West Indies 61 for 3 (Hodge 12*, Athanas 8*, Atkinson 2-2) vs England
Gus Atkinson took two wickets in his first 14 balls as a Test batsman to put England in control and upstage James Anderson on the first morning of his last international at Lord’s. Anderson, playing his 188th and final Test, dismissed his teammates against the West Indies after Ben Stokes elected to bowl first, but went wicketless for nine overs before lunch.
Instead, it was a man playing his Test debut who made the difference. Atkinson, who made his white-ball debut last year, was one of two players handed the caps on the first morning, along with his Surrey teammate Jamie Smith. own stumps.
He struck again in his third over, angling a full ball across left-armer Kirk McKenzie, whose thick outside edge flew quickly to Jack Crawley at second slip. Atkinson bowled at good pace, regularly touching 90mph/145kmh, and after his first five-over spell he was 2 for 2 with four maidens and a scoring shot.
Addikinson was the pick of England’s four-pronged seam attack, and Stokes, who skipped the T20 World Cup to continue his rehabilitation from a knee injury, declared himself fully fit and managed to bowl eight overs. He dismissed Michael Lewis, who scored a brilliant 27 on debut, with a superb diving catch by Harry Brook at second slip.
Lewis, who became the first player from St Kitts to play Test cricket for the West Indies, was handed his cap by Sir Vivian Richards and played with a confidence that belied the fact that it was only his eighth first-class game. He hit back-to-back boundaries in Anderson’s first over, one through backward point and the second through mid-off in dismissive fashion.
Chris Woakes, playing his first Test in almost a year, played the shot of the morning when he hit a six over the square leg boundary. Woakes thought Lewis had been dismissed when he was caught all out by Nitin Menon on 22, but the on-field decision was overturned on review.
Alik Athanas and Gavem Hodge, playing their first Test in England, put on an unbroken 17 for the fourth wicket until the lunch break. Batting at No. 5, Hodge bowled the pair very aggressively, blasting both Stokes and Anderson for boundaries at cover-point.
Anderson batted occasionally, but bowled very little on a slower pitch, particularly in his first spell. He was applauded on the pitch by the Lord’s crowd as his daughters Ruby and Lola rang the five-minute bell on the pavilion balcony while leading England for the national anthem with his immediate family.
