As the famous 1932 song goes: ”You’re getting to be a habit with me” and so it goes with batting collapses and England.
Of course, they are no strangers to batting implosions in the Caribbean. The Strauss-Flower leadership combination, which led England not only to their first overseas Ashes triumph in 24 years but to the top of the ICC Test Rankings, started with 51 all out in Jamaica – care of Jerome Taylor and Sulieman Benn.
Go back to the 1990s and there was the famous 46 all out at Trinidad – care of Messrs Ambrose and Walsh. On that occasion they came back to win the following Test at Bridgetown, although Nasser Hussain was unable to fight his way into the playing eleven, even after the debacle of the previous match.
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Ambrose was up to his old tricks back in 1990 too at Bridgetown, when he torpedoed England’s second innings with figures of 8-45 to wrap up a comprehensive victory.
Bad though those collapses were, England managed to go a total of 78 years between 1938 and 2016 without losing all 10 wickets in a single session of Test cricket. Slowing over-rates may have had something to do with that, but since then, the fate has befallen them three times, and they only just fell short of a fourth yesterday – perhaps a small crumb of comfort for Trevor Bayliss and Paul Farbrace.
Mirpur, October 30 2016 – Day 3, Session 3: 100-0 to 164 all out
This was probably the most shocking of the lot. England had gained a first innings lead of 24 after inflicting a similar style collapse on Bangladesh – who tumbled from 171-1 to 220 all out in their first innings. It all meant that England needed 273 to win on a turning pitch.
They started off well with Alastair Cook and Ben Duckett sitting pretty at tea with England 100 without loss. However, when Duckett was dismissed by the first delivery of the evening session, the wheels came off in spectacular fashion. Having not lost a wicket in their first 23 overs, the next 22.3 overs saw them lost all 10 for the addition of just 64 runs, with Mehedy Hasan Miraz and Shakib Al Hasan scripting a famous first Test victory for Bangladesh over England
Auckland, March 22 2018 – Day 1, Session 1: 58 all out
Surely no Test tour could have started so spectacularly badly as this one! Ironically it could have been even worse. Put into bat in Auckland’s first day-night Test, they threatened to make the lowest Test score in history as they subsided to 23-8 and then 27-9. It was only thanks to Craig Overton, who made an unbeaten 33 batting at number nine that they edged past their lowest ever Test total of 45.
Trent Boult and Tim Southee bowled unchanged throughout the 20.4-over innings, and just like that the series was decided. Thanks to the weather, England managed to force the match into a fifth day, but their fate had been sealed and New Zealand ended up winning the series 1-0.
Nottingham, August 19 2018 – Day 2, Session 2: 46-0 to 161 all out
England had started brightly in response to India’s first innings of 329 when they took lunch on the second day on 46-0 from just nine overs with Cook and Keaton Jennings at the crease. However, when Ishant Sharma induced a thin edge from Cook in the third over after lunch, it was a case of déjà vu all over again.
All of England’s top seven batsmen made it to double-figures but none were able to progress beyond Jos Buttler’s 39 as Hardik Pandya proved to be the unlikely destroyer. He cut a swathe through the middle and lower order, taking five wickets in the space of 29 deliveries and India ended up with a comfortable first-innings lead. England fared better in their second innings, which was highlighted by Buttler’s maiden Test ton, but nonetheless went down to a heavy defeat.
Bridgetown, January 24 2019 – Day 2: Session 2. 30-1 to 77 all out
Maybe it was not a full 10 wickets in a session, but it was a pretty remarkable collapse nonetheless. Keaton Jennings had gone early, slicing a drive to gully, but even as lunch was taken, there was little anticipation of the carnage to follow. But what carnage it was!
This time Kemar Roach was the destroyer-in-chief, taking five wickets for just four runs in 27 balls, and he was well-supported by the other three seamers as England collapsed to the lowest total in the 54 Test matches to have been played at the Kensington Oval. It was a feeble batting effort at the ground on the last tour which cost them victory in the series, and could it be the same this time?
Watch day three of the first Test between Windies and England live on Sky Sports Cricket (channel 404) and Sky Sports Main Event (channel 401) from 1.30pm on Friday. You can also follow over-by-over commentary and in-play clips on our rolling blog on skysports.com and the Sky Sports app.
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