Braithwaite’s brilliance a big frustration for England

MARATHON man Kraigg Brathwaite completed a masterclass of defence and defiance to leave England a race against time after four days of the second Test in Barbados.

The West Indies captain arrived at the crease on Thursday evening and hogged the stage until yesterday afternoon, digging his heels in for 11 hours and 51 minutes as he carved out a crucial 160 on a lifeless pitch at Kensington Oval.

The hosts were finally wrapped up for 411 in an arduous 187.5 overs, a first-innings deficit of 96. By stumps openers Zak Crawley and Alex Lees had stretched that to 136 without loss but a tough final day awaits.

Brathwaite soaked up a remarkable 489 deliveries to eat up precious time at his home ground, exactly 400 of which were scoreless, before falling to England’s own epitome of endurance – Jack Leach, who finished with admirable figures of three for 118 from 69.5 overs.

The delivery he produced to finally end Brathwaite’s epic knock was at least a fitting one, pitching on middle, sneaking past the edge and clipping the top of off. It was the 214th time Leach had bowled at Brathwaite since the start of the innings and a pleasing end to an often laborious battle of wills.

The passivity of the home scoring means there is still a slender route to victory for England, who batted 37 overs fewer in their first innings but scored almost a hundred more. But they will need to judge their declaration just right and ask their weary bowlers to get things done in a hurry if they are to take a 1-0 series lead.

There was rain around in the morning, delaying and then interrupting the first session. Resuming with the score on 288 for four, nightwatch batter Alzarri Joseph occupied 76 balls before slashing a wide one from Durham’s Ben Stokes to the safe hands of Dan Lawrence.

Leach’s work began with 16 tight overs before lunch, stitching together 10 maidens and conceding only 10 runs as Brathwaite slammed the brakes. The West Indies were still 156 runs adrift and five down at the start of the middle session, with the dangerous Jason Holder gifting England a second breakthrough, Matthew Fisher catching him off Saqib Mahmood’s bowling.

Brathwaite did not change a thing, progressing towards 150 in 458 balls, never once stepping up a gear and soon staring down his third new ball of the innings.

Stokes and Fisher shared it but it took the return of the workhorse Leach to prise out Brathwaite.

Chris Woakes, allowed just seven overs all day, got Kemar Roach lbw and Saqib got Veerasammy Permaul, who backed away. Leach then trapped Josh Da Silva in front of leg.

Crawley (21no) and Lees (18no) sprinted off the field to get ready but some tidy bowling ensured they couldn’t score quite so quickly.