First Test, Day 2: West Indies 121 & 79-6 (Anderson 2-11, Stokes 2-25) trail England 371 (Crawley 76, Smith 70, Root 68; Seales 4-77) by 171 runs with 4 wickets remaining
LORD’S — If English sport needed an antidote to the nerve-shredding tension of the footballers’ run to the final of Euro 2024, the cricketers have provided it with a Test match against the West Indies that’s totally devoid of jeopardy or drama.
Sentiment may be in plentiful supply at Lord’s thanks to this being James Anderson’s final match. Yet as Ben Stokes’ men hurtled towards what will be only their second innings win of the Bazball era, the sense of anti-climax just two days into the Test summer was unmistakable.
For all the criticism of this inexperienced and undercooked West Indies team, it’s worth remembering England haven’t won an away Test series in the Caribbean for 20 years. Winning away is tough for any team these days.
However, the lack of competitiveness in this match does cloud what achievements have been made by an England team that has been refreshed with the 2025-26 Ashes series in Australia in mind.
After Gus Atkinson’s seven-wicket haul on day one, his fellow debutant Jamie Smith started life at this level with a fine innings of 70 that started out slowly and then accelerated into a thrilling joy ride as he opened up his shoulders while batting with the tail.
At 23, Smith has been picked as England’s newest wicketkeeper ahead of the likes of Ben Foakes and Jonny Bairstow largely on potential. An attacking batter who has been exemplary with the gloves over the first two days of this match, he has made the step up look easy. The level of opposition has helped. Yet if there are improvements to come in the years ahead, the 23-year-old should be one hell of a player.
Smith’s one misstep on this second day was denying Anderson the chance to face a ball in what was almost certainly his final Test innings, the Surrey gloveman hitting out and getting caught rather than rotating the strike to give England’s greatest-ever bowler the chance to hit one last reverse sweep for posterity.
Smith was one of five of the top seven batters to hit half-centuries alongside Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root and Harry Brook.
Yet the most significant performance in this Test has been that of Stokes with the ball. Rejuvenated and refreshed following knee surgery last November, he’s now back as a genuine all-rounder.
His 10-over spell on the second evening here that saw him dismiss Kirk McKenzie and Mikyle Louis was the first time England’s captain has taken two or more wickets in a Test innings since the Oval Test against South Africa in September 2022.
In the interim Stokes had struggled badly with his wounded left knee. But he looked a player transformed and liberated from an injury that threatened his status as one of the game’s best all-rounders.
Almost as if to prove he was back, Stokes’ wicket of McKenzie saw him join all-round greats in Jacques Kallis and Sir Garfield Sobers as only the third man to claim the double of 200 Test wickets and 6,000 runs.
When it comes to that next Ashes series in 16 months’ time, having Stokes fit and firing in all three facets of the game – don’t forget he is also one of the world’s best fielders – will surely be the most important factor in whether Bazball sinks or swims Down Under.
Anderson will be long gone by then, but his two wickets on this second evening took his tally to 703 – five shy of Shane Warne on the all-time list. It’s unlikely but at least the 41-year-old will bow out on the back of a win when this mismatch is completed on the third morning.
Atkinson’s dismissal of Jason Holder with the final delivery of the day made that prospect almost inevitable, the former West Indies captain fending a short ball to Ollie Pope at short leg as his team slumped to 79 for six.
Still needing 171 to make England bat again, this Test is over. Let’s just hope the rest of the series, with two further Tests in Nottingham and Birmingham, is more competitive.
Moments of the day
Brought to Brook
Harry Brook looked in fine touch as he brought up his 12th 50-plus score in just his 13th Test. But perhaps it should have been no surprise when he was caught trying to pull Alzarri Joseph. After all, in the previous month he had faced just 76 balls across three innings at the T20 World Cup.
Ben bamboozled
Ben Stokes, one of the best players of spin in the world, was left dumbfounded after seeing his middle stump knocked out of the ground when Gudakesh Motie spun one past his inside edge. It left his England team 254 for five in the morning session and was his 10th Test innings without a fifty.
Seales clubbing
It’s not often you see the ball hit out of the ground at Lord’s but that’s what happened when Jamie Smith clubbed Jayden Seales over the Tavern Stand to move onto 69. The debutant wicketkeeper had taken 98 balls to get to his fifty but batting with the tail he soon put his foot down to take England’s lead to 250. The last England keeper to pass fifty in his first Test was Ben Foakes, the man Smith replaced, when he made 107 against Sri Lanka at Galle in 2018.
Jimmy swings it again
James Anderson opened the bowling in a Test for the 292nd and final time on an emotional evening at Lord’s. He also produced a classic inswinger to bowl Kraigg Brathwaite to claim Test victim 702 – six behind the late, great Shane Warne on the all-time list. Brathwaite had also been Anderson’s 500th scalp at this ground seven years earlier.
Stokes the history man
When Stokes pinned Kirk McKenzie lbw for a duck to reduce the West Indies to 17 for two in their second innings he became just the third all-rounder in history to achieve the double of 200 wickets and 6,000 runs in Tests. He joins South Africa’s Jacques Kallis (292 wickets and 13,289 runs) and Windies great Sir Garfield Sobers (235 and 8,032).
Quote of the day
“It had to end eventually, didn’t it? He’s 42 this month and it is ridiculous for a fast bowler to keep going until that age. The thing is he is still fit, he still really enjoys it. I do think it probably needed someone to tap him on the shoulder.”
James Anderson’s dad, Michael, on BBC Test Match Special
Stat of the day
Joe Root overtook Australian great Allan Border to move up to 10th on the all-time list of Test runscorers after his innings of 68 took his total to 11,804 overall.
Bazball-o-meter: 6/10
England weren’t at their exhilarating best with the bat and slowed after losing three wickets in the morning before Smith upped the ante late on. With the ball, this was attacking, Bazball cricket but what kind of resistance did the Windies really put up?