonner only to have the DRS intervene again. But Woakes continued to run away until he finally hit the payroll. His first wicket came through a slip that left Bonner on his back as he kissed the glove on Ben Foakes. Three balls later, he tried again in the middle of the field for a good result, Jason Holder did not make a mistake in pulling in the deep square foot. Blackwood was then nailed just above the knee roll, and this time the referee – and the technology – sided with the bowler. The West Indies were 95 to 6 and, although not in the same stew that England had left in 24 hours, the game was uniform. “Receiving three today was very nice,” Woakes said. “I always try to do a job for the team. It was a very important spell after lunch, to get their middle class out. It’s the kind of wicket, with the ball getting softer than they could have won. I work for the team, I’m happy. “Obviously I wish I had gotten more wickets, but it did not happen. The most important thing is to try to do a job for the team and as long as I am still selected I will continue to do so.” At the end of the day things were still in balance, as another lower-class fighter back opened the West Indies to the first innings. Woakes had stripped his fangs and won three or more wickets in an innings of an away test only for the fourth time in 36 attempts – whether his efforts should be remembered as a vital contribution to a brave Test victory or as a footnote to the final. England’s failure in the Caribbean is still unwritten. It was not exactly the case for Woakes to say “No more Mr Nice Guy” and to tear down all our prejudices. But it could help prevent England from deciding “No more Mr Nice Guy” the next time they tour abroad. Alan Gardner is Deputy Editor at ESPNcricinfo. @alanroderick
