Jason Holder and Joshua Da Silva held firm after the West Indies squandered a promising position on Friday’s first day of the third Test against England at Edgbaston.
West Indies, who’d already lost this three-match series at 2-0 down, were well-placed at 76-0 after captain Kraigg Brathwaite won the toss, only to then lose five wickets either side of lunch as they collapsed to 115-5.
But former captain Holder (42 not out) and wicketkeeper Da Silva (35 not out) kept England at bay with an unbroken stand of 79 in 23 overs that took the West Indies to 194-5 at tea.
West Indies made a fine start after Brathwaite opted to bat first in sunny conditions on a good pitch despite his side collapsing to 143 all out as they lost the second Test at Trent Bridge by 241 runs.
But they had also led on first innings in that match after making 457, with opener Brathwaite having an early chance to vindicate his toss call on Friday.
After a watchful beginning, Brathwaite drove Chris Woakes for two fours in the fifth over on the Warwickshire paceman’s home ground.
Mikyle Louis provided sound support as the openers saw off a new-ball burst from Woakes and Gus Atkinson, as well as the initial overs from express quick Mark Wood and England captain Ben Stokes.
West Indies were 49-0 off 15 overs at the end of the first hour’s play.
The 31-year-old Brathwaite, in his 92nd Test, then completed a 70-ball fifty, including six fours.
But England hit back when Louis (26) fended at an Atkinson delivery that moved away slightly to give wicketkeeper Jamie Smith a simple catch.
New batsman Kirk McKenzie struck three fours before, only half forward, he was bowled middle stump by a 91mph (146 kph) full-length delivery from Wood.
And to the last ball of the session, Alick Athanaze, on two, carelessly bottom-edged a pull off Atkinson onto his stumps despite Brathwaite warning his side pre-match to “always be on it” and not lose focus, with the tourists 97-3 at lunch.
West Indies — and doubtless Brathwaite himself — would have wanted their skipper to go onto a hundred.
But instead he fell for 61 when, trying to pull Wood, he could only glove the ball down the legside to Smith.
And 115-4 became 115-5 in the next over when Hodge, who made a maiden Test century at Trent Bridge, gifted his wicket when deliberately leaving a Woakes ball that hit the top of off stump.
Wood, unlucky to take just two wickets in the whole of the second Test, was the pick of England’s attack on Friday with tea figures of 2-36 in 12 overs.
But with the West Indies having suffered another of the collapses that had cost them so dear this series, the towering Holder counter-attacked.
He slashed opposing all-rounder Stokes for four and struck 20-year-old off-spinner Shoaib Bashir, who took a match-winning 5-41 at Trent Bridge, for several boundaries including a superb straight six over long-on.
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