Stand-in England skipper Ben Stokes on Friday became the second fastest and the sixth cricketer to reach the milestone of 4000 runs and 150 wickets in red-ball cricket after picking the wicket of Alzarri Joseph during the third day’s play in the first Test against the West Indies.
Former West Indies cricketer Garry Sobers remains the fastest to complete this double. Alongside Sobers, the elite list contains the names of legendary England and India all-rounders Ian Botham and Kapil Dev respectively.
South Africa great Jacques Kallis and former New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori are also there in the list had also achieved the feat.
Meanwhile, Stokes was the leading bowler for England in the first innings and returned with the figure 4/49, while Anderson emerged as the second best bowler for his numbers 3/62. Dom Bess took 2/51 as Jofra Archer went wicketless.
West Indies got the upper hand with the lead of 114 runs in the first innings after bundling England out for a paltry score of 204 in the first innings.
Valuable contributions from opener Kraigg Brathwaite (65), Roston Chase (47) in the middle order and wicketkeeper Shane Dowrich (61) helped the visitors take the lead.
The all-rounder Chase, though, was left undone by James Anderson after he played a solid knock of 47 off 142 balls. West Indies captain Jason Holder joined Dowrich in the middle but could not stay long as his England counterpart got the better of him in the last session of the day.
Stokes then dismissed Alzarri Joseph after the latter had made 18 off 12 balls before dismissing Dowrich to complete his four-wicket haul. The third session thus turned out to be more fruitful for England than the second, which was largely dominated by Chase and Dowrich.