England trash West Indies to take 1-0 lead

England trash West Indies to take 1-0 lead: West Indies failed to show up some fight like they did in the first test match as the visitors England registered a 9 wicket victory against the home team at the Grenada to take 1-0 lead in the 3 match test series.

England decided to bowl under the cloud covered sky after a delayed start. Anderson and Jordan provided the early breakthroughs for their side. With West Indies reeling at 129 for 5 at Tea on Day 1, Marlon Samuels with an elegant stroke play filled innings along with Ramdin took West Indies past 200 mark. Samuels, who reached his century in 142 deliveries, took 74 more to complete his 7th test match century.

The senior batsmen shared a stand of 94 runs for the sixth wicket looked to take West Indies towards a decent total before Stuart Broad rattled the middle-lower order of the hosts and reduced them to 247 for 9. With Bishoo and Gabriel adding some crucial runs in the end helped their side to finish on 299.

England got off to a brilliant start to their first innings with Alistair Cook and Jonathan Trott striking fifties. Trott, who made an international comeback after sometime scored a very well made 59 before another comeback man, Devendra Bishoo got rid of the right hander. Cook’s wait for a test century continued when Gabriel cleaned up Cook for 76 and followed it to Ian Bell.

However, these wickets didn’t effect Ballance and Root as they got busy in building a huge fourth wicket stand. Balance, with a 77 shared a stand of 165 with Root which came at a rate of about 4 runs an over. Despite of the losing wickets at other end, Root continued to score quickly. He took past team’s score over 450 before James Anderson got run out leaving Root unbeaten at 182 in just 229 balls.

With trailing by 165 runs, West Indies who came out to bat in second innings lost early wicket of Devon Smith. However, a 142 run stand between Braithwaite and Darren Bravo slimed down the England’s chances in the game. After Bravo departed for 69, Braithwaite and Samuels looked like involving a big stand. They ended the 4th day with a lead of 37 with 8 wickets in hand and the game looked to going down to a draw.

But the morning session sprayed water on the West Indian hopes with James Anderson ran through them with Braithwaite, who scored a 116, Chanderpaul, Samuels with 37, Blackwood and Holder followed each other to see their team in trouble. Ramdin tried to stop the England’s dominance but could just score 28 before getting out at 9th wicket. The West Indies got bowled for 307, setting a target of 149 to win for England.

In the chase of 149, England lost wicket of Trott quite early but it was the only thing to chill up for the West Indian players as Ballance with an unbeaten 81 and Cook with a fifty took the game away from them by 9 wickets.

Brief Scores: West Indies 299 all out (Marlon Samuels 105, Stuart Broad 4/61) and 307 all out (Kraig Braithwaite 116, Sandeep 40/0) lost to England 464 all out (Joe Root 182*, D Bishoo 4/31) and 144/1 (Gary Ballance 81*)