England vs West Indies 1st Test Day 2 Report: Holder and Gabriel shine in Southampton
After a disappointing first day on which only 17.4 overs were possible due to rain, we finally caught a glimpse of Test cricket in its purest form as England and West Indies battled it out on Day 2.
England started the day decently poised at 35-1, but inspired spells of bowling from captain Jason Holder and Shannon Gabriel saw the hosts bowled out for a mere 204.
Joe Denly (18), Rory Burns (30), and Zak Crawley (10) all got off to starts, but none of them capitalised on a cloudy day in Southampton. Ollie Pope played a couple of beautiful strokes before fishing at one he should have left alone, giving West Indies keeper Shane Dowrich some work to do for the first time in the game.
The Three Lions' stand-in skipper Ben Stokes offered some resistance with 43 off 97 balls, and luck seemed to be in his favour when Kemar Roach and Shamarh Brooks spilled catches that should be taken at the international level.
But the World No. 1 all-rounder won the battle of the skippers, forcing the southpaw to nick off to Dowrich behind the stumps. After his captain's dismissal, Jos Buttler hung in there for a while, scoring 35 before the Windies keeper plucked a blinder (his third catch of the innings) off Holder to send him packing.
England's decision to not play Sam Curran left them looking rather thin at the bottom of the batting order, but Dom Bess and James Anderson put on a 31-run last-wicket partnership to take their team to a fighting (if sub-par) total of 204.
Jason Holder finished with career-best Test figures of 6/42, while Gabriel, who was in the news for all the wrong reasons in an earlier series against England, ended with 4/62. Apart from his exploits with the ball, the West Indies captain also called for two perfect reviews on a day where the umpires were far from their best.
West Indies innings
West Indies opener John Campbell started positively, while his partner Kraigg Brathwaite was rather circumspect. The southpaw chanced his luck, picking up 2s and 3s, as well as the odd boundary.
Campbell was adjudged LBW twice off Anderson, only to see the on-field call overturned on both occasions. But his good fortune soon ran out as England's leading wicket-taker in Test cricket caught him plumb in front on 28, with even the DRS not saving Campbell.
Mark Wood bowled with some serious pace after coming into the attack first-change, but Brathwaite and Shai Hope held on until bad light stopped play 20 overs into the West Indies innings.
Heading into Day 3, the West Indies, who are at 57-1 and trail by just 147 runs, seem poised to spoil the party in Ben Stokes' first game as England captain.
While both days have been curtailed by bad weather, the forecast at the Rose Bowl in Southampton does look promising in the coming days. With the ball doing its fair share of talking and the batsmen yet to get accustomed to spending long periods at the crease, we should see a result in cricket's first game in the post-pandemic era.
West Indies 57-1 (Campbell 28) trail England 204 all out (Stokes 43, Buttler 35; Holder 6/42, Gabriel 4/62) by 147 runs