ST GEORGE’S – West Indies were bowled out for 297 about 20 minutes past the scheduled lunch on the third day of the deciding third Test against England on Saturday at the National Cricket Stadium in the Spice Isle of Grenada, earning a first innings lead of 93.
Joshua da Silva was left undefeated on exactly 100, his maiden Test hundred, after Trinidad & Tobago Red Force teammate Jayden Seales was the final wicket to fall in the Windies innings.
Da Silva, starting the day on 54, reached his hundred from 255 balls, when he pulled a short delivery from Craig Overton straight down the ground for the last of his 10 boundaries.
“This means the world to me,” he said in a TV flash interview during the interval. “…I trusted them (the lower order). The most I could do was to trust them. I gave them two balls to face, sometimes even more, and they batted a whole innings. Without them, I could not do this, so all credit to them. I just played my part.
“It was just about taking my time… batting balls. I got a lot of stick out there for having a low strike rate, but it did not matter to me. It was just about taking my time and playing my game, and when I got the chance to score, I did. It just so happened and I got this.”
The 23-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman thought he had been caught behind next ball, and he and the England players had trekked off to the changing rooms when TV replays indicated his review of the decision from T&T umpire Joel Wilson was successful.
Comically, all the players returned to the field before England captain Joe Root held a return chance five balls later to dismiss Seales after the Windies last wicket pair extended the home team’s innings by almost two hours and shared 52.
After the hosts resumed from their bedtime total of 232 for eight, Kemar Roach was caught behind down the leg-side off pacer Saqib Mahmood without addition to his overnight total of 25 in the fifth over of the day before Seales came to the crease and frustrated the English further.
The three-Test series for the newly-minted Vivian Richards and Ian Botham Trophy is level at 0-0 after the first two Tests in the series – at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground in Antigua and Kensington Oval in Barbados – were drawn.
Summarised scores:
ENGLAND 204 (Saqib Mahmood 49, Jack Leach 41, Alex Lees 31, Chris Woakes 25, Craig Overton 14; Jayden Seales 3-40, Kyle Mayers 2-13, Alzarri Joseph 2-33, Kemar Roach 2-41).
WEST INDIES 297 (Joshua da Silva 100 not out, John Campbell 35, Kyle Mayers 28, Alzarri Joseph 28, Kemar Roach 25 not out, Jermaine Blackwood 18, Kraigg Brathwaite 17, Shamarh Brooks 13, Jayden Seales 13; Chris Woakes 3-59, Saqib Mahmood 2-45, Be Stokes 2-4, Craig Overton 2-81).
(AR)
