Melinda Farrell discusses Shai Hope’s constant improvement through the series (1:26)
Innings break West Indies 123 and 177 (Hope 62, Anderson 7-42) lead England 194 by 106 runs
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England will require 107 to claim victory in the third Investec Test and take the series after James Anderson’s career-best seven-wicket haul finished off West Indies’ for 177. Shai Hope offered the chief resistance with a half-century but West Indies could not stretch their second innings much beyond lunch.
Their hopes of setting England a challenging score had rested squarely on the shoulders of Hope. He was vigilance personified during the morning session, when he lost three partners and raised his second half-century in Tests, but was removed – almost inevitably – by Anderson in his second over after the interval.
Anderson’s bellow of delight was unrestrained, in part because of the identity of the batsman and perhaps also down to the quality of the ball, which demanded a stroke before taking the edge with Hope stuck on the crease. That completed his five-wicket haul and he had a sixth moments later when he bent a delivery in from round the wicket to beat Devendra Bishoo’s defensive prod and hit off stump.
Jason Holder struck a few boundaries as he and Kemar Roach pushed West Indies’ lead into three figures. But when Holder top-edged a pull to mid-on to depart for 23 – Anderson taking the catch for Stuart Broad – the end was nigh. Shannon Gabriel avoided a king pair thanks to the DRS but Anderson then rattled Roach’s stumps to better his 7 for 43, against New Zealand in 2008, by one run.
With Anderson taking his 502nd and 503rd Test wickets in his opening spell, England threatened to fatally constrict the West Indies innings but Hope, the “man of stone” on whom victory at Headingley was built, gave another display of his minerals. It may or may not have provided West Indies with a winning score but it gave their bowlers something to defend and served further notice of Hope’s burgeoning talent.
Batting continued to be a survivalist pursuit, despite more leisurely conditions on a Saturday when the sunshine was only intermittently broken by scudding clouds. Hope began watchfully, adding 27 runs to his overnight 35 and bracing himself every time the ball passed his outside edge – as it frequently did during a suffocating first-hour examination by Anderson and Stuart Broad.
During 14 overs from England’s senior pair, West Indies managed 19 for the loss of two wickets, their plan to try and get through the early stages intact derailed inside the first over of the day. Roston Chase and Jermaine Blackwood fell to catches behind before Shane Dowrich briefly counterpunched, hitting three boundaries, only to donate his wicket and complete a miserable series with the bat.
Having been joined by his captain, Holder, the last West Indies batsman with an average above 20, Hope switched into a more assertive mode. He struck his first boundary, reward for patiently navigating the previous 20 overs, with an elegant stroke through the covers off Ben Stokes – who then left the field with a suspected knee complaint – and brought up his half-century with a supremely timed on-drive off Toby Roland-Jones. A third four followed in the same over.
Hope’s resistance left England mulling how many they would be happy to chase, but they could not have asked for a better start. Anderson, fresh from breaking the 500-wicket barrier and having switched to bowling from the Nursery End due to his pair of warnings for running on the pitch on the second evening, was immediately into his work. Chase faced only two deliveries, the second of which he chivvied into the gloves of a leaping Jonny Bairstow.
Anderson ought to have had his second a few overs later, when Blackwood slapped a drive to mid-off, but Broad saw the ball burst through his hands as he dived to his right. Broad thought he had picked up Blackwood himself, only for a thin inside edge to save him from lbw on review; but the batsman was transparently unsettled and, in Anderson’s next, steered another catch to the keeper.
There was a further drop to come – the 25th of the series – when Broad flew to his left in his follow through but could not get more than fingertips on Dowrich’s chipped drive. Although Dowrich battled stoically to reach double-figures for the first time in the series, he then spooned a miscued pull to mid-on trying to go after Roland-Jones.
West Indies’ lead at that stage was 52 but Holder played with composure to help add 30 more before the break. Joe Root almost struck himself, having come on to bowl the final over before the interval, but England saw another low catch escape Alastair Cook at gully when Holder chanced a drive and got away with it.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo