Watch: England’s breach of the Bridgetown fortress, the final act – the Caddick-Tufnell show
Watch: With 446 to defend, Andy Caddick and Phil Tufnell ran through West Indies in 1994 to help England script one of the most remarkable wins in the history of Test cricket.
Seldom has the odds of winning been stacked up so much against a side. With three wins in three matches, the West Indies had already won the Test series as well as the Wisden Trophy.
In the third Test, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh had shot out England for 46 in 19.1 overs. Ahead of the fourth Test, they even lost to a West Indies Board XI side, collapsing twice against Rawl Lewis.
History was against England, too. The last time they had won a Test series in the West Indies was back in 1967/68. The last time any touring side had won a Test match at the Kensington Oval was in 1934/35 – sixty years ago.
The resistance had to begin at the top, and Michael Atherton (85) and Alec Stewart (118) were up to it with a 171-run first-wicket stand to help England post 355. Both men would average over 50 in the series.
Now came Angus Fraser, whose 54 wickets (at 20.29) would remain the most by any touring bowler in the West Indies in the 1990s. Even among the local bowlers, only Ambrose (172), Walsh (151), and Ian Bishop (55) had more.
With 8-75, Fraser reduced the West Indies to 205-8 before Shivnarine Chanderpaul (77) and Kenny Benjamin (43 not out) took them to 304. Four years later, he would take better that with 8-53 in Port of Spain.
The lead was still only 51, but Stewart stepped up again, this time with 143, becoming the second touring opener to score two hundreds in the same Test match in the West Indies. With Graham Thorpe making 84, England set the West Indies 446.
Caddick had made his debut less than a year ago. The selectors had faith in him despite him taking nine wickets from his first six Tests, and he repaid them with 6-65 at Port of Spain.
Now, after going wicketless in the first innings, he took out the first three wickets and finished with 5-63, including the wickets of Jimmy Adams, Brian Lara, and Richie Richardson.
Fraser went wicketless, but this time Phil Tufnell stepped up, snaring Keith Arthurton and Desmond Haynes in a spell of 3-100. Chris Lewis ended the match by clean bowling Ambrose. A living Ambrose destroyed the only standing stump with his bat, and was fined a thousand pounds.
