Marlon Samuels leads Windies fightback

Marlon Samuels

St. George's (Grenada), April 22 (IANS) West Indies' middle-order batsman Marlon Samuels rallied an ambitious fightback with a counter attack on England bowlers that also brought him within sight of his seventh century on the first day of the second cricket Test here.

Samuels batted responsibly to be unbeaten on 94 which helped to pull the West Indies out of precarious positions in the rain-affected day at the National Cricket Stadium on Tuesday, reports CMC.

West Indies, who lost their openers before lunch and laboured to 104/4 by tea, had recovered to a decent position of 188/5 at stumps after the first hour was lost due to showers.

Bad light stopped play with only 70 overs bowled with the home side creeping back into contention after struggling against England's seam attack in overcast conditions.

England struck within the first hour as Kraigg Brathwaite and Devon Smith were removed by James Anderson and Chris Jordan, respectively. The home side fought back, but Darren Bravo, who led that effort, was dismissed for a fighting 35 leaving his team still in trouble at 65/3.

Brathwaite fell early in the third over for one, beaten by an in-swinger from Anderson which darted into his pad and deflected on to the leg stump.

Smith batted cautiously at first but then ran into problems with Chris Jordan. Smith hit two fours and got to 15 when he was dropped by Gary Balance down the leg side but four balls later his luck ran out as he followed a ball wide outside his off stump which seemed to have gotten an edge to the wicketkeeper.

Smith stood his ground for a while but declined a review although replays suggested he had not hit the ball.

The West Indies innings plunged into further trouble with the loss of Darren Bravo and Shiv Chanderpaul in the post-lunch session.

Bravo, who smashed five fours, was caught on 35 in the wake of a stubborn 37-run stand with Samuels for the third wicket after West Indies went to lunch at 36/2. Bravo played a lazy shot attempting to follow a ball from Stuart Broad that was angled across him and got an edge to first slip.

Chanderpaul also played a poor shot with his bat away from his body for Moeen Ali to take an easy catch at point. Meanwhile, Samuels was accumulating his runs slowly but once he crossed his half century, the runs flowed.

He shared two half-century partnerships of 55 runs with Jermaine Blackwood for the fifth wicket and 59 runs with captain Denesh Ramdin for the sixth. Samuels has already counted 13 fours while Blackwood, who scored five fours, got to 26 before he was given leg before the wicket to Jordan, England's best bowler, with 2/40.

England won the toss and elected to bowl with only 15 overs possible before lunch. Both teams had made changes. England replaced off-spinner James Tredwell with Moeen Ali while the West Indies brought in Shannon Gabriel for the injured Jerome Taylor and Devendra Bishoo in place of Suliemann Benn.