Windies batting display outshines Anderson's fifer

Windies batting display outshines Anderson's fifer

After having succumbed rather meekly in the opening Test, the visitors put up commendable performances with both bat and ball in the first two days at Headingley, staying on top across six sessions of play. However, things didn't start off on a good note for them on Sunday (August 27).

Day 3, Ball 1: James Anderson bowls the perfect outswinger, getting the ball to move slightly away from the offstump and inducing the edge of Shai Hope's bat to the wicketkeeper. Hope may have been unbeaten on 147 overnight but a new day would have brought the same old challenges of getting an eye in. He didn't get an opportunity to do that, and walked bat to a standing ovation from the Headingley crowd.

Shane Dowrich, walking out to bat next, headed back to the dressing room soon enough to give Shai company, getting an outside edge off Anderson's next delivery. Joe Root took an easy catch at slips, Windies had lost two wickets in two balls and Aderson had taken his Test-wickets tally to 497.

The conditions weren't as conducive for the pacers as it was in the first two days but there was enough pressure on Windies for the English bowlers to take command. Instead, it was skipper Jason Holder and Jermaine Blackwood who went on the counter-attack and flipped the momentum. With Blackwood sticking to his brand of one-dimensional cricket, Holder didn't hold back. The skipper stroked seven boundaries and add 75 runs for the eighth wicket in just over an hour of play. Having resumed the day on 329 for 7, the partnership helped take the lead to 146 runs despite the two early dismissals.

Both the batsmen took the aerial route rather generously. The approach that helped them reap the 75 crucial runs, eventually brought about the downfall of Holder. In a bid to hit Chris Woakes out of the ground, he mistimed the shot and Moeen Ali ran backwards from mid off to take a superb catch. Blackwood followed him back to the pavilion soon after, going for a two without keeping an eye on a swift Ben Stokes on the field, who made a superb run to stop and throw the ball back to the 'keeper. Blackwood was run out one short of a deserving half century.

And just if the fourth and eighth wicket pairs weren't frustrating enough for the English bowlers, Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel added to their misery. Despite not having much to boast of about their batting skills, they did well to frustrate the hosts with their nagging presence at the crease for the final wicket, one which lasted for nearly 45 minutes. The haul finally ended with Ben Stokes getting a full delivery to rap the pads of Shannon Gabriel, who had managed to get a decision overturned two balls earlier.

James Anderson, the most impressive English bowler of the innings, finished with figures of 5 for 76 - his 23rd fifer to wrap up Windies' innings on 427, conceding a 169-run lead. Neither the English bowlers nor the fielders did too much wrong (barring three dropped catches), but it was one of the finest displays of batting by Windies in recent times. Anderson was the star with the ball, finishing with figures of 5/76.

Brief scores: West Indies 427 (Shai Hope 147, Kraigg Brathwaite 134; James Anderson 5-76) lead England 258 by 169 runs.