This was the first day of this series with more West Indies fans in the stands than English and the locals had plenty to cheer.
To see their team win, they will have to come back on Sunday. In their second innings, England are 103 for eight, with a lead of just 10.
For England, the end is nigh. In a broader sense, the same is probably now true of Joe Root’s captaincy, and the futures of some of these players. When West Indies’ victory is confirmed, England will have won one of their last 17 Tests, and will be winless in five series. They will have a new Managing Director and Head Coach by the time they next play, but perhaps change that seismic is not even enough.
This time, the Windies heroes were Joshua da Silva, who made a wonderful hundred in a match that no-one else has made even fifty, and Kyle Mayers, the unassuming right-arm swing bowler who picked up five for nine – seven for 22 in the match – and pulled off an outstanding run out in the deep.
In very different ways, it was difficult to decide which of England’s first two sessions was worse. In the first, West Indies added 65 carefully chiselled runs for the final two wickets to take their first innings lead to 93, which felt plenty. In the second, England responded by crumbling to 43 for four in a fashion as generous as they had two days earlier.
Let’s start at the start. In the seventh over of the day, Saqib Mahmood picked up the wicket of Kemar Roach, who had resisted so bravely with Joshua da Silva on day two. Roach just got a little tickle down the legside, and that made it 245 for nine, a lead of 41. And that was the score when Umpire Gregory Brathwaite turned down an lbw shout against Jayden Seales. England had burnt all their reviews on day three, meaning there was nothing they could do about the fact that the ball was crashing into leg stump.
An hour and 55 minutes later, Seales was finally out, for 13 off 59 balls. Da Silva had reached his first hundred in Test cricket, to the delight of the crowd and the visible emotion of the man himself.
By then, England had been well and truly roasted, but they had to made life desperately hard for themselves. There was the lack of review, of course, but England simply gave up trying to get da Silva out, and he happily accrued the available single here and there. Seales proved himself to be a competent blocker.
With the scheduled lunchbreak pushed back, da Silva took two successive boundaries from Craig Overton to reach his hundred from 255 balls. Next ball, he was caught behind and, as he turned to sprint off, chucked a cursory review at the umpire. He thought he had hit it, but had not so had to return from the changing room steps. Fortunately for England, Root had Seales caught and bowled before more runs were added.
Returning after lunch, England’s first six wickets were dismal. Zak Crawley looked for another champagne drive off Jayden Seales. Joe Root fell to Kyle Mayers, again, trying to force the issue. Mayers then fooled Dan Lawrence, bowled, and Ben Stokes, caught behind, as they tried to leave his canny medium-pacers.
That was it for the afternoon session, as Alex Lees and Jonny Bairstow dug in. But just as the runs started to flow and parity appeared on the horizon, along came two more brain fades. Bairstow, teased for his sluggish strike-rate by Da Silva, looked to pull Alzarri Joseph – who had the trap set – and was caught behind.
From there, it was faintly predictable that things would happen in a hurry, but perhaps the most maddening dismissal of all was the sixth – and the competition is extremely stiff. Ben Foakes’ batting has faded since a fine 42 in the first innings of the tour, but he was run out attempting a second just five balls after Bairstow fell. He underestimated Mayers’ bullet arm. That completed England’s calamity dismissal bingo card.
On this pitch, which had gifted England two wickets with balls that stayed low, there was always going to be another grubber. It was unfortunate that it was Lees, having battled hard for 132 balls, who got it, with Mayers the bowler.
That completed a truly dire match for England’s top seven, who combined for 11 single figure scores in 14 knocks. Between them, they made just 127 runs at an average of nine. And Lees twice made 31.
By stumps, England had lost Craig Overton, flashing at Mayers. Not even Jack Leach can save them now.
