West Indies fight back as England bowled out for 399

Rory Dollard 12:11 15/04/2015
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  • On the threshold of rewriting England’s record books: James Anderson (r).

    James Anderson moved one wicket closer to a place in England’s record books on day two of the first Test against the West Indies.

    On the occasion of his 100th cap, Anderson started the day four short of passing Sir Ian Botham’s record 383 Test wickets in Antigua.

    He moved to 381 with the scalp of Devon Smith, who nicked a fine delivery to Jos Buttler, during an opening spell that saw plenty of the controlled swing bowling that has defined his career.

    At the time of going to press, the West Indies were fighting back at 151 for four, having kept the tourists down to 399 with a much improved bowling effort in the morning.

    Shivnarine Chanderpaul (29 not out) and Jermaine Blackwood (26 not out) were at the crease, and the two had put together 42 runs for the fifth wicket.

    England resumed on 341 for five, but lost their next five wickets for the addition of just 58 runs.

    Anderson scored 20 of those, all in boundaries, but his real business began when England took the field.

    He led out the team, in deference to his milestone appearance.

    Anderson moved a couple of gentle looseners into Kraigg Brathwaite before ramping up the pace and looping a vicious inswinger towards the base of the stumps.

    The batsman kept it out, jabbing down hard, but the battle lines had been drawn.

    The left-handed Smith was also given an early warning, with Anderson going past the outside edge with a beauty.

    The paceman finally struck with the second ball of his fifth over. Smith was the victim, nicking in the channel around off stump and sending a regulation catch into Buttler’s gloves.

    Anderson threatened to take another, but half-hearted appeals for caught behind and lbw came to nothing.

    He was withdrawn after bowling seven overs for nine runs, leaving Chris Jordan and Stuart Broad to share the load.

    Jordan, selected ahead of Liam Plunkett and Mark Wood, turned in a testing spell and was rewarded with the wicket of Darren Bravo.

    He had bowled better deliveries without success, but Bravo withdrew his bat too late and ended up edging tamely to the wicketkeeper.

    Brathwaite and Marlon Samuels put on 47 before the latter became the third victim of Buttler behind the wicket, this time Broad being the successful bowler.

    James Tredwell, who shelled a tough return catch of Samuels on 21, was finally rewarded when Jordan took a blinder in the slips cordon to remove Brathwaite with West Indies one short of 100.

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