Caribbean team captain Craig Brathwaite batted brilliantly in the second Test of the three-match Test series against England. West Indies got this Test match played in Barbados drawn due to the excellent batting of the captain. In this match, Brathwaite batted for about 16 hours in 955 minutes, playing a total of 673 balls. Brathwaite broke the record of stalwarts like Brian Lara and Gary Saubers for the most balls played in a Test match.
Craig Brathwaite batted for 710 minutes in the first innings of the second Test against England and scored 160 runs from 489 balls. After this, when the team came out to chase the target of 282 runs in the second innings, the wickets of the team were falling from one end. Even after the fall of three wickets for 39 runs, the captain held the other end firmly and got the match drawn.
At one point in the second innings, West Indies seemed to be heading towards defeat. But captain Brathwaite stood as a wall in front of England’s bowling attack. He put on 50 runs for the fourth wicket with Jermaine Blackwood, then shared an unbeaten partnership with Joshua de Silva for the sixth wicket to draw the match. In this innings too, he batted for 245 minutes and scored an unbeaten 56 off 184 balls.
Including both the innings of this match, Craig Brathwaite played a total of 673 balls. He also holds the record for the most balls played by any Caribbean batsman in a Test match. Earlier in 2004 Brian Lara played 582 balls and in 1958 Sir Gary Saubers played 575 balls in a Test match. Lara played 569 balls in 2001 and 537 in 1994.
England spinner Jack Leach bowled a total of 94 overs in this match. He bowled 69.5 overs in the first innings of which 27 were maidens and he took three wickets for 118 runs. After this, in the second innings too, Leach bowled 25 overs and took three wickets for 36 runs with 13 maidens. This is the second most overs bowled by a bowler in a Test match for England. Earlier in 1962, Tony Locks had bowled 115 overs against Pakistan.
After the draw of this Test match, the condition of West Indies and England in the points table of the World Test Championship (WTC) is very bad. Windies are ranked 9th with 25% winning percentage and England 10th with 11.67%. After a clean sweep in the two-match Test series against Sri Lanka, India retained the fourth position with a rate of 58.33%. At the same time, Australia (77.77%), Pakistan (66.66%) at number two and South Africa (60%) are on the third.