Brathwaite and Blackwood thwart England

Second Test, Barbados (day three):
England 507-Dec 9: Root 153, Stokes 120, Lawrence 91; Permaul 3-126
West Indies 288-4: Brathwaite 109*, Blackwood 102
West Indies trail by 219 runs
score card

A dogged unbeaten century from West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite and Jermaine Blackwood’s 102 blunted England on day three of the second Test in Barbados.

That partnership thwarted England for 68.3 overs until Blackwood misjudged a leave to part-time off-spinner Dan Lawrence and was out lbw with five overs to go.

After claiming two early wickets, England struggled to create opportunities and the tourists wasted the rare chances they created.

Blackwood would have been out for a duck had England reviewed an lbw decision and on 65 he was bowled by a Saqib Mahmood no-ball, which would have been the debutant’s first Test wicket. There was also a missed stumping chance when Brathwaite was on 109.

As a result, like the series opener in Antigua, the Test already looks to be heading towards a draw, despite Lawrence’s late intervention.

Another struggle for England’s bowlers

When Shamarh Brooks sliced ​​a cut to backward point off Jack Leach for 39 and first-Test centurion Nkrumah Bonner was lbw to Ben Stokes for nine before lunch, England had a real chance to push themselves into a match-winning position.

Instead, it turned into another day where an inexperienced England attack looked tame.

Again there is the caveat of a pitch that has offered little, particularly to pace bowlers. But England will still be disappointed to only claim three wickets all day.

Leach, who gained credit with a good performance in the first Test, started solidly but, as the day wore on, sporadic good balls were interspersed with ones that were too easily cut for four.

The pitch is offering some slow turn but Leach did not land enough balls in difficult areas to Brathwaite and Blackwood.

Mahmood bowled a good spell with the old ball but was largely played comfortably, while Matthew Fisher, also on debut, was unthreatening despite showing decent accuracy. Chris Woakes, England’s senior seamer, was anonymous.

Things may have been different, especially England had reviewed when Ben Stokes hit Blackwood on the pad with a rare ball that swung in. It was Stokes himself who immediately intimated the ball would have missed the stumps when instead the technology later suggested it would have hit leg stump flush.

The Blackwood-Brathwaite partnership was already worth 129 when Mahmood bowled the West Indies number five. It was a perfect yorker from the Lancashire seamer but he had overstepped by a couple of inches and celebrations were cut short.

In the end it took Lawrence’s unconventional spin to prize out a West Indies centurion, the 24-year-old backing his dismissal of Bonner in the first Test.

Brathwaite and Blackwood grind

Once England declared on 507-9 on day two, West Indies have always realistically been playing for a draw.

They still have further work to do on day four, but the six-hour stand between Brathwaite and Blackwood has set them well on their way to a result that will see both teams head to Grenada for the third Test with the series still 0-0 .

In the series opener Brathwaite scored his fastest Test fifty but here he reverted to type. He scored his slowest Test half-century before reaching three figures from 278 balls – a knock of great application rather than flowing shot-making.

Blackwood is someone who loves batting against England. His average of him against them is 45.77, compared to 30.66 across his career, and two of his three Test tons of him have come against England.

He batted faster than Brathwaite but showed similar grit. He was also involved in a heated exchange with Stokes after which the umpires had a stern word with the England all-rounder and captain Root.

When shouldering arms to Lawrence he thought the ball would have gone over the stumps but the technology showed it would have hit three quarters of the way up middle stump.