Kemar Roach’s lament on the second evening was heartfelt. “Pitches are a bit of a concern. There’s no enjoyment for fast bowling any more. It’s all dead tracks now,” he said, after surpassing Sir Garry Sobers to become West Indies’ seventh-highest wicket-taker. On the third day, he was at least able to rest his weary legs, check out the attempts of England’s bowlers to outwit the docile conditions, and watch his captain, Kraigg Brathwaite, set sail for the horizon.
Brathwaite is one of those batsmen beloved of grumpy opening bowlers in need of a rest: patient, careful and someone who, once set, does not give things away lightly. His last innings on this ground was a mighty double hundred (276) for Barbados against Jamaica and he bedded in again in search of a repeat, bringing up his tenth Test hundred an hour after tea, following 406 minutes of diligent application. He played really well, a fine example to the rest.
He was given excellent support from his vice-captain, Jermaine Blackwood, the diminutive Jamaican who had done himself no favours in Antigua with a wild swipe in the second innings, one of those rushes of blood for which he is renowned. He was completely in sync with requirements here, though, making a fine hundred of his own, until bizarrely leaving a straight ball from Dan Lawrence, 20 minutes before the close, to give England their first wicket for 67 overs.
England, though, had cause to regret two significant moments in Blackwood’s innings. The first came before he had scored, when Ben Stokes, in the middle of an incisive spell in the morning, skidded one through on to the back pad, appealed but decided against a review that would have overturned a not-out decision. The second moment came deep into the final session, when Blackwood was 65, and was just as galling because it prevented what would have been Saqib Mahmood’s maiden Test wicket.
The second new ball was 13 overs old when Mahmood squeezed a pinpoint yorker under Blackwood’s bat and set off in raucous celebration, only to be stopped in his tracks when the umpire signalled a no ball. If it was any consolation — none, you suspect — Stokes did the same in Australia in 2013 and Mark Wood two years later, before their first Test wickets. Mahmood will have learnt a harsh lesson, doubly so given how difficult it was to create anything at all.
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There was precious little for him or the other quicks to work with throughout a frustrating day that brought only three wickets in all, save some gentle reverse-swing created by the bare pitches either side of the playing surface. The odd ball did bite for Jack Leach, spinning sharply as a result, but West Indies battled gamely towards the follow-on target (308), the first priority on the way to a draw that would maintain their hopes of winning the series.
It would be easy to bemoan the absence of others, but whether anyone else would have been more incisive is moot: in 2009 here, against an attack including James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann, West Indies made more than 700. Wood was missed, but his tour is sadly done after his latest injury, which will also preclude his involvement in the Indian Premier League, for which he was an expensive purchase. Insurance should cover a large chunk of that, although his premiums must be sizeable: were you an insurance broker and Wood ambled in, you would run a mile.
It was Ramnaresh Sarwan who was the rock upon which England foundered in 2009 and Brathwaite set about trying to emulate that achievement. He has had considerable success against England in the past — notably at Headingley in 2017 — and is a very effective player, crab-like to the seamers and confident against spin, when his desire to play late and off the pitch comes into its own. He has fathoms of patience.
He faced a lot of Leach, who took up occupancy at the Malcolm Marshall end at the start of the day — in keeping with a concerted effort from the management to make the spinner feel more included — and immediately worked two balls past the outside edge. Leach bowled accurately in the main and has got through 44 overs so far, although it was one of his worst balls that brought his only reward, when Shamarh Brooks sliced an attempted cut to point seven overs into the day.
Stokes was to the fore again at this point, bowling the best spell of the morning — 6-4-8-1 — during which he saw the back of the batsman, Nkrumah Bonner, who did more than anyone to stymie England in Antigua. These conditions were tailor-made for the obdurate Bonner, so England were relieved to get the benefit of a leg-before decision to what could only have been a bail-trimmer, given the ball struck the batsman above the knee roll.
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Blackwood lived a charmed life at the start of his innings, helped by England’s quixotic use of DRS. They chose not to review the leg-before shout from Stokes that would have been given out and did review one from Mahmood — a full ball that swung in and hit Blackwood on the toe — that wasn’t. Both moments confirmed the tactics were to attack the stumps as the ball softened, while the second hinted at a smidgin of reverse-swing for Mahmood.
In the face of accurate bowling and what the pros like to refer to as “scoreboard pressure”, runs were hard to come by. Blackwood took 15 balls to get off the mark, while Brathwaite, who had started impishly the night before, was becalmed. He was happy to soak up the pressure, 16 runs coming from 80 balls before lunch, but was more fluent afterwards, his half-century arriving immediately after the break, with a finely swept boundary off Leach.
Chris Woakes had been used scarcely before the second new ball — only five overs in all — which was revealing. He had the help of a strong cross-breeze, and found some swing with the second new ball, but Brathwaite was prepared to take his chances, driving two sweet boundaries in Woakes’s second over with it. Woakes was allowed only one more over before he was withdrawn again. Used sparingly with old ball and new, he has hardly grown in stature in the absence of you know who.
England’s frustration was plain in the final session, with words between Stokes and Blackwood. Like Stokes, the Jamaican has some fire in his belly, as suggested by his clenched right fist when he dabbed Leach behind square to bring up his hundred. Quite why he chose to leave a straight ball from Lawrence shortly afterwards is anyone’s guess, but Brathwaite was not inclined to such an error. Roach can sleep easy and rest up while his captain is at the crease.