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| NORTH SOUND: West Indies’ Jermaine Blackwood hits a shot as England wicket-keeper Jos Buttler looks on in the first Test at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium on Wednesday.—AP |
NORTH SOUND: Jermaine Blackwood led some dogged West Indies resistance on the third day of the first Test against England as the hosts reached lunch on 234 for six, still 165 runs behind England’s first innings total here at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium on Wednesday.
The right-hander reached his fourth half-century in six Tests and was 69 not out as England’s bowlers kept a tight grip on proceedings.
The West Indies, who fought back well on day two to bowl England out for 399, begun the day trailing by 244 runs with six wickets in hand and veteran Shivnarine Chanderpaul dug in.
Chanderpaul, who scored at a snail’s pace on Tuesday, briefly loosened the shackles with successive boundaries off the third over of the day bowled by James Anderson.
First he drove fluently through the covers and followed that by smacking another four through point.
Just when it looked as though he was building the platform for a big innings, however, Chanderpaul drove rather tentatively at spinner James Tredwell and picked out Ben Stokes to fall four runs short of a half century.
Chanderpaul’s 46 in a 93-run fifth wicket stand with Blackwood took him past Sri Lankan Mahela Jayawardene’s total of 11,814 Test runs and put him seventh on the all-time list.
Blackwood, reprieved the previous evening when he was caught in the slips off a Stokes no ball, had some fortune again when he edged another Stokes delivery when on 43 but Tredwell dropped a sharp catch.
His 50 came up in the 76th over of the innings, first going down the wicket to hoist Tredwell over extra cover and then benefitting from an England miss field to reach the landmark.
England took the new ball but Blackwood and Danesh Ramdin survived some aggressive bowling until Ramdin, on nine, feathered a short delivery from Stuart Broad down the leg side and wicket-keeper Jos Buttler pouched the catch.
On Tuesday’s second day, England’s dogged perseverance paid off in two gritty sessions of play with the West Indies restricted.
Blackwood, who resumed on the third morning in partnership with the evergreen Chanderpaul, edged a lifting delivery from Stokes to Alastair Cook at a wide first slip position. However the batsman, on 21 at the time, was called back to the crease when television replays showed clearly the all-rounder had delivered a no-ball.
Earlier, Brathwaite’s opening partner Devon Smith became James Anderson’s 381st Test wicket, touching a delivery through to Buttler to depart for 11. In his 100th match at this level, the veteran seamer needs three more scalps to become the leading wicket-taker in Test history for England.
Scoreboard
ENGLAND (1st Innings) 399 (I.R. Bell 143, J.E. Root 83, B.A. Stokes 79; K.A.J. Roach 4-94, J.E. Taylor 3-90, J.O. Holder 2-69).
WEST INDIES (1st Innings, overnight 155-4):
K.C. Brathwaite c Jordan b Tredwell 39 D.S. Smith c Buttler b Anderson 11 D.M. Bravo c Buttler b Jordan 10 M.N. Samuels c Buttler b Broad 33 S. Chanderpaul c Stokes b Tredwell 46 J. Blackwood not out 69 D. Ramdin c Buttler b Broad 9 J.O. Holder not out 7
EXTRAS (LB-3, W-5, NB-2) 10
TOTAL (for six wkts, 92 overs) 234
FALL OF WKTS: 1-19, 2-42, 3-89, 4-99, 5-192, 6-227.
TO BAT: J.E. Taylor, K.A.J. Roach, S.J. Benn.
BOWLING: Anderson 19-9-52-1 (1w); Broad 22-2-67-2; Jordan 16-5-39-1 (1nb); Stokes 16-3-41-0 (1nb); Tredwell 19-9-32-2.
Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2015
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