England: West Indies suffered a comprehensive defeat by an innings and 114 runs within two days and an hour of play on the third day against England in the first Test of the three-Test series. With four overnight wickets remaining, the tourists needed a further 171 only to make England bat again. But that wasn’t to be as West Indies could only add 57 to their overnight 79 for six against England’s excellent pace attack of James Anderson and Gus Atkinson.
Within ten minutes of the start of play Anderson struck in the third over with a lovely out swinging ball that Joshua Da Silva could only edge behind the stumps and that was 88 for seven.
It was then left to Gus Atkinson to add three to his two of the previous day and, indeed, five to his seven wickets – for 45 – of the first innings to finish with match figures of 12 for 106. Anderson’s four wickets in the match took his tally of Test wickets to 704. While Atkinson’s was the best figures by an England player on Test debut since 1890.
It was no surprise that he was named player of the match. But all eyes were on Anderson on his farewell to Test cricket in the presence of his family. It will no doubt remain as his most memorable Test match.
As he took the field for the final time as a Test cricketer, 7722 days on from his debut against Zimbabwe, Anderson had to endure further ceremony - this time a guard of honour formed by players on both sides. The skies above were grey but there was a hint of a smile as he doffed his cap in appreciation of the crowd's applause.
The next wicket to fall was on 96 when Atkinson had Alzarri Joseph caught for 8 and he then went on to uproot Shamar Joseph’s off stump for 3 just after the hundred of the innings had come up on the board.
A late flourish by Gudakesh Motie who remained unbeaten with 31, top scorer of the innings, in fact, it was the top score by a West Indies batsman in either innings of the match, took the innings total to 136 all out in just 47 overs when the last man Jayden Seales’ powerful pull shot was held right on the boundary at square leg as he managed to keep his balance to not go over the ropes.
Among the many tributes to Anderson was one from the Chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board Richard Thompson: “I was lucky enough to be at Lord's when Jimmy made his Test debut 21 years ago and while his prodigious talent was immediately obvious as he took a five-wicket haul, no-one could have predicted the significance and sheer longevity of his bowling genius. Seeing him then get his 700th wicket at Dharamshala and now as the curtain comes down at Lord's I feel very privileged to have seen how his extraordinary career has unfolded."
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