Adrian Holdstock (South Africa), Nitin Menon (India), Rod Tucker (Australia, TV)
Referee
Javagal Srinath (India)
Toss
West Indies elected to bat
Pitch Report
This pitch has the colour of one which a visiting side should love, or for that matter, a home team which bats heavy. The grass cover on the surface does not look all that ready for assisting seam movement to be honest. It should be great for batting and as the match progresses, the spinners will come into play.
Experts are creating their teams, watch this space
Expert Team 1
O Pope
B Stokes
Expert Team 2
J Root
C Woakes
Venue Details
Edgbaston, Birmingham
This pitch has the colour of one which a visiting side should love, or for that matter, a home team which bats heavy. The grass cover on the surface does not look all that ready for assisting seam movement to be honest. It should be great for batting and as the match progresses, the spinners will come into play.
The commentary is not available for this match. Please check the scorecard for latest updates.
England were head and shoulders above West Indies in the first two Tests but they came up with a fantastic response to rattle them at Edgbaston. But somehow, England fought their way through and took the first innings lead when the odds were stacked against them
Because of half-centuries from Louis and Wood, they took a 62-run lead before Lunch but Mark Wood took a different avatar and bundled the opposition out for 175. West Indies added just 19 runs in the second session. Then, Stokes went after the West Indies attack and finished the formalities quickly.
Right! It's time to end the coverage here, hope you enjoyed it. Until next time, this is Pragadeesh and Bidipto signing off
Ben Stokes (England Captain) - (On Mark Wood) Amazing, the rewards that he got was late than he deserved. That 45 minutes he really blew the game wide open. I am extremely happy for him. He might not always get the reward with his high pace but he put too much pressure to the batters in the middle. When the ball is reversing and someone is clocking at 91mph, it's unplayable. It wasn't too many runs to knock off, so I opened the batting. (On breaking Botham's record for the fastest fifty by the Englishman) Champagne would've been great and he told me in the dressing room. Gus and Jamie's debut couldn't have gone any better. Gus showed the skills even in the flatter wickets and even in the slow wicket here. Smith is skillful and he was brilliant behind the stumps. We were 50-5 and 18 months back, we would've played differently, so I am proud of how the team has progressed since Brendon took over. We wanted to win and don't underestimate us when people say that we aren't bothered about wins. We want to focus on the process and really do what suits us the most, then the result will take care of themselves
Kraigg Brathwaite (West Indies Captain) - For sure looking back, 280 wasn't enough looking at the pitch. That was a big moment but we weren't good enough with the ball. We didn't put the batting unit under pressure for longer period. I mean they score a lot of runs squre of the wicket. If we give them momentum they will punish you. You have to bowl percentage balls like we did in Australia. We never give up and batting wise Hodge was great. Bowlers were there in bits and pieces. Seales chipped in and picked up wickets regularly. We want to improve the mistakes against SA and have to be consistent in all three departments. We have to improve and it is not that hard. We have to hit the length around off, and as a batter, we have to play really well
Jayden Seales (West Indies' Player of the Series) - I am proud and representing West Indies for another series is a big thing for me. I want to understand the English conditions while playing for Sussex and that was deliberate. They score freely and if the opportunity is presented to them, they score really well. We want to grow and learn from every match. Just looking forward to the South African series
Gus Atkinson (Player of the Series, England): I didn't come in with a lot of expectation but to be able to finish with so many wickets in my debut series is special! The first Test helped me to keep the motivation going in terms of running in hard and going for wickets. Bowling in tandem with Mark Wood was great today, simply great! Test cricket is what I want to play more and more!
Mark Wood (Player of the Match, 2/52 off 16 overs in the 1st innings and 5/40 in 14 overs in the 2nd innings): I was a bit frustrated at not having got the number of wickets I wanted, but James Anderson gave me a pep talk at lunch and got me motivated! Conditions were slightly different here, but I adapted. Speeds were up and that gives me hope of continuing like this for the rest of the summer. Reverse swing got bigger and bigger as the day went along and that helped too. It's a great group of players that we have and even after having to shuffle through formats, the intensity is up. My body feels good of course!
It's time for the post-match presentation now!
England won by 10 wickets
This shouldn't be over by now. This should've been a cracking Test match considering how things unfolded in the first two days. But you have to accept the reality. That Mark Wood spell helped England to pin West Indies down inside the second session. That was a fast and furious spell by the fiery pacer to bundle the opposition out for 175 runs
Nothing to talk about the short chase by England as Stokes opened the batting in place of Crawley and entertained the crowd with his batting prowess. Duckett was the mere spectator and had the best seat to watch his skipper tearing the West Indies' pacers apart
Overall, it was an incredible Test match until today's second session. Everyone thought it would go down to the wire but one session and one spell from Wood tilted everything in England's favour. West Indies would be pleased with their first innings batting performance and they were in a commanding position when they reduced England to 54-5 but Root's reluctance, plus Stoke's half-century followed by Smith's fabulous knock bailed them out of trouble. That valuable partnerships from the lower order batters proved pivotal and gave them a lot of belief to have a go at the West Indies batters in the second innings
Atkinson was Woakes was rattling the top-order but Louis played a fighting knock and brought up his half-century. He had a decent partnership with Hodge but Stokes removed him to give his team an uplift before Wood took matters into their own hands in the second session. He was unplayable and West Indies' lower order capitulated easily
Stokes seals it in style and England complete the clean-sweep. It was a highly entertaining knock by the England skipper and the crowd looks absolutely delighted
7.2 Kraigg Brathwaite to Ben Stokes, SIX RUNS TO END THE SERIES! ENGLAND COMPLETE THE CLEAN SWEEP! Short and flat on leg-stump again. Pulled away hard and over the boundary at fine-leg for a maximum to end the match in style!
7.1 Kraigg Brathwaite to Ben Stokes, OH HO! Round the wicket, short and fast, down the leg-side here! Stokes leaves it alone though!
Kraigg Brathwaite had decided to roll his arm over
Can Stokes finish things in style?
7
overs
81/0score
2
0
0
6
0
1
runs
Ben Stokes*
51(26)
Ben Duckett
25(16)
Shamar Joseph
0/9
6.6 Shamar Joseph to Ben Stokes, short around off-stump here at 144 kph. Pulled away to deep square-leg off the back foot for a single. Scores are level.
6.5 Shamar Joseph to Ben Stokes, full and wide outside off-stump. A mistimed drive on the back foot actually, that goes straight to cover for no run.
A humongous hit to bring up his half-century. Ben Stokes is in full flow from the word go and look at the excitement from the local crowd
6.4 Shamar Joseph to Ben Stokes, SIX RUNS! FIFTY FOR STOKES! Short around off-stump. Stokes hung back, got into position and pulled it away over deep mid-wicket for a maximum!
6.3 Shamar Joseph to Ben Stokes, full and really wide outside the line of off-stump at 140 kph. Stokes moves across a tad bit and decides not to go after it.
6.2 Shamar Joseph to Ben Stokes, over the wicket, short around off-stump here. Stokes lets this one go on length as it goes across him.
6.1 Shamar Joseph to Ben Stokes, round the wicket, GOOD STOP! Full around off-stump. Bludgeoned down the ground to the left of long-off from the back foot. But the fielder from long-off, Mikyle Louis, comes around and puts in the dive to keep it down to two!
Video
;'/></svg>)
O Pope
;'/></svg>){kind=small}
Ben Stokes
*
Shamar Joseph
Edgbaston, Birmingham
