Tea England 371 (Crawley 76, Smith 70, Root 68, Pope 57, Seales 4-77) lead West Indies 121 (Atkinson 7-45) by 250 runs
Jamie Smith hit Jayden Seales out of Lord’s and onto St John’s Wood Road as he made 70 in his maiden Test innings against West Indies. Smith was one of five batters to score half-centuries as England took a commanding 250-run first-innings lead into the tea break on the second day of the first Test of their home summer.
Smith, the 23-year-old wicketkeeper-batter, came in at No. 7 with England already 131 runs in front and shared partnerships worth 33 and 52 with Joe Root and Chris Woakes respectively. But after Woakes and Gus Atkinson fell in quick succession to the second new ball, Smith found a new gear and targeted boundaries even with the field spread.
After starting his innings uncharacteristically slowly, Smith started to skip down the pitch and crunched Shamar Joseph into the Grandstand for six, three overs after reaching a 98-ball half-century. Three overs later, he gave himself room and cracked Seales’ short ball over the Tavern Stand and out of Lord’s altogether.
Mikyle Louis’ dead-eye, direct-hit run-out of Shoaib Bashir at the non-striker’s end meant the retiring James Anderson was applauded out to the middle for what may well prove to be his final innings in Test cricket. But he didn’t face a ball, with Smith pulling the final ball of Seales’ over to Kirk McKenzie at deep backward square leg.
Joseph spent some of the afternoon session off the field due to an apparent left-hamstring injury, and was seen receiving treatment in the away dressing room. He was forced to leave the field midway through his 15th over, and looked in discomfort after getting through one further over with the second new ball.
England cruised through the second morning, though were pegged back by Gudakesh Motie before lunch, who vindicated his selection by dismissing Ben Stokes and Root. West Indies’ bowlers were put under constant pressure as England added 102 runs in a 28-over first session, but Motie’s two wickets kept them in the game.
After Harry Brook fell for exactly 50, Root cruised to his 93rd 50-plus score in Test cricket and moved into the format’s top-ten highest run-scorers in the process. But he fell shortly before the lunch interval for 68, becoming the second England batter after Stokes bowled by an exceptional delivery from West Indies’ left-arm spinner.
Stokes’ first international innings of the season lasted only 11 balls, with Motie knocking his middle stump out of the ground. Bowling his first over of the morning session, Motie tossed the ball up and found sharp turn after landing it on a footmark. It spun back past Stokes’ bat, leaving him open-mouthed before trudging back to the pavilion.
And in the penultimate over before the interval, Root was left smiling in disbelief after losing his off stump to the same bowler. Motie went wide on the crease and bowled his arm ball with an upright seam. Root shaped to punch into the off side but the delivery drifted in sharply then deviated even further off the pitch, beating the bat and crashing into the stump.
It showed why Motie was picked for this Test, having lost his place to Kevin Sinclair for West Indies’ victory over Australia at the Gabba in January: Sinclair, the offspinner, is the superior batter but Motie is some way ahead as a bowler. He took 2 for 22 in his seven unchanged overs on the second morning, and should have been brought into the attack sooner.
With an overnight lead of 66 and only three wickets down in their first innings, England made steady progress during the first hour. Brook dominated the scoring in a 91-run partnership with Root, scoring heavily square of the wicket as if to demonstrate the slow nature of this Lord’s pitch.
He brought up his half-century – his 12th fifty-plus score in 13 Tests – with a back-foot punch for two, but did not add another run. He fell in tame fashion when top-edging a hook through to Joshua da Silva off a wide Alzarri Joseph bouncer: it was a reminder of Brook’s mixed record against the short ball, which Australia exposed during last summer’s Ashes.
But Root progressed serenely, increasing his tempo through the session after a relatively slow start to his innings. Like Brook, he scored most of his runs square of the wicket, the highlight being a left-right punch off Joseph: he rolled his wrists on a pull off a short ball, then whipped the follow-up inswinger off his pads to bring up consecutive boundaries.
Smith seized on Motie’s drag-down to score his first Test runs during a brief partnership with Root. Smith scored only seven runs off his first 34 balls, an uncharacteristically cautious start, but showed his class with consecutive boundaries off Seales shortly before Root’s dismissal.
West Indies struck twice with the second new ball: Woakes whipped Seales straight to Louis at deep backward square leg, and Atkinson edged behind off Jason Holder. But that prompted Smith’s change in tempo, demonstrating the skill and aggression that led to his selection for this series ahead of his Surrey team-mate Ben Foakes.
Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98
