A better effort by England on the first day of the second Test match with West Indies at Old Trafford in Manchester .
Jason Holder won the toss and elected to bowl first even with gloomy overhead conditions and a late start to the day’s play due to mopping-up operations on the field.
England managed to close on 207 for 3, only losing the wickets of opening batsman Rory Burns lbw on 15, Zak Crawley out for duck and captain Joe Root who got to 23 and then fell to the bowling of Alzarri Joseph.
Root was caught by Windies captain Jason Holder.
It was Dom Sibley’s 86 not out and Ben Stokes’ unbeaten 59 that helped rescue England from 81 for 3 and put them in a comfortable position at the close of play.
The Windies’ bowlers were impressive as Roston Chase took two of the three wickets that fell in England’s 1st innings.
Taking the other scalp was Joseph.
Kemar Roach also did well to stifle England’s run-scoring efforts which saw only 37 runs being scored in his 20 overs, despite not taking a wicket.
West Indies lead the series 1-nil with the final test to be played in Manchester, starting on July 24th.
