LONDON, JUL 28 – England beat the West Indies by 269 runs to claim a series-clinching win in the third Test at Old Trafford on Tuesday.
Victory saw England take the three-match series 2-1 and regain the Wisden Trophy they lost in the Caribbean last year.
England paceman Stuart Broad became just the seventh bowler to take 500 Test wickets as the West Indies, set 399 for victory, collapsed to 129 all out in under 38 overs.
Day Four
Rain wiped out the fourth day’s play at Old Trafford on Monday to frustrate England’s bid for a series-clinching win over the West Indies and keep Stuart Broad waiting for his 500th Test wicket.
Bad weather meant the whole of the penultimate day’s play in the deciding third Test was washed out, with the umpires finally abandoning any hope of action soon after 4:00 pm.
England do, however, still have one day left to press for a win that would see them take the three-match series 2-1.
Broad is just one wicket away from becoming only the seventh bowler to join the “500 club” after taking all six West Indies wickets that fell on Sunday.
The 34-year-old paceman returned first-innings figures of 6-31 as West Indies were bundled out for 197 in reply to England’s 369, which included Broad’s dashing 62.
And after England made 226-2 declared in their second innings, featuring Rory Burns’ 90 and fifties from captain Joe Root and Dom Sibley, there was still time for Broad to strike twice by removing John Campbell and nightwatchman Kemar Roach.
That left Broad, controversially omitted from West Indies’ win in the series opener at Southampton, on 499 Test wickets.
The only bowlers with more than 600 Test wickets are a trio of former spinners — Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan (800), Australian Shane Warne (708) and India’s Anil Kumble (619).
The only seamers ahead of Broad are his long-time England new-ball colleague James Anderson (589 wickets) and Australia’s Glenn McGrath (563) and the West Indies’ Courtney Walsh (519), both of whom are retired.
West Indies will resume on 10-2, chasing an unlikely victory target of 399.
No side has made more to win in the fourth innings of an Old Trafford Test than England’s 294-4 against New Zealand in 2008.
West Indies, who hold the Wisden Trophy after a 2-1 win over Root’s men in the Caribbean last year, are bidding for their first Test series success in England since 1988.
Day Three
Stuart Broad was only one wicket away from becoming just the seventh bowler to take 500 Test wickets as England closed in on a series victory over the West Indies at Old Trafford on Sunday.
Broad’s haul of 6-31 in 14 overs saw the West Indies bundled out for 197 in reply to England’s first-innings 369 that featured his dashing 62.
England’s second-innings 226-2 declared saw opener Rory Burns make 90 as the West Indies were set a huge target of 399 for victory.
And there was still time for Broad to reduce the tourists, who had no answer to his late movement off a good length, to 10-2 at stumps on the third day.
Broad had the struggling John Campbell caught at first slip for a duck by England captain Joe Root and then moved to 499 Test wickets when nightwatchman Kemar Roach was caught behind.
Broad bowled the final over of the day’s play, with his last ball just missing Shai Hope’s outside edge.
The only bowlers with more than 600 Test wickets are a trio of former spinners — Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan (800), Australian Shane Warne (708) and India’s Anil Kumble (619).
The only seamers ahead of Broad are his longtime England new-ball colleague James Anderson (589) and the retired pair of Australia’s Glenn McGrath (563) and the West Indies’ Courtney Walsh (519).
‘Ridiculous achievement’
Broad took all the West Indies wickets to fall on Sunday in a combined return of 6-22 in seven overs, with his burst of 4-11 in 22 balls ending the visitors’ first innings after they had avoided the follow-on.
“It’s a pretty ridiculous achievement to get to 500 (wickets),” said Burns. “Hopefully we can keep grabbing them for him.”
England’s second innings saw Burns and Dom Sibley (56) share a stand of 114 — England’s first century opening partnership in a home Test since Alastair Cook and Alex Hales put on 126 against Pakistan at Edgbaston in 2016.
England captain Joe Root had made a brisk 68 not out when he declared, amid concerns Monday’s play could be washed out.
Burns, in common with Surrey team-mate Ollie Pope in England’s first innings, got into the 90s without making it to three figures.
Not that the left-hander, who holed out against off-spinner Roston Chase, was too concerned.
“It was good to set up the team in a good position though, that was the most important thing.”
West Indies coach Phil Simmons once again bemoaned the failure of his team’s batsmen to back up the bowlers in a gruelling schedule of three back-to-back Tests that marks international cricket’s return from the coronavirus lockdown.
“We haven’t had any centuries in the series,” he said. “There are two days left to bat and someone needs to get themselves a big hundred.”
“There is plenty of time in the game so we need to be more determined to get big scores.”
Dowrich injury
West Indies wicketkeeper Shane Dowrich was hit in the face by a 90mph Shannon Gabriel delivery that burst through his gloves and had to leave the field.
“He was lucky it came off the gloves first,” said Simmons. “He has a little cut on the inside of his lip, but no damage to his teeth.”
One-day international wicketkeeper Hope initially took over behind the stumps before Joshua Da Silva, the back-up gloveman in the Test squad but not in the XI for this match, was allowed on.
Da Silva nearly stumped Burns, on 12, off Chase but slipped as he tried to take off the bails.
Day Two
Stuart Broad sparked a top-order collapse after starring with the bat as England reduced the West Indies to 137-6 at stumps on the second day of the decisive third Test at Old Trafford on Saturday.
England had slumped to 280-8 after losing four wickets for 18 runs before No 10 Broad’s swashbuckling 62 took them to a first-innings total of 369.
When bad light forced an early close, the West Indies were 232 runs behind, needing 33 more to avoid the follow-on.
West Indies captain Jason Holder was 24 not out and Shane Dowrich 10 not out.
The veteran new-ball duo of Broad and James Anderson, paired together for the first time this series, both had stumps figures of 2-17.
“We were hoping to get 400 at the start of the day, that was our plan, but we’re happy with getting over 350,” Broad told Sky Sports.
“With our discipline with the ball, we’ve had a great day,” he added, with England looking to win this three-match series 2-1 and regain the Wisden Trophy.
‘Played his shots’
West Indies fast bowler Kemar Roach, who earlier took his 200th Test wicket in a return of 4-72, admitted his side were in a tough spot.
“We started well but Stuart Broad came in and played his shots and things went his way,” Roach told the BBC.
“Things drifted a bit and we’re in a difficult position now but the guys will fight it out.”
Broad struck with just his fourth ball to have West Indies dangerman Kraigg Brathwaite caught at slip by England captain Joe Root for one.
John Campbell, dropped on 10 by normally reliable second slip Ben Stokes, looked increasingly assured while making 32.
But fast bowler Jofra Archer, back after being omitted from England’s 113-run win in the second Test for breaching the bio-secure regulations governing this series, produced a rib-high delivery that left-hander Campbell could only fend to gully.
Anderson, England’s all-time leading Test wicket-taker, then struck either side of tea on his Lancashire home ground as the tourists declined to 59-4.
The struggling Shai Hope was caught behind for 17 after being squared up by a full-length Anderson delivery that moved away late — a desperately difficult ball to play.
Anderson then had Shamarh Brooks inside edging to wicketkeeper Jos Buttler with one that cut the other way.
In a campaign that marks international cricket’s return from lockdown, Broad’s classic nip-backer had Roston Chase lbw to the leave the West Indies in dire straits at 73-5.
Jermaine Blackwood, who made a match-clinching 95 in the West Indies’ four-wicket win in the first Test, looked good during his 26.
But Blackwood was bowled between bat and pad by Chris Woakes to give all of England’s pace quartet a wicket, with Stokes unable to bowl because of a quad injury.
Dowrich was lucky when he got in a tangle against an Archer bouncer, only for the ball to just clear the back-pedalling Rory Burns in the gully.
England resumed on 258-4 after losing the toss.
Ollie Pope was 91 not out and Buttler unbeaten on 56 — his first Test fifty in 14 innings.
Pope, however, failed to add to his score.
In sight of his second Test century, Pope had already been dropped by Rahkeem Cornwall in the slips when Shannon Gabriel clean bowled him to end a fifth-wicket stand of 140.
Buttler was well caught low down for 67 by Holder at second slip.
But Broad, who has a highest Test score of 169, counter-attacked with his first fifty at this level in just over three years.
On a ground where he was hit on the face by a bouncer from India’s Varun Aaron in 2014, left-handed batsman Broad pulled Roach for six as the new ball started to soften.
Broad completed a 33-ball fifty before hitting a full-toss from occasional off-spinner Chase to deep midwicket.
Day One
Ollie Pope’s superb 91 not out helped England recover on the first day of the deciding third Test against the West Indies at Old Trafford on Friday with the batsman admitting “it’s a weight off my shoulders”.
England were in trouble at 122-4, with second Test century-makers Dom Sibley and Ben Stokes, as well as captain Joe Root, all out cheaply.
But Pope, who ended the day in sight of his second Test hundred and the under-pressure Jos Buttler, 56 not out, shared an unbroken stand of 136 that left England on 258-4 when bad light forced an early close.
Pope’s effort was all the more admirable as his first three innings this series had yielded scores of just 12, 12 and seven.
He was unbeaten on another 12 as England completed a 113-run win in the second Test, also at Old Trafford, to leave this three-match contest all square at 1-1.
“It does feel like a little bit of a weight off the shoulders,” Pope told Sky Sports.
International cricket’s first series since the coronavirus lockdown has seen both teams confined to on-site hotels at both the Ageas Bowl, the venue in Southampton for the first Test, and Old Trafford.
Pope said he had struggled with being unable to return home between Tests.
“To be honest, I’ve found it challenging being in such an intense environment — not being able to get out and see family,” explained the 22-year-old Surrey batsman. “You go back to your room and you’re back looking over the cricket pitch.”
West Indies captain Jason Holder won the toss and his decision to field was defended by opening batsman Kraigg Brathwaite.
“There was moisture in the wicket, and we thought as a team we wanted to utilise it,” he said. “They (England) got a good partnership, but I don’t think we’re out of it, to be honest.”
England brought in express quick Jofra Archer and veteran spearhead James Anderson for the dropped pair of batsman Zak Crawley and left-arm paceman Sam Curran.
Opening batsman Sibley, who made a near eight-hour hundred in the second Test, fell for a five-ball duck when lbw to fast bowler Kemar Roach.
In came Root, who gifted his wicket on 17 when, going for a risky single, he was run out by Roston Chase’s direct hit from backward point.
Stokes, now the world’s top-ranked all-rounder after innings of 176 and 78 not out in the second Test, was effectively playing as a specialist batsman after a quad injury cast doubt over his bowling fitness.
He was, however, brilliantly set-up by Roach who, having tested him with a couple of short balls, clean bowled the left-handed batsman with one that seamed back.
Rory Burns made a composed fifty before the recalled Rahkeem Cornwall, belying his 6ft 6in and some 22 stone frame, held an outstanding one-handed slip catch following a fiercely-edged cut off fellow spinner Chase.
Pope had a lucky break on 30 when a miscued pull off Shannon Gabriel evaded a diving Chase, running back from mid-on.
World Cup winning wicket-keeper Buttler, whose Test place was under threat following 13 innings without a fifty, upped the tempo by hoisting spinner Cornwall for two sixes in four balls.
“The way Jos plays, if he’s in, he’s going to be scoring runs pretty fluently,” said Pope, who entered the 90s with an elegant on-driven four off Roach.
Archer had been omitted from the second Test after making an unauthorised trip home that breached England’s bio-secure ‘bubble’.
But even though no fans are allowed into grounds in a behind closed doors series, this year’s #RedForRuth initiative still raised £282,385 on Friday.
Former England captain Andrew Strauss helped establish a charity after his wife Ruth died from a rare form of lung cancer affecting non-smokers in 2018.
The Ruth Strauss Foundation also assists families facing the death of a parent.
