WI vs Eng, 3rd Test: Tail-enders Mahmood, Leach take visitors to respectable total after batting collapse (Stumps, Day 1)

St. George’s [Grenada], March 25 (ANI): Tail-enders Saqib Mahmood and Jack Leach’s 90-run partnership took visitors total to 204 after struggling at 114 for nine at one stage here at the National Cricket Stadium.
West Indies skipper Kraigg Brathwaite won the toss and elected to bowl first and his bowlers justified his decision when medium-pacer Kyle Mayers dismissed Zak Crawley for 7 as England lost their first wicket for 23.
Mayers struck again dismissing the English captain and in-form batter Joe Root for a duck caught behind by wicket-keeper Joshua Da Silva at the score of 29.
Young pacer Jayden Seales gave his side a third breakthrough dismissing Dan Lawrence’s leg before wicket for 8 to leave England tottering at 46 for 3.
Alzarri Joseph also struck getting the priced scalp of all-rounder Ben Stokes caught and bowled at 2. In the next over Kemar Roach dismissed opener, Alex Lees, for 31 as visitors lost half of their side for 53.
Joseph struck again as he dismissed Jonny Bairstow caught behind by keeper Da Silva for a duck to leave West Indies in further trouble at 53 for 6.
Jayden Seales struck for the second time as he cleaned up Ben Foakes for 7. Chris Woakes and Craig Overton struck a 23-run partnership as the duo tried to pull things back but West Indian bowlers were ruthless as Roach cleaned up Overton for 14 to leave England at 90 for 8.
Jack Leach joined Woakes and the duo took the team’s total beyond the triple-figure mark. But Seales struck for the third time cleaning up Woakes for 25 to end the 24-run partnership as England were in deep trouble at 114/9.
Just when it seemed that West Indies will run through the English batting line-up the tailenders Jack Leach and Saqib Mahmood struck a partnership and took the team’s total beyond the 150-run mark. The hosts tried to break the partnership but both the no.10 and no.11 batters hung in to take the team’s total beyond 200. Saqib Mahmood was the more aggressive of the two. Captain Brathwaite then introduced right-arm off-break bowler Jermaine Blackwood into the attack and he finally broke the 90-run partnership dismissing Mahmood for 49 while Leach remained unbeaten on 41. The day ended with England scoring 204 runs and on day two West Indies will come out to bat.
Brief scores: England 204/10 in 1st innings (Saqib Mahmood 49, Jack Leach 41*; Jayden Seales 3/40, Kyle Mayers 2/13) vs WI. (ANI)