Kyle Mayers (5-9) claims stunning five-for as England crumble to 103-8 in their second innings, leading only by 10 runs by stumps on day three; Joshua Da Silva earlier scores a maiden Test hundred as West Indies add 65 to their overnight score
Sunday 27 March 2022 07:16, UK
England are staring at a series defeat in the West Indies as another batting collapse saw them close day three of the third Test in Grenada on 103-8, with only a slender 10-run advantage.
Kyle Mayers (5-9), who triggered the England collapse in the first innings with the wickets of Zak Crawley and Joe Root for a duck, again claimed the touring captain on his way to a stunning five-for.
England first stumbled to 39-4 in their second innings - still some 54 runs in arrears - and then after a brief Alex Lees and Jonny Bairstow led revival, dropped to 101-8 late in the day.
England's hopes now rest with the possibility of another heroic effort from the tail following on from Jack Leach and Saqib Mahmood's 90-run last-wicket stand in the first innings, while the West Indies will be confident of swiftly wrapping up a convincing and well-deserved win early on day four.
Earlier, in a miserable morning session for the tourists, Joshua Da Silva scored a maiden Test hundred to earn the West Indies a 93-run first-innings lead as the hosts added 65 to their overnight score of 232-8.
The tourists will still have been hopeful of pressing forward their own claims for victory going into the third morning, but as has been a theme throughout this Test, the final few wickets proved desperately difficult to dislodge.
Kemar Roach (25) fell to Saqib Mahmood (2-45) in the fifth over of the day to end his 68-run stand for the ninth wicket with Da Silva, but the West Indies wicketkeeper - stuck on 65 not out at the time - found another willing partner in Jayden Seales (13) to allow him to go through to a maiden Test ton.
England could and should have wrapped up the innings without the addition of another run had they not burned through their three reviews on day two. An appeal for lbw from Mahmood against Seales third ball was not given on the field, but replays showed it would have been overturned on DRS.
Da Silva and Seales made the most of the reprieve, inching the West Indies' lead up towards 100 with a 52-run partnership until the former reached three figures himself with a hammered boundary back down the ground.
It looked like Da Silva's innings was then immediately ended after his hundred moment as he seemingly nicked the next ball from Craig Overton behind. The batter used a token review but even he assumed DRS would uphold the decision, only for there to be no edge detected and him to be called back in a bizarre passage of play.
An increasingly desperate England did finally wrap up the innings only four balls later, with it left to the captain to bag Seales caught and bowled.
Root was then required with the bat as early as the fourth over as Crawley (8) fell to another loose drive off Seales, edging to second slip. It was the Mayers show thereafter as he again snagged the England skipper, bowled Dan Lawrence for a duck when playing no shot and had Ben Stokes (4) caught behind before tea.
Lees (31) and Bairstow (22) briefly raised England's hopes with a 41-run partnership for the fifth wicket with the pitch, as has been the case throughout the Test, seemingly beginning to die out as the day drew on. But, with the fall of the latter, the England's feeble batting line-up again subsided.
Bairstow, beginning to feel more comfortable at the crease and looking to counter as England ate into the West Indies advantage, attempted one shot too many as he nicked off to Alzarri Joseph when looking to pull one that kept low on him.
It was the first of four wickets to fall for 20 runs in the space of seven overs as the home side briefly threatened to wrap things up that evening. Ben Foakes (2) was run out five balls later when coming back for a risky second run, Mayers again in on the action with the throw in from the deep.
Mayers then ended Lees' 132-ball resistance, bowling the opener with one that kept low, before clinching his five-for as Overton nicked to third slip. It leaves Mayers, who didn't feature in either of the first two Tests of the series, with astonishing match figures of 7-22 from 23 overs.
West Indies and England will resume the third Test at 2pm UK time on Sunday. Follow over-by-over text commentary from 1.45pm on skysports.com and the Sky Sports app.
