Jack Leach and Saqib Mahmood added 90 runs for the last wicket.© AFP
Jack Leach and Saqib Mahmood were the unlikely heroes for England on Day 1 of the third and final Test against the West Indies being played at the National Cricket Stadium, St George’s in Grenada. The visitors were staring down the barrel after being reduced to 114 for nine by the hosts. But Leach and Mahmood combined brilliantly to rescue the visitors from their dire situation to give some respectability to England’s fist innings total. The duo put on 90-run partnership for the final wicket to take England to 204 all out at stumps on Day 1.
Mahmood finally fell for 49 in the last over of the day, one short of his maiden first-class half-century, dragging on a delivery from Jermaine Blackwood onto his stumps.
Leach remained unbeaten on 41.
So dire was England’s batting in the third Test that Mahmood and Leach were the top-scorers for the team with the next best being the 97-ball 31 scored by opener Alex Lees.
This was only the second time in the 145-year history of Test cricket that the number 10 and 11 in the batting order were the top-scorers in a completed Test innings. Tom Garrett and Edwin Evans, also for England, against Australia at Sydney in 1885 is the only other occasion that the number 10 and 11 ended up being the top-scorers in a Test innings.
Six England batters had scores in single digits with captain Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow failing to even open their accounts. Star all-rounder was dismissed for 2.
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Chris Woakes (25) and Craig Overton (14) did put up a brief fight.
For the West Indies, Jayden Seales took three wickets while Kemar Roach, Kyle Mayers and Alzarri Joseph all chipped in with two wickets apiece.
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