England sweep series 3-0 after Wood finishes off West Indies resistance

Jul 29, 2024 Sports

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(ESPN Cricinfo) – Mark Wood’s breathtaking post-lunch spell netted him a five-wicket haul and put England on the brink of another comprehensive victory over West Indies, which they sealed inside three days at Edgbaston.

Whereas his relentless rockets at Trent Bridge had jaws on the floor but yielded just two wickets for the match, his mastery of a reverse-swinging ball in the hour after lunch accounted for all five remaining West Indies wickets for 19 runs in the space of 39 balls. Wood ended with 5 for 40 from 14 overs, his fifth five-wicket haul in Tests, to add to his 2 for 52 from West Indies’ first innings.

The burst obliterated the efforts of Mikyle Louis and Kavem Hodge, who both scored half-centuries, as West Indies were left with a paltry 81-run lead.

The run-chase was perfectly poised for England to Bazball their way to victory, especially with Ben Stokes opening in place Zak Crawley, who had left the ground for scans after injuring his finger while fielding. Stokes struck a staggering 57 off 28 balls as he and Ben Duckett, with 25 off 16, mowed down the target in 7.2 overs without loss for a 3-0 series sweep.

England reached fifty off just 26 balls, equalling their team record posted at Trent Bridge. On this occasion, Stokes scored 41 of those runs. Duckett, seemingly tired of playing the supporting role after he was key to the fastest-fifty record in Nottingham, struck four boundaries in one Jason Holder over.

Stokes, meanwhile, notched the fastest Test fifty for an England batter and joint third-fastest overall, off just 24 balls, and hit the winning runs, swinging a waist-high full-toss from Kraigg Brathwaite for six through backward square-leg, emphasising the one-sided nature of the series despite some encouraging passages of fight from West Indies.

It was Stokes who had initially got the ball reversing in the morning session and he deployed Wood and Gus Atkinson – who had already claimed two wickets for the day – to good effect in the afternoon.

With West Indies five wickets down and just 57 runs ahead, Joshua Da Silva hadn’t moved off his lunch-time score of 2 when he was rapped on the pad by a reverse-swinging yorker delivered at 90mph, umpire Adrian Holstock unmoved by Wood’s emphatic appeal and the batter surviving England’s review on umpire’s call. But Da Silva added just three more runs when Wood had him irrefutably out with a full ball moving in past the bat to strike low on the back leg in line with middle stump.

A short while later, Wood’s reversing yorker ripped out Alzarri Joseph’s middle stump and West Indies were 162 for 7 with England scenting victory.

It was sound justification for Stokes keeping Wood on for a rare sixth over on the trot and the move paid huge dividends with three wickets falling in the over.

Wood struck first ball to remove West Indies’ remaining recognised batter, Hodge getting a thick edge on a late-reversing rocket to be caught behind by Jamie Smith.

Then Wood sent Jayden Seales’ off stump tumbling for a three-ball duck to continue the procession, which he ended with another late reverse-swinging delivery which Shamar Joseph edged to Harry Brook at second slip.

Louis and Hodge had steadied West Indies from 53 for 3 with a 72-run stand off 78 balls for the fourth wicket.

They came together after Shoaib Bashir had accounted for Alick Athanaze, who managed to add ten runs for the day, including a four off Wood through third slip, where Brook got his hands to it but couldn’t hold what would have been a spectacular catch. Five balls after the reprieve, Bashir clipped Athanaze’s front pad with a ball that slid under his attempted sweep.

Hodge gave West Indies cause for optimism based on his century at Trent Bride and he delivered with his second Test fifty. He struck back-to-back fours off Wood, one swung through midwicket and the other with a beautiful drive.

Louis brought up his half-century with a slog-swept six off Bashir and he helped himself to another maximum off Bashir’s next over, clearing the boundary at long-off.

While Stokes was getting the ball to reverse swing, he got Louis fending at one that pitched on a length outside off stump and edging to Crawley at second slip.

Crawley was in the same position when he dropped Holder, on 12 at the time, off Stokes, injuring his finger in the process, but Atkinson removed Holder at the end of the next over with an inswinger that struck the front knee roll, the batter’s review failing when ball-tracking ruled it was umpire’s call on hitting leg stump.

England 376 (Smith 95, Root 87, Woakes 62, Stokes 54, A Joseph 4-122, Seales 3-79) and 87 for 0 (Stokes 57*, Duckett 25*) beat West Indies 282 (Brathwaite 61, Holder 59, Atkinson 4-67, Woakes 3-69) and 175 (Louis 57, Hodge 55, Wood 5-40) by ten wickets

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• cricket, Edgbaston, Mark Wood, West Indies

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