Windies vs England 2019: 3rd Test, St Lucia - Day 1 Report

The opening day of the third and final Test match was the best for the England side since they have landed in the Carribean islands. The visitors were able to add 231 runs for the loss of four wickets after the Windies skipper Kraigg Brathwaite won the toss and elected to bowl first. Keaton Jennings, who was drafted into the playing XI could not hit the ground running.

The southpaw batsman was dismissed by Keemo Paul who was added to the Windies squad after Jason Holder was suspended for slow over rate. However, England opener Rory Burns showed the resistance and batted for 103 balls to score his 29 runs.

Best day so far for the visitors.

But Burns fight was also ended by Keemo Paul when the former was plumbed in front of the wickets. Joe Denly and English captain Joe Root also could not get going as both of them were dismissed cheaply for 20 and 15 respectively.

England was 107-4 and the tourists were once again facing the barrel of the gun. The onus was on Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler to get their team to safe shores. Both the batsmen were not in the best of forms but the talisman all-rounders batted with gumption.

Ben Stokes scored 62 whereas Jos Buttler scored 67 as both the batters added an alliance of 124 runs. Furthermore, they remained unbeaten when the bails were taken off by the umpires.

Meanwhile, Keemo Paul scalped two wickets as he was the picks of the host’s bowlers. Alzarri Joseph and Shannon Gabriel took one wicket each. However, Kemar Roach who has the hero the Windies team in the previous match remained wicketless. Consequently, the host’s have clearly missed the services of their full-time skipper Jason Holder. In fact, the Windies bowlers have given away as many as 30 extras thus far.

Brief Scores on Day 1:

England: 231-4, Jos Buttler: 67, Ben Stokes: 62.

Keemo Paul: 2-42.