World News England’s Root, Brook batting Windies out of first Test Blog

by
url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url

Half-centuries from Joe Root and Harry Brook helped extend England’s lead to 172 on the second day of the first Test against the West Indies.

After bowling out the tourists for 121 on Wednesday, England reached 6-293 on the second morning at Lord’s, with Root (68) and Brook (50) sharing a score of 91.

The West Indies conceded 104 runs in the first session as their series opener continued to slip through their fingers on Thursday, but spinner Gudakesh Motie produced two brilliant throws to prevent the hosts from storming ahead.

Motie hit a devilishly good run from the rough to clean-bowl captain Ben Stokes for four and then hit back Roots off stump just before lunch, leaving Jamie Smith in charge for the rest of the innings on his debut.

In perfect conditions for batting from above, the English team wasted no time in extending their overnight score of 3-189, scoring 42 runs in the first half-hour.

Brook quickly found his timing and drove Jayden Seales to the first boundary of the day.

Root was equally keen to feel the ball on the bat and followed it up with four fours in nine deliveries, mercilessly fending off anything that drifted towards his padding.

Things started to get painful for the West Indies when Brook took a step back and pulled Shamar Joseph’s short ball into the mound stand for six runs, reaching his half-century in just 55 balls.

But Brooks’ enthusiasm was about to take over. He prepared to hook another bumper from Alzarri Joseph and looked like he was going to break the blow before sending the top edge straight up and into the gloves of Josh Da Silva.

That brought Stokes to bat, but his brief stay was ended by a moment of class from Motie. The arrival of a left-hander brought the footsteps into play and he got one to spin wildly outside the England captain’s off stump and flatten the middle stump.

Motie had nothing particularly tempting at hand against the right-handers but stuck to his task and eventually got a ball past Root’s outside edge with just enough turn to hold the ball.

Smith had earlier made a good start with a drag down for four points and added two more boundaries when he reached the break time of 16 not out.

Leave a Comment