West Indies v England: second Test, day three – live! | Sport

56th over: West Indies 118-3 (Brathwaite 46, Blackwood 8) It’s Mahmood, yellow soles of his shoes kicking up the air. Dan Lawrence at slip sweeps his forehead and the back of his neck for sweat and applies it to the ball alongside a shirt polish – but the commentators can’t see much evidence of a shiny side on the ball. To my eye, the ball looks generally knackered. Brathwaite and Blackwood scamper three quick singles – definitely more intent between the wickets since lunch. A Mahmood no ball adds to the score.

“Do the teams eat lunch together or are they kept separate?” asks Malcolm Henderson in Panama. Malcolm, I’m not sure. They used to, I think, but everything changed with Covid.

55th over: West Indies 114-3 (Brathwaite 44, Blackwood 7) Jack Leach resumes his duties after lunch. Dot to dot – the 23rd maiden of the innings – as Stokes polishes the ball vigorously on his flanks.

A wonderful photo by Philip Brown:

A hot cross bun and a cup of tea.

David Harland is battling jet lag but is still capable of defending Chris Woakes:“Guy Hornsby’s question whether you retain Woakes if Overton is fit … I would say absolutely, he remains capable of great spells and can bowl a tight line whilst also having a batting average of 27… “

They’ll retake the field in a couple of minutes, in the meantime if anyone knows where a pair of age 13 white football shorts have disappeared to, please let me know.

A pleasing session for England as West Indies continued to struggle despite the intractability of Brathwaite. Wickets for Leach -who had his best session of the winter – and Stokes, who can consider himself lucky with the wicket of Bonner, though he would have had another had he reviewed that lbw against Blackwood. Promise a plenty from Fisher and Mahmood – who got the ball reversing before lunch. Expect to see more of him after the fish and rice. I’m going to grab a cup of tea, back in half an hour.

Apologies if the email hasn’t been working – if you’ve something to say, drop me a line at [email protected]

54th over: West Indies 114-3 (Brathwaite 44, Blackwood 7) Lees comes in at short leg to mutter reverse-swing in Brathwaite’s ear. Mahmood eases to the crease, six dots and that is lunch. Root gives Fisher a hug as they walk off the pitch, and England are all smiles.

53rd over: West Indies 114-3 (Brathwaite 44, Blackwood 7) A couple of scampered singles as Stokes pitches the ball up looking for reverse swing in the penultimate over before lunch.

52nd over: West Indies 110-3 (Brathwaite 43, Blackwood 5) Leach’s long spell comes to an end as Root plumps for Mahmood just before lunch. First though, Stokes and Fisher are sent down to the boundary to push the sightscreen into position. The first ball reverses viciously and Root licks his lips. The third ducks into the boot, but outside the line. A no ball gifts West Indies a run but it is an over full of promise. Mark Butcher thinks he can see something of Waqar Younis in him – quite the compliment, but Mahmood wears his talent lightly.

Killer reverse swing but it tonks him on the toe outside off stump

Sounds like it hit the boot….

51st over: West Indies 108-3 (Brathwaite 42, Blackwood 4) Just a leg bye off Stokes as he continues to pound in and test the West Indian batters, with just ten minutes left till lunch.

Some highlights from the last day at Karachi and Babar’s 196, where Pakistan batted out 172 overs to draw the second Test.

50th over: West Indies 107-3 (Brathwaite 42, Blackwood 4) Brathwaite grabs at a couple of runs through point, as Leach twirls onwards.

49th over: West Indies 105-3 (Brathwaite 40, Blackwood 4) Stokes again, tubular bandages (?) tucked under the shirt arms. He’s persisted with the longer hair he grew during lock-down. I’m a fan, it is Denis Compton-esque . Blackwood drives at a wide ball and sends it tumbling through cover to the rope. Stokes comes in for a chat, smiling wolfishly.

“The rare sent-from-the-ACTUAL-office email here (in a Parisian workplace, OBOing is an almost revolutionary act). I was a Brathwaite early adopter. He’s pulled off so many boy-on-the-burning-deck, collapse-defying innings that I’ve lost count. For about 18 months he played what amounted to one against eleven (he was particularly magnificent in Australia).
Coming in to bat against 500 disrupts the normal laws of sporting physics but if anyone can do it, Brathwaite can. Recalcitrance is where he lives. Truth or Dare is always Dare. The gauntlet is what he picks up.
I bet I hex him.”

Robert Wilson, his afternoon is in your hands.

48th over: West Indies 101-3 (Brathwaite 40, Blackwood 0) The replay shows that the Stokes LBW shout was OUT! On the field Stokes grins easily – it is easy to take the knock-backs the day after you’ve walked on water (again). Another Leach maiden – the good ship West Indies is fully becalmed. Can they score another run before lunch in half an hour?

47th over: West Indies 101-3 (Brathwaite 40, Blackwood 0) The West Indies scoring rate has ground to a crawl as Stokes sends down another maiden. A huge appeal to his fifth ball, a creeper which nips into Blackwood’s back pad. Stokes wrinkles his nose and signals that is searing down leg.

46th over: West Indies 101-3 (Brathwaite 40, Blackwood 0) The Spice Girls zig-a-zig-ahh across a full Bridgetown as Woakes spears down another maiden.

The latest on Mark Wood.

45th over: West Indies 101-3 (Brathwaite 40, Blackwood 0) Stokes does the business with a wicket maiden though Bonner can consider himself unlucky. The third umpire certainly has better eyes than me.

It’s tricky to tell whether or not the ball has glanced the bat as it hits the pad, but the umpire rules in the bowler’s favour and the replay shows the ball would have hit the top of middle stump. Bonner is squared up, feel firmly stuck in the crease.

44th over: West Indies 101-2 (Brathwaite 40, Bonner 9) Woakes picks up after the break. Brathwaite pokes at a short one but it goes only to point. Woakes is busting a gut as always, powering to the stumps, slightly pigeon chested and is rewarded with a maiden.

43rd over: West Indies 101-2 (Brathwaite 40, Bonner 9) Stokes now, as Root rings the changes and I have to squint in the light of the fierce Manchester sun as it streams through the window. Just a leg bye from the over and actually we now take DRINKS.

42nd over: West Indies 100-2 (Brathwaite 40, Bonner 9) Brathwaite joins in the sudden boundary rush, sending Woakes spinning to the square leg boundary. And I think that is DRINKS.

41st over: West Indies 93-2 (Brathwaite 33, Bonner 9) Two fours from Leach’s over as Bonner wafts a charming cover drive to the rope, and sweeps a leg-side here-you-are behind square.

A email drops by. Hello Tim Sanders.

“Somehow, Fisher and Mahmood’s presences seems to cast Anderson and Broad’s absences in a better light. They’ve both started promisingly, and like you I think Mahmood’s moment might come with the older ball.

“Regarding pace, I’d like to give a shout out to Worcestershire’s Dillon Pennington. New Road is generally a sluggish surface with its annual spring inundation, which affects his numbers. But he could consider himself unlucky to be behind the current debutants in the queue. I’ve seen him take a triple wicket maiden at Headingley – a T20, but proper bowling at the top order; and in a four-day victory at Scarborough in 2018, Kane Williamson really didn’t enjoy facing him.”

That’s a great call. I saw him in 2018, I think, the year Surrey won the Championship. He put the wind up the Surrey batting at New Road as they were chasing a small target.

40th over: West Indies 85-2 (Brathwaite 33, Bonner 1) Root whisks Mahmood off, after just two wicketless overs, and calls for Chris Woakes. A mixed bag, gets away with a couple of loose ones, surprises Brathwaite with some ping-pong bounce with the last ball. A maiden.

39th over: West Indies 85-2 (Brathwaite 33, Bonner 1) Another maiden for Leach and much oohing from the fielders and prodding from the batsmen. The pitch, says Mark Butcher, has much more of a sandpapery feel on day three than it had previously. This is what is giving Leach his purchase off the surface.

38th over: West Indies 85-2 (Brathwaite 33, Bonner 1) A bit of late swing, a bit of dig, Mahmood is providing plenty of threat but no cigar. Yet. But his action is poetry.

“Greetings from Singapore!” Hello Kevin Tong. “Glad to get an early email in, for once. During his interview yesterday, Ben Stokes mentioned that the spinner is in the game, and we all know that it’s going to be a big day for Jack Leach. Might I posit that it is also going to be a big day for Ben Foakes? We haven’t had much of a chance to see the silken glovework he is known for, so here’s hoping we’ll see some of that today.”

Yes, good point.

37th over: West Indies 84-2 (Brathwaite 33, Bonner 0) A Leach maiden.

I don’t want to think about this question, it is too poignant. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Wood came to the conclusion that his body was just too fragile for this red-ball lark and decided to concentrate on white-ball.

36th over: West Indies 84-2 (Brathwaite 33, Bonner 0) Root beckons to Mahmood, to replace Fisher after a good morning spell. Mahmood is up in the high 80mphs immediately and beats Bonner with a snorter.

35th over: West Indies 83-2 (Brathwaite 32, Bonner 0) The replay of the wicket shows a bit of the pitch flying off as Leach lands the ball. It also shows Brooks bending down in frustration when he realises what he’s done.

Thanks to Ali, for this from the local Bridgetown paper, by young Anmar Goodridge-Boyce.

The breakthrough! Brooks plays a heavy-footed cut which flies to Woakes at point who swoops and takes on his belly. Just reward for Leach, though not to his best ball of the day.

34th over: West Indies 81-1 (Brathwaite 31, Brooks 38) Agonisingly close! Fisher finds some extra bounce and catches the top edge of Brooks’ bat, from where the ball flies just short of Crawley, who almost flicks it up one-handedly as he dives forwards in hope.

33rd over: West Indies 80-1 (Brathwaite 31; Brooks 37) Yikes, the fourth ball is another big turner, catching the outside edge, squeezing past gully. I imagine the voice of Ben Kenobi whispering, “soft hands, Shamarh, soft hands.”

“I’ve just hand-washed two jumpers and they are lounging across a chair outside soaking up the sunshine.” says Andrew Benton. “I’d like to think that WI will be 225-8 when I take them in, nice and dry, in a few hours, but I think they’ll do an England and get a loadaruns, so….heading for a draw. A top drawer draw, but still a draw. What do you think?”

Now you’ve put me on the spot. I’m going with your first prediction: wickets for the wily Leach and Mahmood reverse-swing. And your washing will definitely be dry.

32nd over: West Indies 77-1 (Brathwaite 31; Brooks 34) A maiden from Fisher, who wears thick white wristbands halfway up each forearm. Some nippy bounce to put doubt in the batsmen’s mind.

31st over: West Indies 77-1 (Brathwaite 31; Brooks 34) Not quite as lip-smacking a second over from Leach, and Brooks picks up a couple through the covers.

30th over: West Indies 74-1 (Brathwaite 30, Brooks 32) Fisher is an expressive figure, runner-bean-fingered hands reaching out in supplication after a good ball. Another perfectly good over, a hint of extra bounce, nice and full.

“Tanya,” John Starbuck, hello!

“Good afternoon. I rather like the phrase ‘the elongated Fisher’. It reads like a particular species of fast bowler, generally seen in sunny climes.”

These tall fast bowlers do feel a bit like a species apart. Jason Holder in particular has a celestial air.

29th over: West Indies 73-1 (Brathwaite 29, Brooks 32) It’s spin from the Malcolm Marshall end, and Leach’s first ball lands and spins sharply past Brooks’ bat – and it was 76kph, slower, just like Uncle Gower asked for. That’ll sit and and fester in the West Indian minds. The fourth ball is a cracker too, shimming past Brathwaite’s pressing blade, and the fifth flies past a diving short leg.

28th over: West Indies 71-1 (Brathwaite 28, Brooks 31) Here we go. The elongated Fisher, squinting into the sun, has the ball and delivers the first on the money as Jerusalem is belched from the stands. He continues to be tidy and the first over is a maiden.

The players are out, and the cameras pan round the full stands which are filled mostly with Brits.

A lovely story about Shamarh Brooks from Carlos Brathwaite in the BT studio – Brooks was picked for West Indies A on the recommendation of Brian Lara, who watched him hit four fours and was transfixed.

David Gower, resplendent in a pink shirt covered in birds, thinks Jack Leach needs to bowl much slower. It is hazy in Barbados, and a ruffling kind of wind swings over the ground.

And awful news for Mark Wood, who had such an impressive Ashes series. He will miss the rest of the Caribbean tour AND The Indian Premier League with a “right elbow injury.”

No news yet on a call up. Wood will see a specialist back in the UK.

While we wait, more internal turmoil from Yorkshire CCC, as ex-chair Robin Smith puts his oar in and reignites the whole mess.

Ali’s super report on Thursday’s business:

And what Ben Stokes had to say after his wunder-innings:

Good afternoon from Manchester, where the skies are rivalling Bridgetown in all their hyacinth gorgeousness and there is a waft of jasmine blossom in the spring air.

Yesterday couldn’t have gone much better for England – 150 for Joe Root, 120 for Ben Stokes, back to his belligerent best, and promising debuts for the two new caps: Matt Fisher and Saqib Mahmood. Fisher took a wicket with his second ball, probing the corridoor of uncertainty like a pro. There were no scalps for Saqib Mahmood, but he was miserly and fierce.

Whether England can dig a win from this pancake pitch is down to their perseverance and West Indian fortitude. Ben Stokes, for one, was optimistic:

“I don’t want to eat my words here but I can’t see [the pitch] getting any better. I think the spinner is in the game and the seamers felt in the game the whole way, so it’ll be an exciting day tomorrow.”

Play starts at 2pm GMT, I’ll be back to read the tea leaves at 1.30pm.