WI vs ENG | 2nd Test | Day 4 | Slow West Indies kill any chances of result

The watchers of England vs West Indies had to endure another slow and painful day as West Indies went on to play another day of defensive cricket. Captain Kraigg Brathwaite continued his marathon innings and went on to score 160 runs before getting out to a sharp turner against Jack Leach in the 169th over of the West Indian innings. The hosts went onto play a total of 188 overs, about 40 more than England in the first innings, and put on a total of 411 runs.

The flat track in the ongoing Test match has been an eye sore and West Indies carrying on the way they did took result completely off the table. Among all the West Indies batters that scored more than 10 runs this innings, the highest strike rate was of Jermaine Blackwood, who scored his century yesterday. Blackwood, at the time of getting out had played 215 balls and scored 102 runs at a SR of 47.44.

Brathwaite, the other centurion, scored at snail’s pace, playing 489 deliveries at an SR of 32.72 going on to build a marathon innings that frustrated visitors. Nightwatchman Alzarri Joseph added 15 runs to his tally, but more importantly went onto play 75 balls, completing a 52 run partnership that lasted for almost 25 overs. After Joseph was caught at backward point by Dan Lawrence, Brathwaite built long partnerships with Jason Holder and Joshua da Silva before getting out. Runs did not come in abundance, but they managed to make England toil to take result out of the equation.

For England, Jack Leach was the pick among the bowlers, bowling a marathon 70 overs to take three wickets. Saqib Mahmood was not as unfortunate as the day before and managed to pick his first wicket on debut dismissing Jason Holder, who had gone for a wild hack. 

Mahmood on Day 3, had clean bowled Jermain Blackwood, only to find out that he had overstepped on that delivery. Mahmood, took two wickets in total after bowling 27 overs in the game. 

Ben Stokes added one more to his overnight wicket tally, while Chris Woakes, Matthew Fischer and Dan Lawrence bagged one each.

Coming into bat, England were largely unbothered and put on 40 runs after batting 15 overs.The Test match is heading towards an unceremonious draw, with England currently leading by 136 runs. Alex Lees (18 off 50 ) is in the crease batting alongside Zack Crawley (21 off 40). It is expected that some lash back will occur over the condition of the pitch once the game ends, with Kemar Roach already criticising the current conditions of the Windies pitches in general. Roach in no certain words stated that it is not enjoyable for a fast bowler to bowl in Windies anymore, with the tracks hardly supporting pace bowlers.