The Independent Voice of West Indies Cricket

Root's ton highlights England's dominance

Mon, Feb 11, '19

 

Windies v England

Following repeated batting failures in the series, England finally turned up with the willow to take complete control of the third and final Test at St. Lucia. Prior to this Test match, England had gone past 200 just once in the four innings which was the primary reason behind them surrendering meekly in both the Tests. While they made 277 in the first innings of this ongoing Test, it was largely due to the century partnership between Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes. But on Monday, they didn't have to rely on just two individuals as a collective effort led by skipper Joe Root's unbeaten ton enabled them to post 325/4 on the board at stumps, stretching that lead to an imposing 448.

The performance came on the back of a first-ball wicket to kickstart the day. Rory Burns received a gentle half-volley on the pads but all he could do was time it to perfection straight to the square leg fielder. Joe Denly then began his innings with a boundary through third man and continued to keep finding the fence with a straight drive off Shannon Gabriel being the highlight. In all fairness to the bowler, he should have had Denly very early in the innings as an easy catch at slip was shelled by Shimron Hetmyer.

Keaton Jennings at the other end managed to survive for a quite sometime but looked tentative in his stay as he continued to fight for his spot in the side. Eventually, he got unlucky as a delivery bowled at the pads by Alzarri Joseph ricocheted off his pads to knock off the bails. With Paul not available after bowling just two overs following a right quadricep strain suffered while trying to prevent a boundary, Windies were a bowler short for almost the entire day and the visitors cashed in big time.

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