By Clayton Goodwin
England 416 (Ollie Pope, 121, Ben Duckett 71, Ben Stokes 69)
On a hot, eventful, summer’s day England finished scored at a fast rate to finish on 416 at the close. On winning the toss Kraigg Brathwaite caused considerable surprise by inviting his opponents to bat first. Trent Bridge is noted as a batsmen’s paradise, and, if the Barbadian had looked at the record books, he would have seen that, among other high scores, Frank Worrell and scored 261 and 197 n.o., Basil Butcher made 209 n.o., and Viv Richards had hit 232 on this ground. Cynics suggested that, after the debacle at Lord’s, he did not want to risk his own batsmen against the England bowlers so early in the match. It would be a test as to whether, as believed generally, the fast bowling was the stronger arm of the West Indies’ game.
At first it seemed that history would be re-written. With the third ball of the match, and no run on the board, Alzarri Joseph had Zak Crawley caught by Alick Athenaze. That was all there was to celebrate Ben Duckett launched a blistering attack on the bowling. England had 86 runs on the board at the end of the first hour and Duckett reached his half-century in 32 minutes. The attack was looking very ragged. The introduction of off-spinner Kevin Sinclair brought greater control. After Duckett had been caught by Holder off Shamar Joseph, Ollie Pope, helped by dropped catches, maintained the blistering pace by hitting a six and a four of consecutive deliveries by Shamar Joseph so that England came to lunch at 134-2.
Pope dominated the afternoon session. Again West Indies started well. One ball after Jayden Seales had beaten Joe Root with a superb delivery that just missed the edge of the bat and the off-stump the batsman was caught by Alzarri Joseph. Pope and Harry Brook attacked vigorously and were helped by disappointing fielding and more missed catches. England could have lost three or four more wickets, but the flow of runs went unchecked. Brooks, who hit fours from three consecutive balls by Alzarri Joseph, finally paddled a catch to Kirk McKenzie off Sinclair. The bowler celebrated with his trade-mark summersault. Shamar Joseph went off the field with cramp just before the tea interval. England went in on 259-4 – that was 125 in the 27 overs since lunch.
The evening belonged to Kavem Hodge. He began by catching Pope, splendidly at first slip. When Ben Stokes and Jamie Smith were pushing the score further ahead, Brathwaite turned to the left-arm spin of Hodge, who stepped up to replace the absent Motie (reported unwell on the morning). The Dominican stopped England’s charge by having both batsmen, hitting, caught in the deep and, himself, caught Gus Atkinson from Sinclair. Suddenly England had a game on their hands. The spinners were doing so well that Brathwaite delayed taking the new ball. Mark Wood and Chris Woakes took England past the 400 when the faster bowlers returned.