His Best Day

Tino Best drives straight

Tino la Bertram Best had no right to believe his cricket career would every get any better than having played Test cricket and left three years ago. A gregarious, effervescent character, his bowling had been robust but ineffective at the highest level and his tail end batting very much more swash than buckle. He had been so full of energy and enterprise when he debuted in 2003 against the Australians, that strategy and game plans were neglected. After 14 Tests, the West Indies could no longer afford him to be taking thirteen overs to take wickets which cost fifty runs a piece and he was dropped.

Now aged 30, he wouldn't have been seen again but some of the old enthusiasm was showing through in the domestic season for Barbados and he squeaked into the touring side for England. Injuries and desperation gave him an unexpected second chance at Birmingham and after two days of rain and a day of battle by the batsmen, he strode onto the Edgbaston ground after only three balls of the fourth morning, already smiling.

What a day out he had.

In a morning session extended by the game's situation, he spent more than two hours spanking England's bowlers, captain, coach and selectors for their arrogance and the disrespect they had shown his team and the game in standing down two of the most deadly finishers in the game. He blazed his way to a half century off just 44 deliveries, settled in to support his partner Dinesh Ramdin to a well deserved century and then became became the highest scoring No 11 in the 2045 Test history of the game. That he missed his century by such a narrow margin was heart breaking but irony is the mixing bowl in which cricket ingredients are combined and his dismissal was not a victory for England but another reminder that no one man is bigger than the game. For once, those that cherish this game would have wished it not be quite so hard. Watching him walk to the boundary with his head wrapped mournfully in his hands before raising his head to smile again and thank the crowd was an experience which ended a morning which washed the cynicism and greed clean from a week of character assassination and self righteousness.

Best then took wickets early and late in his more fancied role as an opening bowler, as England stumbled either side of a glorious partnership.

Ramdin reaches 100

Amidst the last wicket partnership of 143, Ramdin raised a fine century. There had been intensity from the start and a steel in his step in a rescue mission that he refused to yield right to the end. In a remarkable display, after working a single to square leg and bringing up his second Test hundred, Ramdin continued on towards the press box, unfolded an A4 piece of paper from his trousers pocket and held it up to be read. "Yea Viv talk nah" was the written message, emphasised with a finger jabbed in the direction of the BBC radio commentary team. Viv Richards had slammed the West Indies team in general and Ramdin in particular on the eve of the Test, calling on him to be sacked. It was an emphatic reply and a brave one. Men who tilt at gods seldom survive but there aren't many bowlers from the seventies and eighties who wouldn't be smiling in the aftermath. Sir Viv has talked much and achieved little since he put that SS bat away and Ramdin's point was powerful, especially given the planning involved in its delivery. They say you should respect your elders but perhaps only if they are respectable. Kevin Pietersen may have appreciated the statement.

The match now beyond them in the time available, England did what they do worst, batting out time. Alastair Cook, Jonathon Trott and Andrew Strauss were all gone by the fifteenth over with less than fifty on the board to the combination of Best, Ravi Rampaul and Darren Sammy. There was more than a wiff about the English when Strauss was third out, brilliantly caught by Darren Bravo at first slip off Best. They were vulnerable and the only side who could lose the game.

Ian Bell was elegant

Pietersen at his unambitious best

Pietersen and Bell changed that. Both with things to prove after events on and off the field in the last seven days, they came out and played as they should have against an attack well short of others they have bested in the past three years. Pietersen blasted the potentially dangerous Sunil Narine from the attack, smashing 7 fours and a monstrously large six over long on from the Test newcomer as his fifteen overs went at nearly five. Bell was more surgical than brutal but no less effective, driving, cutting and pulling Rampaul for boundaries in one over as the day stretched into the long English evening. Their partnership of 137 in thirty overs was the work of two determined men, unwilling to succumb to comments high above the boundary from yesterday's men.

Samuels removed Pietersen thanks to Sammy's quick reflexes and sure hands at first slip. Perhaps it was the time of the day or an approaching hundred which distracted him but the value of Samuel's apparently innocuous part time off spin again went against popular opinion. With the day finally closing in, Jonny Bairstow played across the line looking for runs to square leg and was castled by Best.

Fittingly Best had the last, hearty laugh.

Unless the West Indies take 5-5 on the final morning, the game is headed to a destination that was booked after lunch on the second day. Even then, an even more over powering opponent waits for them ... the English weather. Rain has ruined their tour. England have won all the important moments and will deserve their series win, but rain has taken away or damaged any preparation time before or during the series. In these micro tours, any interruptions are destructive. Not surprisingly when they finally get on top, rain, not the West Indies, will dominate the last day.

Still, you can only do your Best.