England suffered a shocking batting collapse on Day 1 of the third and final Test against the West Indies at the National Cricket Stadium, St George’s in Grenada. Having been put into bat by the West Indies, England found themselves tottering at 114 for nine in the first innings. However, a 90-run last wicket partnership between Jack Leach and Saqib Mahmood saved England blushes and brought about some respectability to their total. Mahmood fell for a valiant 49 in the last over of the day as England were bowled out for 204 with Leach unbeaten on 41.
Apart from opener Alex Lees, no other top-order batter got into double digits. Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow were dismissed for a duck while star all-rounder Ben Stokes was packed off for 2. At one stage, England were 67 for seven, but Chris Woakes (25) and Craig Overton (14) showed some fight.
England’s woeful batting performance led to a meme fest on Twitter. We tried to pick the funniest ones:
England’s batting lineup when things get even slightly difficult . . . #WIvsENG pic.twitter.com/ku3Jv3gyC4
— Front Foot Cricket (@FrontFootCric) March 24, 2022
England and their Batting woes continues , meanwhile their fans pic.twitter.com/50BmxY3H0d
— nkit Kashyap (@bandfencer) March 24, 2022
Death
Taxes
Tories being horrible
England batting collapses#WIvsENG pic.twitter.com/cYy54FjESA— Graeme Roberts (@GraemeRoberts86) March 24, 2022
England’s test batting when the tracks not a road. pic.twitter.com/803ODIfQuv
— Jamie Moffatt (@elnino90) March 24, 2022
England batting order collapsing pic.twitter.com/otSvJOfCgX
— luke (@lukehar04175810) March 24, 2022
England fans when England have another batting collapse pic.twitter.com/tNe0gHF6d1
— Ahan (@AhanCricket) March 24, 2022
Seeing another embarrassing England top order batting performance pic.twitter.com/LOG9BXS8C9
— James (@JLM_1903) March 24, 2022
England batting collapses : pic.twitter.com/4rISmBhV4n
— TheCricketMen (@thecricketmen) March 24, 2022
England batting today pic.twitter.com/GFcoMi4uo4
— Shazad Ahmed (@ShazadA66177319) March 24, 2022
For the West Indies, Jayden Seales took three wickets while Kemar Roach, Kyle Mayers and Alzarri Joseph all chipped in with two wickets apiece.
This was only the second time in the 145-year history of Test cricket that the number 10 and 11 in the batting order were the top-scorers in a completed Test innings.
“We were just taking it in short bursts, seeing off their main bowlers first off and trying get whatever runs we could when the support bowlers and then part-timers came on as they were trying to get to that second new ball,” said Mahmood.
“There’s definitely a lot of lateral movement for the bowlers out there, especially with the new ball,” he added.
Promoted
“It’s obviously not the start we wanted but we now have a chance at the start of the second day with a new ball and I hope we can make good use of it.”
(With AFP inputs)
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