On the second day of the final Test of the three-match Test series between the hosts England and the visitors West Indies, the Caribbean pacers started the day dominantly, but Stuart Broad’s firing batting and English pacers’ controlled-bowling led the host side to the front seat in this Test match.
England started the second day on their overnight score of 258/4. While the hosts were bowled out for 369 runs, the visitors ended the day on 137/6. The Caribbean side is trailing by 232 runs at the stumps of the day.
At the early period of the day, Rahkeem Cornwall dropped a straight forward chance of Ollie Pope at the first slip. However, the overnight batsman Pope still failed to add any runs on the day as Shannon Gabriel bowled him for his overnight score of 91 runs.
Caribbean pacer Kemar Roach then bowled Chris Woakes (1), who again failed to impress with the bat. It was the 200th Test wicket for Roach, who is playing 59th Test.
The other overnight batsman Jos Buttler was the next man to go as Gabriel dismissed him for 67 runs. Six balls later, Roach dismissed Jofra Archer (3). At that stage, England were battling on 280/8 as they lost the last four wickets in just 18 runs.
Stuart Broad completed his fifty in just 33 balls
In that nervous situation, Stuart Broad performed a fearless batting and recorded England’s joint-third fastest Test fifty as the left-handed batsman completed his 13th Test fifty in just 33 balls. Broad built up the smashing 76 runs partnership with patient Dom Bess for the ninth wicket before Roston Chase finally managed to dismiss him. Broad was dismissed after scoring 62 runs off 45 balls (9 fours and only six).
Later, James Anderson also scored 11 runs before the Caribbean Test captain Jason Holder (1/83) opened his wicket column in that innings by dismissing the senior-most English cricket. Bess remained not out on 18 runs.
While Kemar Roach (4/72) bagged four wickets, Shannon Gabriel (2/77) and Roston Chase (2/36) took two wickets each in the first innings of this Test.
In reply, the visitors were losing wickets at regular intervals and continuously moved to the deep pressure situation. Till the end of the day, apart from the opener John Campbell (32), the middle-order batsman Jermaine Blackwood (26) and skipper Jason Holder (24*) managed to reach the 20-run mark. Apart from the captain, wicketkeeper-batsman Shane Dowrich (10*) was also not out at the end of the day.
Among the English pacers, James Anderson (2/17) and Stuart Broad (2/17) both picked up two wickets each while Jofra Archer (1/55) and Chris Woakes (1/39) also managed one wicket each.