West Indies overpowered the game while they made 232 runs with 2 wickets to spare. Their team had confidence from the first day of the third test match because England had been badly shaken. Yet, they try to keep their nose in the game as long as they were able to.
West Indies bowlers flushed the England batters until Jack Leach and Saqib Mahmood changed the game. Thursday was the first day of the third test series. The pitch at St George’s served up two-spicy tasters on the first day in Grenada.
After ten days of often enervating attrition in Antigua and Barbados, the façade of English batting competence crumbled at the first sign of heat from a pumped-up West Indies seam attack. A mighty rescue was needed from England’s tenth wicket-pair.
A hard game for England
Alex Lees and Zak Crawley opened the match. A bit slow, perhaps playing safe, Leed made 31 runs off 97 balls. He was caught by Da Silva and Roach had bowled to him. Crawley couldn’t keep up too. He used 36 balls to make 7 runs, failing to support the wicket England wanted to save.
Jack Leach and Saqib’s partnership was an asset worth 90 runs. The last wicket partnership became England’s saviour as it found itself in a quite desperate state. Their partnership came to an end in the last over of the day at 204 runs on day 1 of the third test series on Thursday. Chris Woakes did a surprising job when he made 25 runs and took England to 114 for 9.
Leach, who was praised enough after his memorable match-winning last-wicket partnership in support of Ben Stokes at Leeds in the 2019 Ashes series, was expected to sprinkle some matches here as well. He found Mahmood a fine partner as the pair rode their luck, frustrating the West Indies through almost the entire final session.
They were so well set that they saw off the second new ball comfortably and it was only in the last over of the day, where Mahmood dragged a ball onto his stumps from Blackwood because ambition got the better of him. He departed at 49 runs.
West Indies overpowered the game while they made 232 runs with 2 wickets to spare. Their team had confidence from the first day of the third test match because England had been badly shaken. Yet, they try to keep their nose in the game as long as they were able to. Da Silva scored the highest runs. He was not out at 54 runs off 152 balls.
Published By: Apoorva Wakodikar
Edited By: Subbuthai Padma
