Johnny Bairstow stands as a wall at one end in a procession of teammates’ failures. In fact, this right-handed batsman is pulling England alone.
The visitors scored 28 runs for the loss of 6 wickets at the end of the first day against the host West Indies in the Antigua Test.
England seem to have made the mistake of choosing to bat after winning the toss at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound. Joe Root’s team continues to beat the Caribbean fast bowlers.
They lost two openers, Alex Lees (4) and Jack Crowley (6), after scoring 18 runs. And after 10 runs, when the captain Joe Root also took the path to the toilet, the English got into an extreme crisis.
Dan Lawrence settled for the wicket. He also returned 20. England lost 4 wickets for 47 runs. From there, Bairstow overcame the danger with a 6-run stand for the fifth wicket with Ben Stokes.
But when Stokes was bowled by the Seals with 36, the visitors feared that he would soon wrap up. However, Bairstow did not give up. Another 99-run stand with Ben Fox in the sixth wicket turned out to be great.
Ben Fox was a great companion. But the half-century was not found. Jason Holder’s lbw for 42 runs. However, Bairstow did not make a mistake to pick up the century.
Bairstow spent the rest of the day watching Chris Oakes. He is unbeaten on 109 for the eighth Test century of his career. Oaks is on 24 runs.
Three fast bowlers Kemar Roach, Jayden Sills and Jason Holder have taken two wickets each for the West Indies bowlers.