West Indies finished Day 2 of the second Test against England in a good position being 351/5 trailing the hosts by 65 runs at Trent Bridge, Nottingham. The Day was owned by the young duo of Alick Athanaze and Kavem Hodge who brought their team back into the team after they were restricted to 84/3 in the first session.
Athanaze unfortunately missed out on converting his maiden Test half century into a century and got dismissed for 82 (99). However, Hodge didn’t miss out on the golden opportunity and brought up his maiden Test hundred playing just the fourth game of his career. His innings was brought to an end in the final session as Chris Woakes trapped him in front of the stumps for 120.
Earlier in the day, openers captain Kraigg Brathwaite and Mikyle Louis got West Indies off to a steady start adding 53 runs for the first wicket. It was the first 50-run opening stand for the West Indies after 15 years as the duo bravely faced a hostile fast bowling spell from Mark Wood who registered the fastest over bowled in England.
However, they failed to continue their partnership as Shoaib Bashir got the first success for England by dismissing Mikyle who holed out to mid on. Brathwaite missed out on his half century and fell prey to Gus Atkison who bounced him out straight into the hands of short leg for 48.
Bashir further got rid of Kirk McKenzie for 11 (27) who played an irresponsible shot straight into the hands of Ben Stokes on the stroke of Lunch. As a result, West Indies finished first session on 89/3 after 26 overs with Hodde and Athanaze at the crease.
Athanaze and Hodge’s brisk scoring
The duo took their time to get settled and played out the difficult overs before getting on with the scoring rate. Having set their eyes in, Athanaze and Hodge gave England a Taste of their own medicine scoring at rate of 4.66 runs per over in their partnership. The duo added 175 runs for the fourth wicket off 225 balls bringing West Indies into a strong position.
Just when everything seemed to be going their way, Athanaze ended up hitting a widish delivery from Chris Woakes straight to Harry Brook at point which brought an end to a sublime knock of 82 (99). A dejected Athanaze walked back to the pavilion having missed out on his maiden Test ton.
However, Hodge didn’t miss out on the golden opportunity and became the first West Indies player to score a century in England since 2017. Following his dismissal late in the day, Jason Holder (23*) and Joshua Da Silva (32*) saw their team to stumps to bring an end to a brilliant day’s play for the visitors. The Day 3 is likely to be an exciting prospect given that both teams have almost levelled in the first innings.