West Indies vs England: James Anderson restores control after tail collapses

Hosts sit on 146-4, but England should have scored more than 399

(Getty Images)

England are taking time to readjust to the demands of Test cricket. Over the past two days, it is as if they know they have been to this place before but cannot quite recall what it is they should be doing in it.

But the more familiar it becomes, the more comfortable they are. By the close of the second day of the first match of the series against West Indies they had created a solid platform on which victory should be constructed. England are in the much stronger position despite their own inhibitions and have whittled away at their opponents’ resilience.

West Indies remain more than 200 runs in arrears. They did not lack application entirely but they could not sustain it. They demonstrated quickly that they were up for batting slowly, they could not do it for long enough.

England’s first-innings total of 399, which began to look mountainous, was no more than adequate, not nearly as many as it could and should have been after the painstaking renovation on the first day. Harried for the second successive morning by bowling of admirable control, they lost five wickets for 20 runs – so that 341 for 4 became 361 for 9 – and only a last-wicket flourish saved them further embarrassment.

England collapsed late on, losing five wickets for just 20 runs (Getty Images)

In that period West Indies bowled adroitly and England were not prepared or able to respond accordingly, to tough it out. They were persuaded into mistakes. Perhaps the West Indies bowlers were being inspired by running in from the Sir Andy Roberts End and the Sir Curtly Ambrose End.

One Test ground in England has an end named after a great former fast bowler but the Brian Statham End at Old Trafford does not have the additional lustre of a knighthood. Sir Curtly is these days the team’s fast-bowling coach and something of what he is telling his charges seems to be working.

England might have made the mistake of assuming their job was done when they arrived in the morning. Ben Stokes resumed as breezily as he had been the night before, while James Tredwell struck an early boundary.

Then West Indies put the squeeze on, the runs dried up, England became sloppy. Stokes, with his second Test hundred going begging, tamely guided to gully a ball outside off stump, Tredwell drove away from his body and was caught at slip.

Jos Buttler’s attempts at self-denial seemed to be working and he played 21 balls without scoring. But this was unfamiliar territory for him and he became agitated, anxious to stamp his imprimatur on proceedings. The upshot was a firm-footed drive which ended up with the wicketkeeper.

When Stuart Broad was out timidly poking to point, England were in real danger of falling well short of the total of 400 which should have been the minimum expectation after Ian Bell’s classic rebuilding operation on the opening day.

James Anderson picked up one wicket and bowled excellently (Getty Images)

Jimmy Anderson, in his 100th Test and watched by most members of his immediate family, carved merrily away, making 20, an innings which consisted entirely of fours, and Chris Jordan made his first, but not last significant contribution of the day.

In 22-year-old Kraigg Brathwaite, who is also their new vice-captain, West Indies appear to have unearthed a Test diamond. He is the antithesis of what, in the mind’s eye, remains characteristic West Indies batting – all swashbuckling and calypso – and his first instinct is to preserve his wicket at all costs. At present it is the sort of medicine that Test cricket in this region needs if it is to be rehabilitated.

Brathwaite opened the reply with Devon Smith, who has been around the Test team for 12 years without leaving a lasting impression. Smith looks the part but he has never quite fulfilled it.

However, it took a wonderful ball from Anderson to remove him, as it swung late after already inviting the shot. It put Anderson only two behind Sir Ian Botham’s record total for England of 383 Test wickets.

Darren Bravo’s stay was a mixture of the troubled and the fluent and he was undone by something that epitomised that combination, deciding late to withdraw his bat from a Jordan delivery but doing it so late that it still took the edge of the bat.

Briefly, Marlon Samuels illuminated proceedings. Had the Indian Premier League beckoned him, it is probable that he would not be appearing in this series. Like many other West Indies cricketers his sense of loyalty to a board which has rarely reciprocated it has been deeply eroded.

But Samuels is an authentic Test batsman. He has an average against England which is well into the sixties and he was moving smoothly through the gears again. He offered one chance to Tredwell in the off spinner’s first over, driving a return catch low to the right.

It was an inexpensive miss because soon after tea, Samuels was persuaded by Broad to push at a ball outside off stump which he edged behind. The reaction from England suggested that this was a well-rehearsed plan coming to fruition. There is no better feeling in cricket than when this happens. It might well have had something to do with Ottis Gibson, England’s bowling coach on this tour who was West Indies head coach until last year.

Brathwaite dug deeper still, prepared to entrench. But he paid for his first mistake as he edged Tredwell to slip, where Jordan swooped low to his right to take a catch that he can have had sight of only briefly.

It was spectacular stuff and if Tredwell deserved the wicket it was still difficult to think that he was playing for England in a Test match when he could not get a game for Kent in the Championship last summer.

Shiv Chanderpaul, 41 in August and still the bulwark of West Indies’ batting, was deceived by his first ball, from Broad, which he attempted to play to leg and sent wide of the slips. He then did what he does, trying to bed in for the long haul.

Jermaine Blackwood was much less circumspect and was reprieved by Ben Stokes’ no ball after fending to slip.