| Series Name: | West Indian cricket team in England in 1995 |
| Team1 Image: | WestIndiesCricketFlagPre1999.svg |
| Team1 Name: | West Indies |
| Team2 Image: | Flag of England.svg |
| Team2 Name: | England |
| From Date: | 13 May |
| To Date: | 3 September 1995 |
| No Of Tests: | 6 |
| Team1 Tests Won: | 2 |
| Team2 Tests Won: | 2 |
| Team1 Tests Most Runs: | Brian Lara (765) |
| Team2 Tests Most Runs: | Graham Thorpe (506) |
| Team1 Tests Most Wickets: | Ian Bishop (27) |
| Team2 Tests Most Wickets: | Dominic Cork (26) |
| No Of Odis: | 3 |
| Team1 Odis Won: | 1 |
| Team2 Odis Won: | 2 |
| Team1 Odis Most Runs: | Brian Lara (120) |
| Team2 Odis Most Runs: | Mike Atherton (227) |
| Team1 Odis Most Wickets: | Winston Benjamin (4) |
| Team2 Odis Most Wickets: | Peter Martin (6) |
The West Indian cricket team toured England from 13 May to 3 September 1995 as part of the 1995 English cricket season. The tour included six Tests and three One Day Internationals. The Test series was drawn 2–2 while the ODI series finished 2–1 to England. The first ODI match of the series was the 1,000th ODI to be played.[1]
This was Ray Illingworth's first series in charge as England Team Manager as well as Chairman of Selectors, having sacked Keith Fletcher earlier in the year after the Ashes defeat.
Both sides came into this series with the Australians as their most recent opponents. England's 3–1 defeat in the Ashes series in Australia was considered a real disappointment, and ultimately led to the dismissal of Team Manager Keith Fletcher. Long-serving former captains Graham Gooch and Mike Gatting retired from international cricket after the tour, having had disappointing campaigns.
The West Indians' home defeat by the Australians was a more closely fought affair, with Brian Lara (308 runs at 44) Curtly Ambrose (20 wickets at 21.55) and Courtney Walsh (13 at 19.84) all performing strongly against a touring team shorn of the injured Craig McDermott, but with strong back-up in the form of Glenn McGrath and Paul Reiffel. The defeat became a symbolic point in the exchange of power between the two sides, ending the West Indies' dominance and signalling Australia overtaking them as the leading cricketing nation.
At this point, England had not won a series against the Windies since 1969.[2]
For England, Mike Atherton was retained as captain, though his appointment was only confirmed on the eve of the season, and the One Day International series saw debuts for Lancashire's Peter Martin and Kent's Alan Wells, while the West Indies blooded Ottis Gibson, a fiery all-rounder from Barbados. The early part of the tour was hampered by the weather, with the first ODI going into the reserve day.
West Indian concerns at the start of the summer surrounded the form of captain Richie Richardson, who began the tour with a run of low scores, and a series of injuries to bowlers' backs, allegedly a result of sleeping on soft beds.[3]
England won the Texaco Trophy 2–1.
The first Test saw the home side opt for five specialist bowlers, but there was no place for Angus Fraser despite his performances down-under in the winter. Instead a début was handed to Peter Martin, who had impressed with a four-wicket haul on his ODI debut, and Devon Malcolm was included on the basis of his extra pace. The West Indians selected their customary battery of four pacemen, Ian Bishop and Kenny Benjamin backing up spearheads Walsh and Ambrose.
Richardson won the toss and invited England to bat, and the main feature of the day was the intermittent rain, which saw the players on and off the field at various intervals all day. Amidst the rain, Atherton and Robin Smith added 52 for the first wicket before Benjamin struck with a ball that moved back in, and the edge carried to the visitors' captain at third slip. Graeme Hick could only add 18 to the score either side of lunch, and although Graham Thorpe provided support to Atherton(81), the captain's dismissal off the last ball of the first day saw England 148/4, needing to solidify to get a defendable score. This wasn't to be, as Bishop (5–32) and Benjamin (4–60) ripped through the middle and lower order in just over an hour on the second morning, and although Hooper fell to Malcolm's first ball in the reply, Sherwin Campbell and Brian Lara took the score to 95/2 at a real canter, Lara's 53 (10 fours) coming from just 55 balls before Richard Illingworth tempted him into coming down the wicket and his attempted drive was nicked to Hick at slip.
Campbell (69) and Jimmy Adams (58) continued the strokeplay, and Arthurton joined them to take the West Indies into a first innings lead, but before the close Adams mistimed a sweep off Hick for Martin to take a good catch and the latter continued Richardson's batting torments, trapping him leg before without scoring. The lower order put in some good efforts, but a collapse from 216/3 to 282 all out was disappointing, and it was left to the bowlers to repeat their first innings performance. Of the England batsmen only Thorpe (61) really found his feet, though he was as lucky as anyone – a mis-timed pull bounced back off the bottom of the stumps without disturbing the bails, and he survived again on the third evening when he was dropped at slip by Keith Arthurton. Despite a moderate wag from the tail that extended the innings from 136/6 to 208, it was still well short of par, and Walsh (4–60) and Ambrose (3–44) deserved the rewards of their efforts, coming out firing. Martin picked up Campbell early in the run chase, but Hooper (73* in 72 deliveries) and Lara (48 in 40) knocked off the 126 required without any further alarm.[4]
The second Test at Lord's proved to be a closer contest. Fraser was recalled to the side in place of Malcolm and Phillip DeFreitas was dropped for the umpteenth time to make way for debutant Dominic Cork. For the West Indies, Ottis Gibson made his Test debut and Benjamin missed out.
Atherton won the toss and elected to bat first, and although the West Indian bowlers made inroads either side of lunch it looked the right decision with Robin Smith (61) and Graham Thorpe (52) taking the score up to 185/3 just after the tea interval. The game then changed around – Smith and Mark Ramprakash were both deceived by Carl Hooper's off-spin and Thorpe and Darren Gough followed soon after, leaving the tail with some work. Cork and Martin added 50 for the eighth wicket, but England were disappointed with a total of 283 all out.
Gough and Fraser struck early in the West Indian first innings to leave the tourists 23/2, but Hooper (40), Jimmy Adams (54), Richardson (49) and Keith Arthurton (75) made significant contributions to a first innings lead of 41. Fraser was easily the pick of the England bowlers, sending down 33 overs during the innings and finishing with deserved figures of 5/66. The home side might have done even better had they held their catches – Arthurton was reprieved when still in single figures.
The second innings saw a superb partnership of 98 from Hick and Smith that solidified a slightly dodgy start that saw Walsh strike under gloomy grey skies. Atherton and Stewart had both been caught down the leg side by Junior Murray, and although Hick took the attack to the tall Jamaican, he had already send Thorpe to the ambulance first ball with a beamer that crashed into the side of his helmet. Hick (67) eventually succumbed to Bishop from around the wicket before bad light called a halt to proceedings on the third day, and Ramprakash was dispatched by the same bowler the next morning, which brought Thorpe back to the crease showing no ill effects from his overnight stay at St Mary's. Both men batted with confidence on a seaming pitch, and added 85 before Thorpe (42) was caught at gully by Richardson off Ambrose. Smith continued his fine form, adding a further 50 with Cork and 30 with Gough, but his dismissal for 90 (11 fours) saw the start of the collapse, and England fell from 320/6 to 336 all out.
By the close, Gough had picked up Hooper's wicket and the visitors needed a further 228 to win on the last day. They had moved on to 99 when Lara fell for 54, taken superbly in front of slip by a diving Stewart to set the ball rolling. Sherwin Campbell played an outstanding innings of 93 to keep the West Indians in the game for a long time, but the tourists were undone at the other end. Cork settled into a good rhythm and kept probing away with both natural away-swing and newly developed inswinger. Adams, Richardson and Arthurton disappeared in quick succession around the lunch break to make the crucial inroads into the middle order. Murray and the tail hung around tenaciously, each taking up valuable time, but after Campbell played uncharacteristically across the line and edged to Stewart, Ambrose and Walsh were quickly dismissed by the debutant, whose figures of 7/43 were well supported by Gough (3/79) and the workhorse Fraser.
The West Indies finished some 73 runs short of their target as England levelled the series, but this was a game that England won, rather than one that the visitors threw away.
The third Test at Edgbaston was dominated by the West Indies bowlers who took turns in dismissing the English batsmen, bowling them for 147 in the 1st innings and 89 in the 2nd innings and won by an innings and 64 runs despite setting a mediocre score of 300 and took a 2–1 lead into the fourth Test.
The fourth Test at Old Trafford was controlled by England where they developed a 221 run lead after the 1st innings. West Indies were bowled out for 314 runs and England won by 6 wickets after chasing a score of just 94. On day 4 of this Test Dominic Cork got a hat-trick by dismissing Richie Richardson (bowled), Junior Murray (lbw) and Carl Hooper (lbw). This was also the occasion where Cork, while batting in England's 1st innings, brushed his stumps with his foot and dislodged a bail. However, there was no appeal from the West Indies, so he replaced the bail and carried on batting.
The West Indies score of 692/8 declared is still the highest Test innings that did not feature an individual double-century scored by a batsman.[5]