West Indies 116-1 v England 600-6 declared
West Indies opener Devon Smith ended a run of 23 innings without a fifty on day three of the fourth Test.
Smith recorded his fourth Test fifty with an edge that bisected first and third slip and also brought up the century stand with Ramnaresh Sarwan.
Resuming on 85-1 in reply to England's 600-6, the pair made good progress on the flat Kensington Oval surface.
Sarwan hit two fours in the first over but was glad to fend one to safety off Stuart Broad, with no short-leg placed.
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By Pranav Soneji
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606: DEBATE
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1442: West Indies 116-1
Smith unleashes a back-foot pull to another testing Broad delivery, but rather like Alastair Cook's demise on Thursday, he gets the ball a little too high on the bat, resulting in the ball looping in the air. But once again fortune favours the home side as the cherry sails over midwicket for two runs. Stuart Broad looks like someone has just stolen the last croissant he had been eyeing on the breakfast buffet.
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Emma in Bucks via Text 81111
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Devon Smith reaches his half-century with a thick outside edge off Ryan Sidebottom which would have gone straight down second slip's throat...had a second slip been in place, you get the idea now. Streaky, but Smith doesn't really care how they come as he brings up his fourth Test 50.
1433: West Indies 109-1
Stuart Broad is very unlucky. He's mixing his deliveries up like a short-sighted postman and forces Sarwan to loop a shortish delivery to where a short leg would have been placed had Andrew Strauss opted to field a short leg. Two singles from a useful over.
A missive from friends in Germany: "We play cricket at the Stuttgart University of all places. We actually attract a crowd (even double figures sometimes)."
Ali, Stuttgart via the TMS inbox
Ben Hilfenhaus, making his Test debut in Johannesburg, I think has very strong German blood. Albeit via Tasmania.
1428: West Indies 107-1
Devon Smith scythes a short and wide Sidebottom delivery about 30 foot over gully's head and down to the vacant deep backward point boundary for four very safe runs. Did anyone ever play that shot in Test cricket before Virender Sehwag made his debut?
"Although I hope England get 20 wickets - I wonder what Chanderpaul will be like on this track if he gets settled! Thats if England manage to take 20 wickets!"
Al in Galicia via the TMS inbox
Do you pronounce Galicia with a "th" replacing the "c", Al?
1422: West Indies 102-1
Broad bangs one in short which Devon Smith momentarily thinks about rocking onto the back foot to hook, but judiciously opts to leave the ball, which thumps into the gauntlets of Tim Ambrose. Maiden over.
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Pickles91 on 606
1418: West Indies 102-1
Devon Smith takes the Windies into three figures in decidedly dodgy fashion with a thick inside edge off Ryan Sidebottom which squirts past his off stump, down to the boundary for four very streaky runs.
"See 1355: I'm a Brit abroad, going through withdrawal symptoms because your text is the only link to the cricket I have, and I saw this in my local library here in snowy Rochester New Hampshire USA.....is it worth getting? Up here cricket is treated as an object of novelty/curiosity. Needless to say I take great delight in adding to the confusion and I may refer to it as a reference or instruction manual!"
Dispatch Andy via the TMS inbox
Get involved Andy, you may even find yourself a local cricket club. Check out the advice of John Gamgee: "I read Netherland a few months ago. Lovely novel. Great for all cricket lovers and sensitive Angst-ridden souls, of whom I am one."
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Another front-foot punch from Sarwan is pounced upon by James Anderson at mid-off, saving at least two runs, but the batting duo run through for a single which brings up the former captain's half-century, his 32nd of his Test career. Devon nicks the strike with a well-judged single off the last delivery of the over.
1408: West Indies 95-1
I have more than an ounce of sympathy for Ryan Sidebottom, who has as much chance of swinging this ball as I have of romancing Penelope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson like Javier Bardem (who thankfully opted not to keep that barnet from No Country For Old Men) in that Barcelona film. Two simple singles and it's a cakewalk for the Windies duo.
"I'd go for Devon, the rather attractive woman who worked with Jack Killian (Gary Cole) in late '80s US TV drama 'Midnight Caller'. Or Bristol Rovers striking legend Devon White."
BBC Sport's Danny the Stat not doing his statty work. Back to work Ted.
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Dom in Liverpool via Text 81111
Errrr, no.
1404: West Indies 93-1
Broad digs a short delivery in outside off stump, but Sarwan rides the bounce and guides the ball down to the vacant third man area for a well-controlled boundary. He follows that up with a square drive of MCC text-book perfection through cover point for four more. This pitch is flat as the contents of a London fashion week catwalk runway.
"Devon King - who was the radio boss in Midnight Caller in the 80s. How sad is it I remember that???"
J in Leics via the TMS inbox
1359: Various black, white, pink and salmon-burst colours dot the crowd as the players wander out to yet another picture-perfect day in Barbados, with Stuart Broad set to bowl the first over of the day to Sarwan.
1355: Ramnaresh Sarwan is fast becoming the Caribbean's equivalent of Superglue - adhesive and extremely effective, as long as you don't get him on your fingers. Sarwan is from Guyana, the same country where one of the main protagonists is from in the book I'm currently reading, Joseph O'Neill's Netherland. It's loosely based on cricket in New York and I'm about 150 pages in and loving it. Anyone else had a go? Please don't tell me what happens.
"On that wicket Devon Loch (see 1335) would have got close to a century, though I suspect like Cook and Collingwood he might have fallen just short."
Paul in Lancs via the TMS inbox
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TMS summariser Sir Geoff Boycott
1343: We're got a sporting smorgasbord going on this afternoon, with Premier League footy and Six Nations rugger on offer. Our lovely Cheese - one of the features of a typical Scandinavian food platter - is on the case with the football right now:
Meanwhile Rob Hodgetts is the keyboard basher for this afternoon's Six Nations matches in Dublin and Edinburgh.
1338: It's all going on at the Wanderers right now as Australia opt against enforcing the follow-on as South Africa are dismissed for 220. Has making the opposition bat again become the cricket equivalent of Angel Delight? As in, everyone used to do it in the 80s but it's far too embarrassing nowadays?
1335: Hello. Is it me you're looking for? Read a great comment from someone on 606 yesterday who proclaimed: "Devon Smith could get himself a century on this wicket, even Devon Malcolm might if we had drafted him in."
Which made me ponder - what other Devons could feasibly bash out a ton at the Kensington Oval? The only one I can think of is the bloke who was Michael Knight's boss in Knight Rider, you know, the bloke who lived in that massive juggernaut which could conveniently appear driving down a deserted Montana highway with red-misted mountains in the back. Anyone else? Your tools today - the TMS inbox, Text 81111 and 606. Let me have it.
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