Jimmy Anderson’s final Test continued to proceed serenely towards an apparently inevitable England victory, the second day at Lord’s ending with West Indies 79 for six, still 171 runs away from making the home side bat again.
But the 41-year-old missed out on one showpiece moment when a planned guard of honour as he came out to bat, perhaps for the final time, was scuppered by the tourists’ gleeful celebration of Mikyle Louis’ long-range direct-hit run-out of Shoaib Bashir and he ended up having to make do with a hurried handshake from Jason Holder.
“We spoke about it,” said Jayden Seales, the West Indies bowler, “but the run-out took us all the way down to Swiss Cottage so it was pretty hard to do a guard of honour for the great man – thankfully Jason caught up with him.”
Anderson was also deprived of an opportunity to emulate Stuart Broad’s feat of scoring a six off his final Test delivery, Jamie Smith having been caught in the deep to become England’s last man out before Anderson had faced a ball. “It’s a bit disappointing I couldn’t hit one more six to allow him his moment,” Smith said. “That’s the one thing I regret about that innings, I think.”
Smith described his first experience of life in the England squad as “surreal” and “incredible” after he scored 70 to help his team into a position of complete dominance. “I’m absolutely loving it. From the three days’ of practice we had, it’s been pretty surreal to be in and around the group,” the 23-year-old said. “And then to come in and play, the last two days have been incredible.
“I’ve always worked towards playing for England, so I’m just taking it all in. I’ve loved it so far, it is the most amazing feeling, having the backing of all the team to go out there and perform. It’s a very welcoming environment. I feel like I play my best when I’m relaxed so it’s perfect for me.”
Smith became the latest debutant to flourish under Ben Stokes’ captaincy, after Gus Atkinson’s opening-day seven-wicket haul, but while the bowler was the fifth man to take a five-fer on debut under England’s current skipper, Smith is the first batter to score a half-century.
“The messaging was very relaxed, to be honest,” Smith said. “They said to go out and play your natural game. I like to be quite aggressive and on the front foot and that suits the style they’re going for. I was OK [on Wednesday] until about 11 o’clock when the first ball came down, and then I didn’t catch one for a couple of overs which can start getting your nerves going a little bit more, but today with the bat, it’s my primary skill and I felt very confident off the back of a strong season – I was just really excited to go out and prove that I’m good enough and up to this level.”
West Indies were positive in the field but have not scored enough runs to give themselves a chance of victory. “I think we bowled pretty well in parts,” said Seales, who took four wickets. “I didn’t think we were as consistent as we wanted to be but it’s pretty frustrating to see the position we’re in now. If we’d batted better on the first day we might not be in this position but that’s all in the past. There’s always positives – when you get a team bowled out for 371, you’d take that in a Test match – but our runs on the first day wasn’t enough.”
