RECAP
Follow UsBrathwaite & Louis continue to shine as an opening pair
Before the series, West Indies took a gamble on Mikyle Louis — from a partnership point of view, it’s certainly paid off for the visitors. On the day, Brathwaite & Louis posted their third consecutive 50-run stand, becoming the first away opening pair since Warner & Rogers in 2015 to post a hat-trick of 50+ stands in England.
The 76-run opening stand was a byproduct of Brathwaite scoring his joint second-fastest fifty in Tests.
Windies endure collapse after bright start
But the fun didn’t last long for the visitors. From 76/0, they collapsed to 115/5 in no time. Alick Athanaze and Kavem Hodge both punished England at Trent Bridge, but, here, they were able to score just 15 runs between them.
West Indies #3, #4 and #5 batters all got dismissed ‘bowled’, with Hodge leaving a straight one.
Holder & Da Silva steady the ship for the visitors
At 115/5, it looked like West Indies might get bowled out under 200. But Holder & Da Silva added 109 runs together to help the visitors recover and get to 225/5.
Holder was the aggressor in the partnership, striking seven boundaries in total. He took 24 runs off Shoaib Bashir off just 27 balls.
Atkinson & Woakes limit Windies under 300
Woakes & Atkinson, England’s two best bowlers on the day, helped keep the Windies under 300. Woakes broke the 109-run stand by nicking off Da Silva, and then Atkinson knocked over both Holder and Gudakesh Motie.
The delivery to Holder was an absolute pearler, as you can see here.
Late joy with the ball for the Windies
Despite underperforming with the bat to an extent, the Windies found some late joy with the ball in hand. Before stumps, they managed to dismiss both England openers alongside the nightwatchman Mark Wood.
Crawley’s disappointing run continued as he perished for 18. His last three scores in the series read 0, 3 & 18.
England ended day one 244 runs behind, with seven wickets in hand.
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