Late wickets leave third Test finely poised

Third Rothesay Test (day one of five), Edgbaston

West Indies 282: Brathwaite 61, Holder 59; Atkinson 4-67, Woakes 3-69

England: 38-3: Crawley 18; Seales 2-19, A Joseph 1-10

England trail by 244 runs

Scorecard

England lost openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett late in the evening session as they surrendered the initiative to reach 38-3 at stumps on day one of the third Test against West Indies.

Gus Atkinson had earlier taken four wickets as England’s bowlers rallied to snuff out a West Indies fightback and restrict them to 282, only for three late wickets to boost the tourists.

Crawley nicked off to Jayden Seales before Duckett inside edged Alzarri Joseph on to his own stumps the very next ball.

Nightwatcher Mark Wood was also caught in the slips off Seales (2-19) to leave Ollie Pope and Joe Root a tricky few overs to navigate before the close.

West Indies had earlier teetered precariously at 115-5 after they had won the toss, with Kraigg Brathwaite’s determined innings of 61 initially looking like nothing more than a sticking plaster at the top of the order, but they battled back.

After five wickets fell for 39 runs the momentum appeared to be with England as they sniffed the opportunity to bowl West Indies out cheaply inside two sessions.

Instead Jason Holder (59) and Joshua Da Silva (49) dug in and played with maturity as they guided West Indies towards something like a respectable first-innings total with a stand of 109.

Atkinson and Chris Woakes, who claimed three wickets, curtailed any hopes West Indies might have had of posting something more daunting.

England’s batters would have been licking their lips after they watched Holder and Da Silva bat with relative serenity during the afternoon session.

The Edgbaston pitch appeared docile when the early juice evaporated, even if England’s attack did cause problems with the older ball reverse swinging.

This was one of those occasions when England’s buccaneering style needed to be tempered by some smart batting.

Instead West Indies managed to create a sense of theatre out in the middle – and possibly panic in the England dressing room – as shadows lengthened and wickets fell in a captivating late passage of play.

It was just over 30 minutes and eight overs but it could well prove a pivotal period in the context of this match if West Indies are able to swing the momentum their way early on day two.

For Crawley’s brilliance in last summer’s Ashes and a solid winter it was a familiar dismissal – drawn into wafting a wide one from Seales and caught well by Holder.

Duckett was given one life when Alzarri Joseph shelled a routine caught-and-bowled chance before he too perished playing expansively.

With a 2-0 lead in the series England talked in the build up to this match about ruthlessness to close out a 3-0 series clean sweep.

The pressure is now on Pope, Root and the rest of the middle order to get them back on track.

After Brathwaite was strangled down the leg side by Wood, courtesy of a fine diving catch by wicketkeeper Jamie Smith, England were in the ascendency.

Two balls later, Kavem Hodge – a centurion in the second Test – carelessly shouldered arms to a delivery from Woakes and saw his off-stump dislodged and the hosts eyed a quick finish to the West Indies innings.

Yet Ben Stokes and his bowling attack were not able to apply the coup de grace as quick as they would have liked, and instead of crumbling West Indies regained their composure and settled in.

Indeed such was the drifting, sometimes ponderous, nature of the contest that after lunch newspapers were unfolded and crosswords completed with the cricket providing only ripples of excitement.

Stokes’ quest for wickets saw a fruitless bouncer barrage to no avail while Shoaib Bashir posed few threats, although there is the unerring sense the young spinner will have a key role later in the match.

Some inventive field placings from Stokes eventually gave him the breakthrough he needed, though, after West Indies had rebuilt to reach 224-5.

With a cadre of close catchers, and just one man in the cordon, Da Silva hung his bat out and feathered Woakes to Smith.

That set the wheels in motion for the Warwickshire man, on home turf, and Atkinson to complete the job as the next five wickets went down for 58 runs.

Holder’s dogged vigil was ended by a full quick delivery from Atkinson which he played around, with the England fast bowler also removing Gudakesh Motie with a vicious bouncer.

Atkinson’s performance, and the manner in which he was able to contrive wickets in relatively unthreatening condition will particularly have pleased Stokes given he is a relative greenhorn to Test cricket.

A judicious start by West Indies openers saw them stoically reach 76 without loss, neatly traversing a threatening opening spell from England’s attack, as the sun dipped in and out from behind the clouds.

Woakes skilfully beat the outside edge of the bat as he found movement off the seam yet Brathwaite and Mikyle Louis resolutely respected each delivery on its merit.

Louis took 22 balls to get off the mark – the longest it has taken a Test opener to score a run at the start of their innings in England since Alastair Cook took the same number against South Africa in 2017.

Brathwaite was decidedly more fluent, reaching a half-century off 70 balls which featured two classy drives off Woakes to the boundary.

It followed the pattern of the series, with Louis and Brathwaite the first opening pair since David Warner and Chris Rogers in 2015 to post three stands of more than 50 in England.

West Indies’ diligence took them within half an hour of lunch without loss forcing Stokes to rotate his bowlers before Louis succumbed, nicking off for the fourth time in this series, to Atkinson having grinded out 26 off 61 balls.

The wicket roused the Eric Hollies stand into song and by the interval they were jubilantly roaring two more.

Wood had the dial of the speed-o-meter in the red zone at Trent Bridge and a brutish full inswinging delivery, clocked at 91mph, spectacularly uprooted Kirk McKenzie’s middle stump before Alick Athanaze dragged Atkinson on to his own stumps.

England’s Chris Woakes talking to Test Match Special: “Naturally when you’re the oldest bowler on the field, you kind of try and take more of a lead role and obviously you’ve got some younger bowlers out there. Obviously, Woody’s experienced as well so he’s doing his job.”

“I suppose a little bit of a different role, so to speak, but you know once you get out there and got the ball in hand, you’re effectively trying to do the same thing, which put the ball in the right areas more often than not, change the batsmen, try and work on their weaknesses and bowl to your strengths and yeah I’m just trying to do that really.”