Smith hits 70 on debut as England take 250-run first-innings lead

Tea England 371 (Crawley 76, Smith 70, Root 68, Pope 57, Seales 4-77) lead West Indies 121 (Atkinson 7-45) by 250 runs

Smith, the 23-year-old wicketkeeper-batter, came in at No. 7 with England already 131 runs in front and shared partnerships worth 33 and 52 with Joe Root and Chris Woakes respectively. But after Woakes and Gus Atkinson fell in quick succession to the second new ball, Smith found a new gear and targeted boundaries even with the field spread.

Joseph spent some of the afternoon session off the field due to an apparent left-hamstring injury, and was seen receiving treatment in the away dressing room. He was forced to leave the field midway through his 15th over, and looked in discomfort after getting through one further over with the second new ball.

After Harry Brook fell for exactly 50, Root cruised to his 93rd 50-plus score in Test cricket and moved into the format’s top-ten highest run-scorers in the process. But he fell shortly before the lunch interval for 68, becoming the second England batter after Stokes bowled by an exceptional delivery from West Indies’ left-arm spinner.

Stokes’ first international innings of the season lasted only 11 balls, with Motie knocking his middle stump out of the ground. Bowling his first over of the morning session, Motie tossed the ball up and found sharp turn after landing it on a footmark. It spun back past Stokes’ bat, leaving him open-mouthed before trudging back to the pavilion.

And in the penultimate over before the interval, Root was left smiling in disbelief after losing his off stump to the same bowler. Motie went wide on the crease and bowled his arm ball with an upright seam. Root shaped to punch into the off side but the delivery drifted in sharply then deviated even further off the pitch, beating the bat and crashing into the stump.

It showed why Motie was picked for this Test, having lost his place to Kevin Sinclair for West Indies’ victory over Australia at the Gabba in January: Sinclair, the offspinner, is the superior batter but Motie is some way ahead as a bowler. He took 2 for 22 in his seven unchanged overs on the second morning, and should have been brought into the attack sooner.

With an overnight lead of 66 and only three wickets down in their first innings, England made steady progress during the first hour. Brook dominated the scoring in a 91-run partnership with Root, scoring heavily square of the wicket as if to demonstrate the slow nature of this Lord’s pitch.

He brought up his half-century – his 12th fifty-plus score in 13 Tests – with a back-foot punch for two, but did not add another run. He fell in tame fashion when top-edging a hook through to Joshua da Silva off a wide Alzarri Joseph bouncer: it was a reminder of Brook’s mixed record against the short ball, which Australia exposed during last summer’s Ashes.

But Root progressed serenely, increasing his tempo through the session after a relatively slow start to his innings. Like Brook, he scored most of his runs square of the wicket, the highlight being a left-right punch off Joseph: he rolled his wrists on a pull off a short ball, then whipped the follow-up inswinger off his pads to bring up consecutive boundaries.

Smith seized on Motie’s drag-down to score his first Test runs during a brief partnership with Root. Smith scored only seven runs off his first 34 balls, an uncharacteristically cautious start, but showed his class with consecutive boundaries off Seales shortly before Root’s dismissal.

West Indies struck twice with the second new ball: Woakes whipped Seales straight to Louis at deep backward square leg, and Atkinson edged behind off Jason Holder. But that prompted Smith’s change in tempo, demonstrating the skill and aggression that led to his selection for this series ahead of his Surrey team-mate Ben Foakes.