England in West Indies: Centuries from Kraigg Brathwaite and Jermaine Blackwood blunt England in Barbados

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

That association frustrated England by 68.3 overs until Blackwood miscalculated a license to part-time spinner Dan Lawrence and was out lbw with five overs to go.

After claiming two early wickets, England struggled to create opportunities and tourists squandered the rare opportunities they did create.

Blackwood would have been out by a duck had England revisited a lbw decision and in the 65th he was brought down by a no-ball from Saqib Mahmood, which would have been the debutant’s first test wicket. There was also a missed opportunity when Brathwaite was at 109.

As a result, much like the first game of the series in Antigua, the Test already appears headed for a draw, despite Lawrence’s late intervention.

• Reaction to the third day in Barbados

Another fight for England bowlers

When Shamarh Brooks cut a point back from Jack Leach for 39 and First Test centurion Nkrumah Bonner lbw Ben Stokes for nine before lunch, England had a real chance to propel themselves into a match-winning position.

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

Again, there is the warning of a release that has offered little, particularly to bowlers. But England will still be disappointed to claim just three wickets all day.

Leach, who earned the credit with a strong performance in the first Test, started solidly but as the day progressed, sporadic good balls were interspersed with ones too easy to cut for four.

The pitch offers a slow turn, but Leach didn’t hit enough balls in difficult areas for Brathwaite and Blackwood.

Mahmood hit a hot run with the old ball but played largely comfortably, while Matthew Fisher, also on his debut, was unthreatening despite displaying decent accuracy. Chris Woakes, England’s leading closer, was anonymous,

Things may have been different, especially if England had checked when Ben Stokes hit Blackwood at the bag with a rare ball that swung inward. It was Stokes himself who immediately hinted that the ball would not have hit the stumps when instead the technology later suggested that it would have hit. flush with the leg stump.

The Blackwood-Brathwaite partnership was already worth 129 when Mahmood released the West Indies number five. He was a perfect yorker from the Lancashire seamstress but he had overdone it by a couple of inches and the celebrations were cut short.

In the end, it took Lawrence’s unconventional turn to bring out a West Indian centurion, the 24-year-old backing his dismissal of Bonner in the first test.

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