ENG v WI, 3rd Test, Day 1, Review: Honours even after the 14-wicket day

England and Windies locked horns for one last time in the Test series in quest to win the series at the ‘Mecca of Cricket’ Lord’s. Both the teams were greeted with overcast conditions and a pitch that bore a green tinge on it. Ben Stokes made the perfect use of the conditions and picked up a 6-fer to rattle Windies for just 123. When everyone thought their performance in the last Test was just a fluke, the visitors came back strongly to end the day with England’s score reading a staggering 46/4.

Earlier in the day, on an overcast morning, Windies captain Jason Holder won the toss and opted to bat first to everyone’s surprise. Windies openers strode out to the middle and survived the first 10 overs of vicious swing bowling by the James Anderson and Stuart Broad duo. Just when they started to set themselves in, Anderson swung one past Kraig Brathwaite. Soon the rain halted play and the conditions became even tougher. The 35-year-old scalped his 499th wicket as Kyle Hope edged it to the slips.

Rebuilding phase and Stokes’ show

Kieron Powell and Shai Hope, the heroes of the last win, consolidated the swing bowling assault from England. There were plenty of plays and misses but they managed to survive. After lunch, they crossed the 50 of the partnership. Soon Hope edged it to the first slip into the safe hands of Alastair Cook off Toby-Roland Jones. That sparked the collapse as Stokes got to the party and snaffled the set Powell with a return catch.

The all-rounder literally ran through the Windies line-up then as he castled Roston Chase’s stumps and that of skipper Holder. Both the deliveries were literally unplayable as for Chase the ball angled in on the off-stump pitched and straightened off the seam to beat the outside edge and clipped the top of off. Holder had no clue how to deal with the vicious inswinging delivery which came in at an angle from around the 6th stump and the ball thudded into the middle stump.

The tail didn’t have any answer as they followed each other to the dressing room. Eventually, Windies were bowled out for a mere 123 in the 58th over. Stokes had his name on the Lord’s honours board with career best figures of 6/22.

Holder & Co. make a stunning comeback

After another capitulation of Windies team, the experts thought England would pile on their agony and amass runs to take lead before the end of Day 1. But what transpired next was a testament to the Lord’s wicket and the conditions offered. Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel made life tough for Cook and Mark Stoneman as the latter soon succumbed to the tight line persisted by Windies quicks. He nicked it to the Shane Dowrich as the visitors continued to strangle the English batsmen. Alike Windies batsmen. There were a plethora of plays and misses as the ball kept jagging around a lot.

Finally, Roach bowled a peach of a delivery to Cook which angled in at off stump, nipped off the seam and grazed the outside edge only to be pouched by Dowrich. Soon Westley followed the procession as Holder squared him up to pin in front of stumps. The biggest wicket of the day was Joe Root who was scalped by his counterpart Holder off a delivery which came back in at an angle and the batsman unnecessarily wafted at it and Powell snaffled a smart catch at first slip. Suddenly England were staring at a dreadful scoreboard reading 24/4.

Ben Stokes and the struggling Dawid Malan then played some delightful strokes otherwise missed right through the day. The duo added 22 in quick time as the visitors’ pace attack looked to probe in. The day was called off unfortunately for Windies when the light was not good enough for play to continue and it started to drizzling as well. England were just starting to breathe easy at 46/4.

As the forecast for Friday is not so good, the conditions would be the same and Windies would hope to bowl the hosts out as soon as possible. Stokes again holds the key for England as he will look to add quick runs and get his team off the hook while pushing back the pressure on the opposition.

Brief Scores:

1st Innings-

West Indies: 123 all out (Kieron Powell 39; Ben Stokes 3/22)

England: 46/4 (Ben Stokes 15*; Kemar Roach 2/21, Jason Holder 2/18)