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Post by Admin on Mar 17, 2022 19:33:26 GMT
Bit of turn now for possibly not the greatest West Indian spinner ever
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Post by man in the stand on Mar 18, 2022 12:05:07 GMT
Mahmood's big chance to claim a permanant place from those injured or not here.
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Post by Admin on Mar 18, 2022 13:26:16 GMT
Mahmood's big chance to claim a permanant place from those injured or not here.
Mr Ambrose thinks he has something espn view West Indies 71 for 1 (Brooks 31*, Brathwaite 28*) trail England 507 for 9 dec (Root 153, Stokes 120, Lawrence 91) by 436 runs Ben Stokes made a welcome return to the ranks of Test centurion with a belligerent display against West Indies as England set a commanding first-innings total. It had been well over 18 months and 23 Test innings without a ton for Stokes and much has happened in that time - from losing his beloved father, Ged, to a four-and-a-half-month absence from the game during which he had two operations to repair a serious finger injury and took time out to manage his mental health. But once he got going on the second morning in Barbados, it was something to behold. He struck four sixes and 11 fours as he reached 89 off just 92 balls by lunch, having started the day on nought after Dan Lawrence fell on the last ball of the opening day. A quieter period ensued after the interval as Kemar Roach and Jason Holder put the lid on England's scoring for a time, but Stokes went out swinging once more, for 120, after bringing up his 11th Test hundred with a scampered single and celebrating with his crooked-fingered salute to the heavens in memory of his dad, who died in December 2020. Stokes' last Test century had come against West Indies at Old Trafford in July of that year. Meanwhile, his captain, Joe Root, was at the other end of the pitch for the most part, during a 129-run partnership for the fourth wicket, having brought up his second consecutive Test century the evening before, his eighth in 19 Tests since the start of 2021. Root ended up with 153 on this occasion, before leaving Stokes to carry on and then seeing a 75-run seventh-wicket stand between Chris Woakes and Ben Foakes, allowing him to on 507 for 9 shortly after tea. Debutant Matthew Fisher, drafted into the squad after the Ashes debacle and handed his chance when Craig Overton fell ill on the eve of this match, struck with just his second ball in international cricket before Kraigg Brathwaite and Shamarh Brooks resisted further damage to steer West Indies to 71 for 1 at the close. Having seen John Campbell thread his first ball to the rope through backward point, Fisher elicited a prod outside off-stump and the ball flew off the toe-end of Campbell's bat to Foakes behind the stumps. Poignantly, as he celebrated his maiden Test wicket, Fisher raised his finger skyward in tribute to his own father, Phil, who died when Matthew was just 14. Fisher thought he had his second wicket when Brooks jabbed in the direction of second slip, where Zak Crawley stooped very low to grab the ball in his fingertips, although he came up looking uncertain as to whether it had been grounded in the process and replays showed it had, confirming the not-out soft signal. Brathwaite was then given out lbw on 14, Jack Leach skidding one into his back pack - but not before it had grazed the bat, as the DRS confirmed to reprieve West Indies' captain. Earlier, Stokes and Root had England innings looking like London buses as they carried their side past 300. That mark had evaded them for 12 innings and more than six months, until the first Test in Antigua, when they racked up 311 and 349 for 6 declared. Having begun the day on 244 for 3, with Root on 119, Stokes lit up the morning. He twice advanced on left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul to launch him down the ground for six in consecutive overs, bringing up his fifty in the second instance. He later muscled Permaul over the fence at midwicket before clubbing the very next ball over cover for four. Stokes took to Alzarri Joseph in the following over with three consecutive fours, bringing up the 100-partnership with Root via a powerful drive through cover before launching him over long-off and through midwicket. But Stokes wasn't done, passing 5000 Test runs with a mow down the ground to clear the fence by some distance. Root passed 150 for the 12th time in his career, the most by any England batter, but then Roach, with his first ball back into the attack and the seventh after lunch, ended his stay with one that nipped back from outside off and rapped the front pad. Initially adjudged not out by umpire Nigel Duguid, the hosts reviewed and Hawk-Eye showed the ball crashing into the top of leg stump to move Roach past Sir Garry Sobers and clear into seventh on West Indies' list of all-time wicket-takers. Jonny Bairstow crashed Jayden Seales down the ground and through the covers before holing out to deep midwicket off Joseph, and with that Stokes threw the bat again. He heaved Brathwaite over the fence at deep midwicket for his first boundary since lunch, some 13.2 overs after the resumption, and was very nearly out on the next ball, lofting Brathwaite to long-on, where Campbell spilled a tough chance while stepping on the rope. Stokes came undone going big again one ball later, this time skying Brathwaite to Brooks at long-off. West Indies took three wickets for eight runs in the space of 14 balls, prompting Root to call his men in six overs into the evening session. Permaul, who had come in for some tough treatment, particularly at the hands of Stokes, had Foakes and Leach stumped by Joshua Da Silva to bookend Woakes' dismissal, sending Roach high into the air on the leg side to be caught by Seales. |
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Post by Admin on Mar 19, 2022 8:08:24 GMT
Might be me but think they should make more of Lawrence's bowling
ESPN
West Indies 288 for 4 (Brathwaite 109*, Joseph 4*) trail England 507 for 9 dec by 219 runs
The cool stroll down the pitch, the relaxed smile, the lackadaisical lift of the bat - Kraigg Brathwaite's century celebration said it all.
After a disciplined display which frustrated England's bowlers no end and ultimately lasted the entire third day, Brathwaite posted a stubborn 10th Test ton, but he knew that plenty of work lay ahead in West Indies' pursuit of England's hefty first-innings total.
Jermaine Blackwood, on the other hand, started celebrating his century a third of the way down the pitch while still watching the ball trickling beyond the slips cordon for a single, running with his arms outstretched before turning his face skyward and pumping his fist as a relieved grin appeared briefly then gave way to a determined stare, the task ahead not forgotten.
And so it was at stumps, with West Indies still trailing by 219 runs but, thanks to their twin centurions, they had taken the fight to England.
The pair put on 183 runs together to grind down an England attack deflated by the denial of Saqib Mahmood's maiden Test wicket - Blackwood on 65 at the time - because of a front-foot no ball, and with tensions boiling over in a verbal altercation between Ben Stokes and Blackwood.
When Blackwood finally fell for 102 late in the day, shouldering arms to a Dan Lawrence ball which struck high on the front pad in line with the top of middle stump, England had their first wicket since the morning session. But Brathwaite endured, still looking calm and collected on 109 not out, alongside nightwatchman Alzarri Joseph.
In sharp contrast to the drawn first Test in Antigua, where he raced to his fastest Test fifty - off 62 balls - but failed to press on, Brathwaite had inched to his slowest half-century, off 167 balls, in Barbados, sweeping Jack Leach for four, and faced another 111 deliveries before raising his ton, rocking back to thread Leach behind point for two.
In both instances, Brathwaite's innings had been what his side needed. During the previous match, he and John Campbell set West Indies' off to a bright start in pursuit of England's first-innings score before Nkrumah Bonner's century helped them to a modest lead. This time, Brathwaite took it upon himself to hang around... and hang around... in a bit to steer his side into a competitive position.
Having resumed on 71 for 1, West Indies lost two wickets before lunch, before Brathwaite and Blackwood mounted their resistance.
Leach had found considerable turn in his first over of the day, beating the outside edge of both Brathwaite and Shamarh Brooks, but Brooks was culpable in his own dismissal inside the first half hour. Leach broke through with a shorter, wider delivery that saw Brooks' attempted cut sail to backward point where Chris Woakes took a good catch low to his right.
Brooks and Brathwaite had put on 69 runs for the second wicket but added just 12 runs in 7.4 overs on the third morning as Leach and Matt Fisher kept them well contained.
Stokes entered the attack midway through the morning session and struck in his second over, removing Bonner lbw for just 9 to ensure there would be no reprise of his first-innings century in Antigua. Bonner reviewed umpire Nigel Duguid's decision, UltraEdge failing to shed definitive light on whether he had hit it first and ball-tracking showing that it was clipping the top of middle stump as Bonner trudged off.
If Bonner was hard done by, it was a case of swings and roundabouts a short time later when Stokes pinned Blackwood on the back leg, with England choosing not to call for the DRS, only for replays to show it was hitting leg stump halfway up.
Mahmood thought he had his first Test wicket when he struck Blackwood on the boot with a fine reverse-swinging delivery and England reviewed the not-out decision, but replays showed Blackwood had got outside the line of off stump.
But there was to be greater heartache for Mahmood in an eventful 93rd over when he first beat Blackwood's attempted drive, narrowly missing the outside edge then nailed a yorker which clattered into the bottom of middle stump only to have his elation curtailed when the third umpire found he had over-stepped. It would have been little consolation for Mahmood to learn he wasn't the first England bowler to miss out on his first Test wicket that way. The next ball, Blackwood left, almost to his peril with the ball missing the top of off stump by a whisker.
Reverse swing had played a significant part in England's tactics, but they could not penetrate West Indies' defences, as Brathwaite and Blackwood saw themselves through to the arrival of the second new ball - and beyond.
Brathwaite punched Fisher through extra cover to bring up the fifty partnership and guided Stokes through gully, to the bowler's chagrin. Blackwood picked off boundaries smartly too, cutting Leach crisply in front of square to bring up his fifty, his sixth of 11 fours for the innings, but for the most part it was a gritty, patient performance by both batters.
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Post by Admin on Mar 20, 2022 8:20:25 GMT
ESPN View
England 507 for 9 dec and 40 for 0 (Crawley 21*, Lees 18*) lead West Indies 411 (Brathwaite 160, Blackwood 102) by 136 runs
The Kensington Oval DJ had tried with a track that was positively thumping while the one in the middle was as flat and lifeless as a piece of blank vinyl. In the end, the man on the decks resorted to the mellow tones of Ben E King's Stand By Me, as if pleading with those watching to stick around and see out the day.
It was, after all, Test cricket they were watching in pure form, not jazzed up or enhanced by anything, not least the pitch that meant "attritional" was the theme of the day.
The fact it was the theme for a third day running had other words springing to mind instead but took nothing away from Kraigg Brathwaite sticking around for a marathon 160 compiled over more than 11-and-a-half hours, an innings which dragged West Indies to 411 all out in response to England's first-innings 507 for 9 declared. A deficit of 96 runs at least offered some potential for an intriguing final day.
It took nothing away from Jack Leach either, as he epitomised England's toil in the field with three wickets for 118 runs in 69.5 overs, by some distance more than twice as many overs as either Ben Stokes or Saqib Mahmood, who claimed two wickets each.
By the time bad light ended play two overs before the scheduled close on day four, England had extended their advantage to 136 runs at 40 without loss in their second innings with Zak Crawley unbeaten on 21 and Alex Lees not out 18.
With no real sign of the surface breaking up yet and with only 19 wickets falling across four days, it was hard to see England having time to make a competitive declaration and then bowling West Indies out, but stranger things have happened.
West Indies thought they'd made something happen when Crawley was struck on the knee roll by Kemar Roach, but Crawley overturned his dismissal when ball-tracking showed the delivery was missing leg stump.
Veerasammy Permaul got one to turn emphatically from the rough outside off stump to almost bowl Lees through the gate, and although it missed everything, including the gloves of keeper Joshua Da Silva for a bye, it might prove informative for the final day.
Leach finally prised out Brathwaite, who had faced 489 deliveries for his knock, with a gem that belied the fact he had bowled 63.4 overs for just one wicket to that point. As satisfying as his second must have been, Leach's celebration was understandably muted after equally long hours of hard graft culminated in Brathwaite's dismissal, pressing forward in defence against the third new ball which pitched on middle and leg, turned and clipped the top of off stump before tea.
Having claimed just one wicket in the morning session, England took 3 for 45 in 27 overs during the afternoon in what felt like an action-packed period of play compared to the previous two days.
Jason Holder fell on the second ball after lunch without adding to his tally of 12 to give Mahmood his maiden Test wicket. Into his 14th over of the match when he bowled centurion Jermaine Blackwood - on 65 at the time - off a no-ball, Mahmood had to wait overnight and until his 18th over before he had Holder well caught, top-edging high towards Matt Fisher, who had to wheel round at mid-on and run back to snaffle the chance, holding on as he went to ground.
Chris Woakes had been used sparingly but he struck after Brathwaite fell to remove Roach lbw, the dismissal upheld on umpire's call when DRS showed the ball was just kissing leg stump.
After the interval, with the hosts eight wickets down, Mahmood claimed his second scalp, trapping Permaul lbw, and then Leach got his third, hard-won wicket when he had Da Silva out lbw for 33 with one that rapped the pad in line with leg stump.
Stokes claimed the only wicket of the morning session, removing nightwatchman Alzarri Joseph, who put on 52 runs for the fifth wicket opposite Brathwaite and faced 75 balls for his 19 runs before slashing a shorter, wider delivery towards gully, where Dan Lawrence took the sharpest of catches moving to his left.
Lawrence had earlier been on the receiving end of a Joseph six - a highlight of another sedate session, powered over deep square leg - adding to his two fours, one of which came via a glorious cover drive off Lawrence.
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Post by Admin on Mar 21, 2022 7:04:40 GMT
Guess we won't be seeing a lot of Saq from now on
ESPN
West Indies 411 (Brathwaite 160, Blackwood 102) and 136 for 5 (Brathwaite 56*, Leach 3-36) drew with England 507 for 9 dec (Root 153, Stokes 120, Lawrence 91) and 185 for 6 dec (Lawrence 41)
Kraigg Brathwaite thwarted England's bid for victory with another resolute batting display as the second Test ended in a draw in Barbados.
Brathwaite added an unbeaten 56 to his marathon first-innings 160 as West Indies ended up 136 for 5 in their second innings on a final day which featured greater tension than expected. England fancied their chances before Brathwaite reprised his immovable object routine on his home ground and was well supported by Joshua Da Silva's 30 not out after England had set West Indies 282 to win in a minimum of 65 overs following a lunch-time declaration.
Three wickets in the middle session gave the visitors hope as they sought what had seemed an unlikely result after a couple of attritional days in which Brathwaite batted for nearly 12 hours, putting on 183 runs off 411 balls with Jermaine Blackwood, and where runs and wickets were at a premium. In all, Brathwaite scored 216 runs for the match, facing 673 balls, more than any other West Indies batter in Tests, and spent almost 16 hours at the crease.
After Saqib Mahmood and Jack Leach combined to reduce West Indies to 39 for 3 inside the first 13 overs of their second innings, Brathwaite and Blackwood were reunited once more and by tea on the final day, West Indies were 65 for 3, the pair having chewed up 108 balls for an unbroken stand of 26 and leaving England 35 scheduled overs in which to take seven wickets.
Two more to Leach, who bowled well all match, stoked England's ambitions, but with Brathwaite having put a result out of the question, he and Joe Root shook hands with about 15 minutes left in the day and the three-match series locked at 0-0.
Leach sent down 69.5 overs for his 3 for 118 in West Indies' first innings and he added 3 for 36 off 25 overs in the second. He entered the attack in the sixth over and struck with one that spun sharply to remove John Campbell, caught by Alex Lees at short leg, although it took an England review to overturn umpire Joel Wilson's not-out decision, with replays showing the ball had kissed Campbell's glove before hitting the pad.
Similarly, Mahmood had success with the last ball of his opening over, thanks to a juggled slips catch off Shamarh Brooks, the ball bobbing up towards second slip, where Zak Crawley couldn't hold on as he went to ground and parried it into the air for Root, running behind him from first slip to collect it in his fingertips. Mahmood then had Nkrumah Bonner out via a much more straightforward catch to Root at slip to leave West Indies looking rattled and England jubilant.
But that brought Brathwaite and Blackwood together along with the memories of their earlier stand, and the contest was intricately poised.
Then Leach had Blackwood caught by Jonny Bairstow, kneeling at gully, off one that drifted in before bouncing sharply and turning away, finding the outside edge to end their partnership on 50 from 150 deliveries.
On his knees in the dirt alongside Root as England crowded the bat, Bairstow couldn't have looked happier in a fitting vignette for what had been a gritty contest characterised by days of hard toil for batters, bowlers and fielders alike.
England's mood lifted another notch when Jason Holder departed for a 24-ball duck, spearing a rare poor delivery from Leach, short and wide outside off stump, towards short cover, where Dan Lawrence took a sharp catch diving low to his left.
But as Brathwaite managed to find the rope through a gap between the close-in fielders on the leg side to bring up his half-century off a sharply rising Lawrence ball, England's prospects faded.
Earlier, fifty partnerships for the first and fifth wickets built England's lead, with Crawley and Lawrence reaching the 40s. Some enterprising yet unselfish batting interspersed by a couple of rain interruptions gave way to England biding their time before another squall arrived to bring lunch forward by a matter of minutes.
Having resumed 136 runs ahead on 40 for 0, the tourists lost three wickets inside the first half hour. In their attempts to raise the tempo, Lees and Root came undone slog-sweeping Veerasammy Permaul to deep midwicket. Alzarri Joseph then had Crawley beautifully caught by Jayden Seales, who ran in from long leg and dived forward to pouch the chance in mid-air.
When the players left the field for about 10 minutes as a rain shower swept through, England were 76 for 3, leading by 172 and with hopes of Lawrence and Ben Stokes piling on some quick runs at the resumption. When they returned, Stokes crashed a four through extra cover and lofted the next ball over deep midwicket for six in one Kemar Roach over which went for 17 runs in all. In the next, Lawrence thumped Joseph in the same direction for a maximum before a second shower arrived, this time halting play for around 40 minutes.
Stokes fell shortly after the re-start while Roach and Joseph looked to keep a lid on things by targeting a yorker length. But Lawrence and Bairstow picked their moments, the latter bludgeoning consecutive sixes off Joseph over deep backward square and down the ground, then Lawrence smashed Seales' first ball of the day into the stands at long-on.
Bairstow departed shortly after raising their fifty stand, having added 29 runs from just 25 balls, when he sent Seales' fifth ball to Roach, running in from long-off and stooping low to take the catch. Lawrence also fell trying to heave Seales away and holing out to Joseph at long-on to end with 41 runs from 39 balls.
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Post by man in the stand on Mar 21, 2022 10:43:42 GMT
I think Mahmood performed better than Fisher and could come in for Woakes, whose 66 overs have only yielded 2 wickets.
Some criticism of Leach not being a good enough spinner. He has bowled the most overs in every WI innings so far.
Again perhaps time to give Parky a go....Leach must be tired out anyway...
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Post by Admin on Mar 23, 2022 14:11:06 GMT
 The National Cricket Stadium, is the name of a cricket stadium complex on River Road, Grenada in the Caribbean. A Grenada cricket team first appeared in West Indian cricket in 1887 against a touring Gentlemen of America team at the old Queen's Park. Ten years later the team was recorded playing against Lord Hawke's touring team although, unlike several matches during the tour, that match did not have first-class status. In 1899, G. A. de Freitas and William Mignon became the first Grenada cricketers to play first-class cricket. The newly rebuilt Queen's Park Stadium became the 84th Test venue in 2002 when it hosted its first match between the West Indies and New Zealand. As of 18 August 2014, two test matches have taken place at the ground.[1] It was one of the locations for the 2007 Cricket World Cup. After being rebuilt in 2000, the new complex was damaged in September 2004 as a result of Hurricane Ivan. The oval is noted for being elongated towards the Pavilion end, giving a more baseball type look to the ground. The stadium was funded by the People's Republic of China. |
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Post by alanw on Mar 23, 2022 14:19:57 GMT
I think Mahmood performed better than Fisher and could come in for Woakes, whose 66 overs have only yielded 2 wickets.
Some criticism of Leach not being a good enough spinner. He has bowled the most overs in every WI innings so far.
Again perhaps time to give Parky a go....Leach must be tired out anyway...
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Post by Admin on Mar 23, 2022 14:27:24 GMT
No my guess will be Robinson and Overton back for Woakes and Fisher
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Post by alanw on Mar 23, 2022 16:01:45 GMT
You are probably correct but it doesn't make sense to me to have only one front line spinner when he is bowling 90 overs in the match.
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Post by Admin on Mar 23, 2022 17:39:11 GMT
Robinson now doubtful
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Post by Admin on Mar 23, 2022 19:11:15 GMT
One change Overton instead of Fisher no Parky
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Post by man in the stand on Mar 24, 2022 14:55:20 GMT
Even if this turns out to be a seamer's wicket I think they should have picked Parky...
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Post by Admin on Mar 25, 2022 7:17:06 GMT
Report from Andrew Miller ESPN
Close England 204 (Mahmood 49, Leach 41*, Seales 3-40) vs West Indies
If variety is the spice of the Spice Island, then the pitch at St George's served up a two-course taster on the first day in Grenada. After ten days of often enervating attrition in Antigua and Barbados, the façade of English batting competence crumbled at the first sign of heat from a pumped-up West Indies seam attack, before a mighty final-session rescue act from England's tenth-wicket pair dropped a sizeable hint that the truest mischief in the surface had already been and gone.
And by the close, who could rightly say where the balance of the series truly lay? In slumping to a nadir of 67 for 7 in the hour after lunch - a passage of play that included three key wickets for no runs in ten balls, and six consecutive single-figure scores from Nos. 2 to 7 - England seemed hell-bent on resetting their very own red-ball reset. After the earnest insistences from Joe Root and Paul Collingwood that lessons had been learned and progress had been made since the all-too-recent misery of the Ashes, the hyper-implausible figure of Kyle Mayers begged to differ, as his startling morning figures of 5-5-0-2 instigated a collapse that could have come straight out of Scott Boland's playbook.
But then, out of the wreckage strode the batting saviours of Jack Leach - still as diffident as ever, even with his contrasting heroics at Headingley and Lord's to serve as cult-status proof of his unlikely prowess - and England's newest recruit Saqib Mahmood, who fell to the day's final ball for an agonising 49, the highest score of his professional career. With Leach left high and dry on 41 not out, Nos. 10 and 11 had top-scored in a Test innings for the first time since 1885, when Australia's Tom Garrett and Edwin Evans had made 51 not out and 33 not out respectively, in what turned out to be a thrilling six-run win against England.
Only time will tell whether this stand will be as critical, but together Leach and Mahmood sapped the resolve of an all-too-easily deflated West Indies attack, whose collective legs were weary after the exhaustions of the first two Tests, and whose adrenaline bonked all too soon after the fall of Chris Woakes to the second ball after tea - at which point, with England in tatters at 114 for 9, their opponents seemed mentally to check out and put their pads on in anticipation of what promised to be the decisive innings of the series. They were still waiting, 90 runs and more than 46 overs later.
Nevertheless, the final analysis of England's innings revealed two men with scores in the 40s, and next to nothing else - and so on balance, West Indies' decision to bowl first remained amply justified, even in a topsy-turvy fashion.
From the outset it had been clear that a cracked and grassy surface with more than a hint of moisture underneath would be a prime bowl-first deck. However, when Kraigg Brathwaite unleashed an apparent four-pronged seam attack, following the decision to reinforce their batting at the expense of the spinner, Veerasammy Permaul, few could have expected it would be that extra batter, Mayers, who would prove to be the morning's most penetrative option.
For the first 40 minutes of the day, England's openers Alex Lees and Zak Crawley seemed just about to have the measure of conditions that were closer to Chester-le-Street and Canterbury than they had faced all winter, as they withstood a torrid but occasionally over-eager burst from Jayden Seales in particular, to inch along to 23 for 0.
But then West Indies clocked that less might well be more on a surface offering purchase for those who were willing to grip the ball on the track in the manner of an old-fashioned English seamer. And so Mayers, with his Darren Stevens-esque medium-paced wobblers, was tossed the ball in advance of West Indies' fastest option, Alzarri Joseph. And from that moment on, it was a different dynamic.
Crawley, a centurion in Antigua, quickly lost patience with Mayers' impertinence in the channel outside off. Having made his discipline on the drive such a feature of that apparent breakthrough innings, it was a familiar failing that sent him on his way for 7 as he flung his hands through a cunningly bowled legcutter, and spooned a simple chance to Brathwaite in the covers.
Enter Root, with a hundred in each of the first two Tests of the series, but reunited with a situation more akin to England's collapse to 48 for 4 on the first morning of the series in Antigua. And Mayers never offered him a chance to settle. His fourth ball hit the seam and wobbled wildly round Root's outside edge; five balls later, Mayers scrambled that same seam, and kissed the edge of a defensive push down the line to have Root caught behind for a nine-ball duck.
Lees' introduction to the Test team has now featured a new highest score in four of his five innings, which must count as progress of sorts. He played a compact holding role throughout the morning session, but before England's position could be claimed to have improved, they were three-down for 46 at lunch. Dan Lawrence - another player who seemed to have made visible strides in the first two Tests - had no answer as Seales returned with his discipline reframed. Despite burning a review after been pinned on the knee-roll by a nipbacker, he was sent on his way for 8 from 31 balls.
In Antigua, England's pre-lunch struggles had proven to be their nadir; here, however, they was merely the prelude. Four overs after the break, Ben Stokes - his blood pumping after a restorative century in Barbados - tried to take on Joseph's short ball, and shovelled a spliced pull straight back into the bowler's lap for 2 (53 for 4).
Five balls and no runs later, Lees' vigil was ended in uncompromising fashion by a pumped-up Roach, who was adamant that he'd found the edge two balls earlier, but when Brathwaite declined to waste his final review, he merely bombed the edge from round the wicket once more, and this time there was no doubt as Joshua da Silva sent him on his way for 31 (53 for 5).
And then, as if it prove that the events of the previous fortnight had been a fever-dream, Jonny Bairstow capped England's dramatic reversion to the mean with their third wicket for no runs in the space of 10 balls. Joseph - easily the quickest bowler on either side in the absence of Mark Wood - bent his back on another off-stump lifter, and Bairstow nicked off to da Silva for the 15th duck of his Test career, and his fifth since the start of 2021.
From 53 for 6, it was now a familiar race to the bottom for England's lower order. Ben Foakes was duly pinned on the crease as Seales ripped a bail-trimmer through his defences for 7, at which point England's run of scores - +31 708207 - read like they were planning an international call to the Netherlands to fill the dead playing time on the final two days of this Test (though hopefully not for a T20I, to judge by past experience).
At least Chris Woakes and Craig Overton broke the run of single-digit scores, not that this had been their original plan for first-day heroics, following their unlikely (and some might say, unwarranted) reprieves in England's seam attack. But Roach prised them apart after an eighth-wicket stand of 23 - at the time, England's joint-best of the innings - as he leapt wide on the crease to spear an outstanding nip-backer into the top of off stump (90 for 8).
Woakes held the line well for the remainder of the session - during which time, in the absence of a regular spinner, Brathwaite even turned to Nkrumah Bonner and Jermaine Blackwood for an over apiece of speculative moon-balls. It seemed he had merely been stalling for time, especially when Woakes drove loosely at his second ball after the break to be bowled by Seales for 25. But it didn't quite turn out like that.
At first it was simply a matter of holding up an end - and few batters do that better than Leach, as shown by that epic 1 not out alongside Stokes three years ago. But as their stand extended, and both men's eyes got in, a late-evening counterattack was the order of the day. Mayers, brought back in the hope of more magic, was slapped into the stands by Mahmood, while Leach's love of a length ball became more and more apparent as he brought his favourite cover-drive out of mothballs.
The new ball came and went, with ample swing but no major threat, but Blackwood's return for the day's final over proved a passion-killer for Mahmood, as he thwacked a fierce drive through the line to move to the brink of a memorable fifty, only to get too greedy to his very next ball, and under-edge a wild hoick into his own stumps. Nevertheless, he had given his team a chance - and his A game is still to come on what promises to be a pivotal second day.
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