By Clayton Goodwin
West Indies 282 (Kraigg Brathwaite 61, Jason Holder 59, Gus Atkinson 4-67): England 376 (Jamie Smith 95, Joe Root 87, Chris Woakes 62, Ben Stokes 54, Alzarri Joseph 4-122) & 33-2
West Indies surrendered the chance to take command in the morning and, after a poor start to their second innings, were left trailing by 61 runs at the close. When two quick wickets tumbled early on there was even a whisp of a dream of being able to force the follow-on. Very soon, however, the England middle- and lower-order stopped the slide and took advantage of some wayward and ragged fast bowling to pull level, edge ahead and then putting distance between themselves and their opponents. Root, Stokes, Smith and Woakes accelerated as the afternoon progressed. Then in the final hour West Indies lost two quick wickets, including Kraigg Brathwaite without scoring, to finish on 33-2.
West Indies pressed the attack early. Quickly Shemar Joseph bowled Ollie Pope and almost immediately afterwards Jayden Seales, who was particularly impressive, had Harry Brook caught by wicket-keeper Joshua Da Silva. At 54-5, England were still 228 runs behind the tourists, and a further wicket or two could have given West Indies an irresistible break-through. Joe Root, however, rose to the occasion. He and Ben Stokes first blunted the impetus of the bowling and then took the attack to the opposition. They nibbled away at West Indies’ lead and when they went in to lunch at 157-5, England had reduced the deficit margin to 125 and the teams had a real contest on their hands.
The opening overs of the afternoon would be crucial. Ben Stokes was caught at square-leg by Brathwaite off Alzarri Johnson – the sixth-wicket partnership had put on 115 runs. But Root, batting fluently and securely, and hard-hitting Jamie Smith – who hit a spectacular six – kept the momentum with England. When Gudakesh Motie bowled Root, the home team was now only 51 runs behind their opponents – and still they pressed on as West Indies, though bowling well, could not find that little extra something to regain the initiative. England came in to tea at 274-7, just eight runs short, with Smith and Chris Woakes apparently in command and the feeling that West Indies had lost an important chance to get a real grip on the game.
There was a short break for rain. Then Smith and Woakes, who put on 106 runs, took a heavy total of some disappointing fast bowling. Smith was going well and quickly towards his century but was bowled by Shemar Joseph just five runs adrift. At 337-8 the batsmen were pushing the perimeters further away from West Indies. Woakes kept up the initiative and was taking the attack to the bowlers when he was caught by Brathwaite in the covers off Alzarri Johnson. A fumbled, but clear, chance to run out Shoaib Bashir highlighted a lassitude in the field. The ball after hitting a two consecutive sixes Gus Atkinson was caught by Motie from Alzarri Joseph trying to repeat the feat. That ended the innings at 376 (a lead of 94 runs).
Without a run scored in the second innings Woakes knocked back Brathwaite’s off-stump … 0-1. Not long afterwards missed a driven chance from Mikyle Louis. Not long afterwards Kirk McKenzie was caught by Smith from Atkinson. Shortly before the close Louis survived a very close l.b.w appeal to Mark Wood’s yorker.
Caribcommx apologies that due to a technical outage it was not possible to publish the report of yesterday’s play, and we apologise for all inconvenience caused