A grafting century from Dom Sibley and an increasingly belligerent one by Ben Stokes put England in control on Day II of the second Test against West Indies on Friday.
Opener Sibley completed his second Test century shortly before lunch, eventually falling for 120, while Stokes cut loose after it, before going for 176 as England declared on 469 for nine.
Sam Curran trapped West Indies opener John Campbell lbw for 12 in a tricky session before stumps to leave the visitors on 32 for one — 437 runs in arrears.
England begun the day on 207 for three with Sibley and Stokes well set after coming together on Thursday with the hosts on 80 for three.
They had to dig in before lunch with the ball swinging and added only 57 to their overnight score before the interval.
Sibley’s marathon innings came to an end when he was caught by Kemar Roach at deep mid-wicket off the bowling of spinner Roston Chase, who ended up with five wickets.
Sibley faced 372 balls and struck only five boundaries.
Stokes, who had been restrained during his 260-run stand with Sibley, reached his 10th Test century shortly after lunch and immediately went on the attack with some majestic hitting.
The all rounder struck 17 fours and two sixes, one of them a magnificent shot over the long-on rope off Joseph.
Stokes was dismissed by Roach, getting a nick behind to Shane Dowrich when attempting a reverse slap.
Jos Buttler made a useful 40 against a tiring West Indies attack who became a little ragged towards the end.
Chase, who bowled an unbroken spell from the last over before lunch, ended with five for 172 off 44 overs.
‘Disaster’ averted
Paceman Jofra Archer’s breach of bio-secure protocols could have been a “disaster” and ended up costing the Board tens of millions of pounds, ECB director of cricket Ashley Giles has said.
“This could have been a disaster. The ripple effect this could have had through the whole summer could have cost us tens of millions of pounds,” Giles said.
“The potential knock-on effect I don’t think he could have understood. He’s a young man, young men make mistakes. He has to learn from them.”
