Eng take control of second Test against WI

Young spinner Shoaib Bashir bags two to reduce West Indies to 89 for 3 at lunch

NOTTINGHAM:

England reduced West Indies to 89-3 at lunch on the second day of the second test, 327 runs behind the hosts at a sunny Trent Bridge on Friday.

Replying to England’s total of 416, the touring side lost Mikyle Louis for 21, captain Kraigg Brathwaite for 48 and Kirk McKenzie for 11 in good batting conditions.

Louis tried to hit spinner Shoaib Bashir over the top and was well caught by Harry Brook running back at mid on. Brathwaite was unsettled by a short-pitched delivery from fast bowler Gus Atkinson and popped up a simple catch to Ollie Pope at short leg.

McKenzie had a rush of blood shortly before the interval, attempting to hit Bashir over mid-off and sending the ball into the hands of England captain Ben Stokes. Earlier, Mark Wood produced a rapid spell on his return to the side, including one delivery of 97.1 miles per hour in the fastest recorded over bowled by an England player. England won the first match of the three-test series by an innings and 114 runs at Lord’s.

Earlier, West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite and fellow opener Mikyle Louis survived a testing first hour of the second day at Trent Bridge.

But Louis and Kirk McKenzie then gifted their wickets to Bashir with woeful shots, either side of Brathwaite falling for a well-made 48 to fast bowler Gus Atkinson.

West Indies were 89-3 in reply to England’s first-innings 416 at lunch on Friday, a deficit of 327 runs, with Bashir having taken 2-30 in eight overs.

This is England’s first Test since veteran spearhead James Anderson’s retirement from international duty with 704 Test wickets -- the most by any fast bowler -- following the hosts’ thumping innings and 114-run win in last week’s first Test at Lord’s.

Chris Woakes took the new ball in partnership with Atkinson, fresh from a spectacular 12-wicket haul on his Test debut at Lord’s.

Brathwaite was soon into his stride, cover-driving Woakes’s fifth ball for four.

But the real injection of pace came when Mark Wood, recalled after Anderson’s exit, was brought on and surpassed speeds of 96 mph (154 kph) in his first over.

The West Indies were 48-0 off 14 overs, but England captain Ben Stokes’s decision to bring on Bashir -- who didn’t bowl at all at Lord’s -- rather than himself was quickly rewarded.

Louis, on 21, skyed a slog-sweep with Harry Brook holding a fine running catch to leave the West Indies 53-1.

England were all out on Thursday after Pope, dropped twice, top-scored with 121 in an innings featuring Ben Duckett’s rapid 71 and Stokes’s 69.