England on track to victory as Broad shines again

Sports Monday 27/July/2020 15:10 PM
By: Times News Service
England on track to victory as Broad shines again

Manchester: Stuart Broad claimed all six West Indies wickets to fall in the day as England put themselves firmly on track to take victory in the third Test.
Jason Holder and Shane Dowrich looked largely comfortable against opening spells from Jofra Archer and Chris Woakes, extending their partnership from the 27 runs it was worth overnight to 68 by the time Holder finally fell. Two landmarks were brought up the ball before Holder's dismissal, with the Windies captain reaching 2,000 runs in Test cricket – making him the third West Indian to achieve the double of 2,000 runs and 100 wickets – while Dowrich and Holder reached 1,000 Test runs as a partnership.
The introduction of Broad did the trick for England though, with Holder being trapped in front four runs shy of his half-century. Rahkeem Cornwall survived the seamer's next over – in some style too, driving one ball down the ground for four – but two balls into his next over, a similar ball to the one which had dismissed Holder accounted for the spinner too.
Broad made it a double wicket maiden when, three balls later, he had Kemar Roach caught at slip with Shannon Gabriel keeping out the final delivery of the over. Dowrich continued to fight, and pulled brutally off James Anderson at the other end, but he too succumbed to Broad's bowling, skying a cross-batted shot to give Chris Woakes a catch at mid-on, and leaving Broad with figures of 6/31 – his best figures since taking 6/17 against South Africa in January 2016.
Starting the second innings with lead of 172, Rory Burns and Dom Sibley scratched around, gradually building their partnership. They took the score past 100, giving England their first hundred opening partnership in a home Test since Alastair Cook and Alex Hales put on 126 against Pakistan in August 2016.
Both batsmen brought up their half-centuries before Holder finally made the breakthrough, pinning Sibley on the pads with consecutive deliveries, the second being given out.
Root's arrival at the crease brought with it an increase in the tempo as he looked to push things along, prompting Burns to also begin playing with a little more extravagance. The England captain played expansively on his way to 68* from only 56 balls as the pair added 112 runs in just 17.1 overs. Burns was the man to fall, top-edging a sweep shot off Roston Chase to be caught for 90, prompting the declaration on 226/2 and setting Windies 399 to win.
Broad continued his starring role in the match, removing both John Campbell and nightwatchman Kemar Roach in the six overs of play that were possible before stumps. Shai Hope and Kraigg Brathwaite managed to deny him any further success, leaving the seamer on 499 Test wickets overnight.
With poor weather forecast for the fourth day, West Indies may only have to bat out one more day, but England have made great strides towards claiming victory in both the match and the series.