Stuart Broad boosts England's victory bid in second West Indies Test

England's Stuart Broad (R) appeals for an LBW (leg before wicket) decision against West Indies' Shane Dowrich on the fourth day of the second Test cricket match between England and the West Indies at Old Trafford in Manchester, northwest England. Pic/AFP

Stuart Broad revived England's hopes of a series-levelling victory in the second Test with a trio of new-ball wickets even as the West Indies avoided the follow-on at Old Trafford on Sunday. The veteran paceman took three wickets for one run in 14 balls as the West Indies were dismissed for 287 on the fourth day in reply to England's first innings 469-9 declared. England, looking to draw level at 1-1 in a three-match contest despite Saturday's total washout, were 37-2 at stumps -- an overall lead of 219.

They opened their second innings with Ben Stokes, who was 16 not out after top-scoring with 176 in the first innings, and Jos Buttler in the hope of quick runs as regular first-wicket duo Rory Burns and Dom Sibley remained in the changing room. Sibley made 120 in the first innings but took nearly eight hours to reach three figures. Buttler, however, fell for a third-ball nought after he played on to Kemar Roach. Zak Crawley, in on a king pair, was then bowled by Roach for 11, with England captain Joe Root eight not out at the close. Earlier, West Indies saw opener Kraigg Brathwaite made 75 and Shamarh Brooks 68. All-rounder Roston Chase's 51, which followed the off-spinner's 5-172 in England's first innings, then took them to the 270 they needed to avoid the follow-on in the second match of a campaign that marks world cricket's return from the coronavirus lockdown.

Play resumed Sunday in bright sunshine with Wisden Trophy holders West Indies, looking for their first series win in England since 1988. Brathwaite and Brooks frustrated England in an attractive fourth-wicket stand of 76. But Braithwaite's hopes of following his 134 against England at Headingley three years ago with another hundred ended when he was caught and bowled by Stokes. It had taken Root until the 51st over of the innings to bowl his star all-rounder. Stokes kept pounding the ball in before he was rewarded with Brathwaite's wicket in his 10th successive over.

Worryingly for England, the paceman left the field but returned having suffered nothing more serious than indigestion. The West Indies, who had been 242-4 lost their last six wickets for 45 runs in 16.4 overs. Broad, controversially rested from the West Indies' four-wicket win in the first Test at Southampton last week, did the bulk of the damage. Broad had Brooks plumb lbw before bowling Jermaine Blackwood, who made a match-clinching 95 at Southampton, for a duck with one that kept low. Shane Dowrich also fell for nought, lbw to to Broad. England came into this match with a revamped pace attack. Having already rested James Anderson and Mark Wood, they had to omit Jofra Archer after the fast bowler admitted making an unauthorised trip home after the first Test that breached this series' bio-secure health regulations. But Archer was back in the nets on Sunday after the England and Wales Cricket Board announced Saturday that, following a disciplinary hearing, he would be available for the third Test at Old Trafford starting on July 24.

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