England open up lead in second West Indies Test

England gave themselves a slim chance of victory over the West Indies in the second test in Barbados by taking a 136 lead on the final day.

The tourists will be looking for quick runs in the morning session before declaring and attempting to take down their opponents in the time remaining for victory.

But the struggle England had to finish the West Indies’ first innings, which lasted 187.5 overs, shows the difficulties they will face.

West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite turned his 109 not out overnight into a 489-ball 11-hour 160 before finally being bowled by Jack Leach.

In a pompous field that makes it difficult to score runs and take wickets, the England bowlers worked hard until they took the tenth West Indies wicket in the afternoon session.

The first game of the series in Antigua was drawn, so if this test ends with the same result, the series will be tied at 0-0 before the final game in Granada, which starts on Thursday.

• Reaction to the fourth day in Barbados

Another exhausting day of bowling

Slow and hard to watch cricket is becoming a theme in this series.

Once again, without help from the surface and not without effort, England struggled to create gaps. Even if they do manage to get into a position to call, they’ll have to shoot better than their first effort to have any chance of winning.

His hard work began from the start of day four, when night watchman Alzarri Joseph was spinning for 20 overs before cutting the ravine out of Ben Stokes for 19 of 75 balls.

A rattle of wickets would have put the tourists in a much stronger position, but that didn’t seem to happen all day as the West Indies dug in. Before lunch there was a period of a 51-ball run, with England bowlers offering very little.

Jason Holder skidded a catch midway through immediately after lunch, giving Saqib Mahmood his first test wicket, but Joshua da Silva then blunted the bowling on 33 of 112 balls.

Left-arm spinner Leach bowled 69.5 overs in marathon innings, the most in an innings by an England bowler since Phil Tufnell against New Zealand in 1992. His three wickets were a disappointing comeback in a day four pitch. .

The number of overs Leach bowled, and the ineffectiveness of the closers, also puts the England squad in doubt, with Lancashire player Matt Parkinson out of cover as an unused member of the squad.

However, you can’t escape the fact that this is a poor ground for Test cricket, just like the first one in Antigua.

Brathwaite goes long

Brathwaite’s call, which began on the second day, was an impressive example of resilience and patience.

In the spell before lunch, the racing stopped and Brathwaite faced 30 straight point balls. Only West Indies legend Brian Lara, who did it twice, has batted longer than Brathwaite’s 710 minutes in a Test inning.

It took a good ball from Leach, who hit the middle and the stump of the leg and hit the top, to see him off. For England there were very few such deliveries.

The West Indies’ effort was admirable, but the fact that they batted slowly, scoring 2.18 runs for more, meant they were still running a sizeable deficit when they were finally sacked.

The hosts bowled well enough late in the day that England were unable to make a fast start to build their lead.

Crawley received lbw for two on Kemar Roach’s pitch, but overturned the decision on review because the tech had the leg stump missing.

more to follow