England make West Indies toil hard on opening day

It was a good opening day at work for England in the second Test match against the West Indies at the Old Trafford, Manchester. Dominic Sibley and Ben Stokes scored patient fifties to take their team to 207-3 at the draw of stumps after West Indies captain Jason Holder won the toss and decided to field first.

It was a delayed start due to wet outfield and thus only a short opening session was possible. West Indies fast bowlers could not hit the right areas as they bowled a tad short. Jason Holder brought Roston Chase for the final over before lunch and the off-spinner was able to plumb Rory Burns. The southpaw reviewed but the ball was on its way to hit the middle stump and the tourists struck at the stroke of lunch.

Chase once again struck on the first ball after the lunch break as Zak Crawley played straight in the hands of leg-slip, Jason Holder. It was good captaincy from the Windies skipper to position himself there and Chase was on a hat-trick.

England’s captain Joe Root was able to negate the hat-trick ball and looked confident at the crease. However, Root was dismissed by Alzarri Joseph when the fast bowler invited the drive on the sixth stump line and the right-hander went for the bait, only to edge it to second slip, Jason Holder. This was the fourth time in the last five occasions when Joseph accounted for Root.

England were once again in a spot of bother at 81-3 when Ben Stokes joined forces with Dominic Sibley. However, both the batsmen were able to get their team out of the woods.

Sibley and Stokes showed great patience and resistance to keep the visitors at bay. The England opener, Sibley in particular, left well and only played his shots against the balls which were in his arc.

In fact, the right-hander was a bit bogged down when he could not rotate the strike against Roston Chase and tried to play two reverse sweeps, failing to connect bat on to the ball on both occasions. Stokes, on the other hand, started to grow more in confidence after spending time at the crease.

However, West Indies bowling looked toothless as they failed to hit the right areas. Joseph was West Indies’ best bowler of the day whereas Shannon Gabriel had a tough day at the office. Gabriel failed to control his line and bowled two wides and eight no-balls in the day.

The lanky pacer looked stiff and had also left the field in between.

The runs didn’t come thick and fast for England but they made sure that they didn’t lose any wickets. Sibley brought up his back to back fifty whereas Stokes also followed suit to get to his 22nd Test fifty and also brought up the hundred run stand with a single.

Gabriel was able to create a chance when Dominic Sibley edged to Jason Holder at second slip but the West Indies captain could not ‘hold’ on to a simple catch. Sibley and Stokes then made sure there was no damage to the wickets column as they played with a cautious approach. The pair added a fine alliance of 126 runs to put England slightly in front on the first day.

Brief Scores: England – 207/3.

Dominic Sibley – 86*, Ben Stokes – 59*.

Roston Chase – 2/53, Alzarri Joseph – 1-41.