West Indies defeated England in the first test in arguably cricket’s longest break in the modern era. The match went into the last session and ended with England falling to a four-wicket defeat at the Ageas Oval in Southampton. After initial breakthroughs, the England pacers found it hard to break the Jamaican wall, ending Ben Stokes’ first match as a captain in a defeat.

A match-defining knock by Jermaine Blackwood guided the visitors to victory. The West Indies middle-order batsman top-scored with a resilient 95 and took his team home. WI skipper Jason Holder grabbed six wickets in the first innings, while Shannon Gabriel claimed four.

 

We take a look at the records made in this test –

  • Having sealed victory in the series opener, West Indies won only their third Test on English soil post-2000. Their previous Test victory travelling to England came in 2017 at Headingley. They had defeated England by five wickets. The only other win was recorded 20 years ago in Birmingham. During the last two decades, West Indies have lost 16 and drawn three Test matches in England.
  • England captain Ben Stokes may have lost the test, but he joined a special group of Test all-rounders to have scored 4,000 runs and taken 150 wickets. Stokes (64) became the second fastest to the landmark after West Indian maestro Sir Garry Sobers (63). He joins the list that includes Sir Ian Botham, Jacques Kallis (South Africa), Kapil Dev (India) and Daniel Vettori (New Zealand).
  • After a prolonged ankle injury, West Indies pacer Shannon Gabriel made a comeback and how! He snapped a total nine wickets in the match, with four in the first and five in the second innings. This was his sixth five-for in Test cricket.
  • West Indies skipper Jason Holder’s six for 42 in the first innings of the test was crucial in folding England’s innings to 204. This was his best figures in the longer format of the game. Holder, interestingly, dismissed his his English counterpart Stokes twice in the game. With this, Holder has now dismissed the opposition captain on 15 occasions in Test cricket, joint-second highest with former Pakistan captain Imran Khan.

The second test between England and West Indies begins 16th July and will be played at the Old Trafford Cricket Stadium in Manchester. This is a three-match test series. 

 

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