(Reuters) -Seamer Jayden Seales took two wickets late in the day to leave England 38 for three at the close of play in reply to the West Indies’ first innings score of 282 on the first day of the third and final test at Edgbaston on Friday.
Ollie Pope (6 not out) and Joe Root (2 not out) have the job of settling the home side’s innings on the second morning as they seek a clean sweep of the series but still trail by 244 runs.
Zak Crawley fell for 18 when he chased a wide delivery from Seales (2-19) and was well caught by Jason Holder at second slip, before Ben Duckett played an Alzarri Joseph delivery onto his stumps, also attempting a booming drive.
Nightwatchman Mark Wood was the third wicket to fall for duck as he edged Seales to Holder, who took another excellent catch in the slips.
“To lose three wickets is not ideal, but we should be happy to bowl them out for what we did on what we felt was a good pitch,” England seamer Chris Woakes told SkySports.
“It swung from the start, and apart from a period in the middle (of the innings) where we went too short, we always felt we could pick up wickets.”
West Indies won the toss and elected to bat, but faced a stern examination from England’s swing and seam.
The tourists will still feel they posted a below-par total after a 76-run opening stand between innings top scorer Kraigg Brathwaite (61) and Mikyle Louis (26), and a partnership of 109 for the sixth wicket by Holder (59) and Joshua Da Silva (49).
But there was not much quality in between with poor shot selection, and number 11 Shamar Joseph was the next highest scorer with 16.
Gus Atkinson again impressed with 4-67, taking his tally of wickets to 20 in his debut series, a constant tormentor for the tourists.
Woakes posted 3-69 and Wood chipped in with 2-52.
Off-break bowler Shoaib Bashir had gone for over five runs an over before he picked up the final wicket of the innings as Shamar Joseph looked to clear the ropes.
England convincingly won the first two tests, by an innings and 114 runs at Lord’s and 241 runs at Trent Bridge.
(Reporting by Nick SaidEditing by Toby Davis, Christian Radnedge and Pritha Sarkar)
