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Sunday, July 27, 2025

Blackwood hits maiden Test century

by

20150415

NORTH SOUND–West In­dies bats­man Jer­maine Black­wood hit an un­beat­en 112 but the mo­men­tum in the first Test re­mained with Eng­land yes­ter­day as the tourists built a lead of 220 in their sec­ond in­nings on the third day at the Sir Vi­vian Richards Sta­di­um in An­tigua.

Black­wood led the West In­dies re­ply to Eng­land's first in­nings to­tal of 399, but their last four wick­ets tum­bled for 19, the last three for three runs to be all out for 295 at tea, a deficit of 104.

The hosts struck ear­ly in Eng­land's sec­ond in­nings when an in­ci­sive new ball spell by Jerome Tay­lor ac­count­ed for the cheap dis­missals for the sec­ond time of the match of open­ers Jonathan Trott for four and cap­tain Alas­tair Cook for 13.

The run out of first in­nings cen­tu­ry-mak­er Ian Bell for 11 re­duced Eng­land to 54 for three be­fore the West In­dies ef­fort waned. Left-han­der Gary Bal­lance and Joe Root stead­ied things with an un­bro­ken part­ner­ship of 64 that boost­ed Eng­land to 116 with­out fur­ther loss by the close, with Bal­lance on 44 and Root on 32.

When the West In­dies re­sumed at 155-4, the 23-year-old Black­wood and vet­er­an left-han­der Shiv­nar­ine Chan­der­paul car­ried their fifth wick­et part­ner­ship to 93 be­fore off-spin­ner James Tred­well claimed the first of his three wick­ets for the day–re­mov­ing Chan­der­paul for 46 to a catch at short ex­tra-cov­er.

Af­ter that, Black­wood alone flew the stan­dard for the West In­dies as Ramdin fell for nine, Ja­son Hold­er for 16 and the last three in the or­der for sev­en runs be­tween them.

The fea­ture of Black­wood's bat­ting was his mix­ture of strokes that brought him two six­es and 14 fours, along with a tight de­fence, as he com­plet­ed his first hun­dred in on­ly his sixth test.

Eng­land paid for of­fer­ing him two chances. Re­prieved at 21 on the sec­ond day when his catch to first slip off Ben Stokes was negat­ed by a no-ball de­ci­sion, he was missed be­fore lunch when 43 by Tred­well at gul­ly off a dif­fi­cult, low chance, al­so off Stokes.

He al­so en­dured a fierce body­line at­tack from Broad with the sec­ond new ball. His hur­ried de­fen­sive prod against one short de­liv­ery dropped just short of wick­et­keep­er Jos But­tler. An over lat­er, he need­ed the on-field at­ten­tion of the team's phys­io­ther­a­pist when hit on the fore­arm.

Tred­well, in his sec­ond Test, was Eng­land's most ef­fec­tive bowler with 4-47 from 26 overs. Fast bowler James An­der­son, play­ing his 100th Test, claimed his 382nd wick­et by dis­miss­ing last man Sulie­man Benn. He is now one short of Ian Both­am's Eng­land Test record of 383.

Score­board

ENG­LAND 1st In­nings 399

WEST IN­DIES 1st in­nings

(overnight 155 for four)

K Brath­waite c Jor­dan b Tred­well 39

D Smith c wkp But­tler b An­der­son 11

D Bra­vo c wkp But­tler b Jor­dan 10

M Samuels c wkp But­tler b Broad 33

S Chan­der­paul c Stokes b Tred­well 46

J Black­wood not out 112

+D Ramdin c wkp But­tler b Broad 9

J Hold­er c Bal­lance b Tred­well 16

K Roach c wkp But­tler b Tred­well 5

J Tay­lor run out 0

S Benn c Root b An­der­son 2

Ex­tras: (lb4, w6, nb2) 12

TO­TAL: (all out, 112.6 overs) 295

Fall of wick­ets: 1-19 (Smith), 2-42 (Bra­vo), 3-89 (Samuels), 4-99 (Brath­waite), 5-192 (Chan­der­paul), 6-227 (Ramdin), 7-276 (Hold­er), 8-292 (Roach), 9-292 (Tay­lor), 10-295 (Benn)

Bowl­ing: An­der­son 23-9-67-2 (w1), Broad 22-2-67-2, Jor­dan 23-8-46-1 (w1, nb1), Stokes 19-3-64-0 (nb1), Tred­well 26-12-47-4.

ENG­LAND 2nd In­nings

A Cook c Benn b Tay­lor 13

I Trott c wkp Ramdin b Tay­lor 4

G Bal­ance not out 44

I Bell run out 11

J Root not out 32

Ex­tras: (lb5, w5, nb2) 12

TO­TAL: (3 wk­ts, 38 overs) 116

Fall of wick­ets: 1-15 (Trott), 2-20 (Cook), 3-52 (Bell).

Bowl­ing: Tay­lor 8-4-12-2, Roach 9-1-32-0 (nb1), Hold­er 7-3-20-0 (w1, nb1), Benn 9-2-34-0, Samuels 5-0-13-0.

Po­si­tion: Eng­land lead by 220 runs with sev­en sec­ond in­nings wick­ets re­main­ing.

Toss: West In­dies.

Um­pires: Bil­ly Bow­den, Steve Davis;

TV � Bruce Ox­en­ford.


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