da betsson： Another three-day Test on the cards as tourists struggle in second innings after giving England a scare
da dobrowin： Valkerie Baynes27-Jul-2024Who wore it best? Opinions may well be divided on the Paris Olympics opening ceremony’s acid-dream catwalk but the answer was clearer at Edgbaston.While the gracefully ageing supermodels Joe Root and Ben Stokes set out to show how it’s done, an assured, new young thing swept the runway in their wake and stole much of the attention. There were no diva strops from either man along the way, however, nor any smug satisfaction when Jamie Smith tripped over before he could strike his ultimate pose.Instead, Stokes threw his head back and his arms into the air in dismay, feeling Smith’s pain as Shamar Joseph’s off-cutter stayed low and dipped under a pull shot – up until then such a stand-out feature of his innings – and pegged back off stump. Smith was five runs shy of his maiden Test century, playing just his third match.That it was his second half-century already was cause for celebration. So too, for England fans at least, was the fact he had guided his side past West Indies’ 284 and played a huge role in taking them to a 94-run lead on first innings.Huge credit was already due to Root and Stokes, who shared a 115-run partnership for the sixth wicket after England lost two key batters in as many overs to be 54 for 5 within the first half-hour on Saturday, having resumed on 38 for 3. Also to Chris Woakes, who scored 62, the majority of them during a century stand with Smith.Related
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Woakes’ departure, bowled by Alzarri Joseph, marked the evening drinks break, whereupon Gus Atkinson holed out to deep midwicket 13 balls later to end England’s innings, but not before thrashing 21 off 16 balls including consecutive sixes over backward square off Alzarri Joseph, who ended with four wickets, as well as an economy-rate a shade under seven.That gave England an hour to make incisions and they did courtesy of Woakes, who rattled Kraigg Brathwaite’s off stump for a six-ball duck, and Atkinson, whose scrambled-seam delivery outside off lured a prod from Kirk McKenzie, with Smith – unable to stay out of the spotlight – taking a simple catch. It could have been three down, but Mikyle Louis survived a close lbw decision on umpire’s call after he was left splayed on all fours by a Mark Wood yorker that struck him flush on the boot. By stumps on the second day, Louis remained not out alongside Alick Athanaze as West Indies trimmed the deficit to 61 runs.Smith picked up where his elders had left the England cause after Root’s excellent 87, which comprised his 95th score of fifty or more in Tests, and took him past 12,000 runs, in the process cementing his status as seventh on the all-time run-scorers’ list ahead of Brian Lara. Stokes was equally resolute in scoring his 46th such score, and while both had departed long before tea, Smith, the 24-year-old wicketkeeper-batter who scored 70 on debut in the first Test of this series at Lord’s, had reached 57 not out.The afternoon session started ominously for West Indies as Alzarri Joseph conceded 10 off the first over, including a short ball right in Stokes’ hitting zone which he pulled away with ease for four to bring up his half-century, having gone to lunch on 48 not out.Root reached the 12,000-run milestone off a similar delivery pulled to the boundary three balls later. But the short-ball tactics paid off in Alzarri Joseph’s next over, this one getting slightly higher up around chest-height as Stokes launched into a cramped pull just in front of square leg where Brathwaite was stationed and took a sharp catch leaping with both hands stretched above his head.At that point England still trailed by 113 runs but Smith was soon into his stride. If his attempted hook off Alzarri Joseph looked ungainly as the ball looped off his glove over keeper Joshua Da Silva and to the boundary rope, his next shot – pulled onto the roof of the Hollies Stand never to return – was stunning.Just as he had in the first Test at Lord’s, left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie denied Root his century, on this occasion with one that kept low and slid onto the inside-edge of the front pad as the batter stepped forward to defend.Smith brought up his fifty punishing a full Jason Holder delivery wide of long-on for four, one of 12 for his innings to go alongside that emphatic six. He struck three fours in one Alzarri Joseph over which went for 17 runs in all, two sublime pull-shots bookending a steer through fine leg.Chris Woakes followed up his half-century with the first-over wicket of Kraigg Brathwaite•Darren Staples/ECB via Getty Images
Woakes was excellent too, raising his half-century not long after Smith was removed, the 106 runs they put on together pivotal to England’s lead.Root and Stokes had steadied England after the home side’s first-day collapse spilled into the second morning.Ollie Pope, who had been 6 not out overnight, added just four more via a boundary edged wide of second slip before he was bowled by a Shamar Joseph delivery which kept low as he attempted to cut and deflected onto his stumps.Harry Brook faced just three balls before he fell driving at a Jayden Seales delivery which moved away slightly, brushing the edge as it did so and landing in the gloves of Da Silva behind the stumps.Root had survived on 3 when, in the second over of the day, Seales struck him on the pad and, despite hearty West Indies appeals for lbw they neglected to review when he was adjudged not out. Replays later showed that, according to ball-tracking, it would have hit leg stump.Root shrugged it off to set about his rebuilding effort, striking Alzarri Joseph for back-to-back fours to move to 25 and he brought up his fifty with a single off Holder.Stokes’s punch down the ground for four off Holder shortly before lunch was the embodiment of his determination and he slog-swept Motie into the Hollies to move within one more boundary of his fifty, only to have the shot bettered by Smith.
