THIRD INVESTEC TEST
AT LORD’S ON A day when all the planets for swing bowling seemed to be in alignment, Jimmy Anderson was expected to shine the brightest.
But Ben Stokes produced a blistering spell of 6-22 to eclipse Anderson and leave him agonisingly one wicket short of his 500th Test victim.
Then England’s own line-up found themselves chasing shadows as they fell to 24-4 in reply to the Windies’ 123 all out.
There will be other days for Anderson and, given the speed with which conditions impacted on the momentum of this match, his landmark will almost certainly arrive before the close of the weekend.
And there will be other days for England who still have plenty of batting left for all that they had scrambled to a less-than-impressive 46-4 at the close.
This was Stokes’s day. But even he – after pounding in for a nearly unplayable spell of 14 and a half overs in over two hours of graft either side of tea to blow the match open – would not have expected to be back in at the close.
When rain pipped bad light to stop play with Stokes and Dawid Malan both unbeaten on 13, Joe Root’s side trailed West Indies by 77 runs.
The day started with two early wickets for Anderson, which appeared to set the stage for him to take all the plaudits, yet at 6.34pm it was a stage so crowded you could ring.
And there were precious few batsman battling for the bouquets.
If any deserved to take a bow it was Kieran Powell. Yet when he was caught and bowled by Stokes to leave West Indies 78-4 in the middle session, he would scarcely have believed 39 would be the top score of the day.
From the moment West Indies captain Jason Holder called correctly at the toss and opted to bat, the clouds appeared to barely see a fairy darken and build in the distance over the Warner Stand.
And by the time that Anderson had the ball in hand running in from the Pavilion End it was gloomy, heavy and tailor-made for swing bowling.
Despite the frustration of Alastair Cook dropping Kraigg Brathwaite in his second over, Anderson was quickly into his personal race to 500, taking 2-0 in 12 balls.
The wickets, coming either side of a 40-minute rain break in the opening