by Arthur Crabtree » Thu Jan 09, 2020 9:52 pm
There is a rumour that a fortune has been made on this in Sharjah. Certainly I didn't see it coming. The Test Bowling Performance of 2019 is won by JASPRIT BUMRAH for his 5-7 off eight overs against West Indies in Antigua. After 12 Tests that have yielded 62 wickets since his debut in 2018, Jasprit averages 19.2 which is bettered since World War 1 only by Frank Tyson (50+wickets). In 2019, Jasprit helped his side to a landmark series win in Australia when he took 21 wickets in four Tests, easily the best paceman on show. At North Sound, West Indies were chasing 419 to win, the Gujurati paceman with the unique bowling style had the hosts at 50-9, picking up a five-fer to go with those already in Australia, South Africa and England.
I had a fiver on Tim Murtagh.
There was greater unanimity in the choice for Best Test Innings of the Year. It's a tough life though as everyone here will know. In February last year, cricket reporters around the world stood to acclaim Kusal Perera's matchwinning 153* in Durban to prevail against the odds in a last wicket thriller with Vishwa Fernando. And they compared Kusal's epic to Lara's all time great innings in Bridgetown against Australia in 1999. The tension. The last wicket stand.
By August, in Test cricket, everyone only wanted to talk about Ben Stokes' 135* in the Ashes, and his monumental hour long last wicket stand with Jack Leach, as England (or rather Stokes) chased 359 to win the Test. Stokes batted for five and a half hours, in an innings of two parts. First he blocked almost strokelessly. Then he hit the ball all around the ground in a display that was as much New Year at the Embankment as five day cricket. Of the 76 runs made for the last wicket, Leach added one. It was the Ashes and it was excruciating pressure. BEN STOKES wins the Best Test Innings of 2019 category. But it was a close run thing.
I always say that everybody's right.