Jason Holder starred on the second day with his brilliant spell of 6/42. His efforts helped the visitors in bundling out England for a paltry total of 204.
Jaosn Holder (2nd from left) taking a knee with West Indies players on Wednesday. (Photo: AFP)
West Indies skipper Jason Holder said that the players of both England and the West Indies taking a knee to express their solidarity with the ongoing anti-racism movement, under the name of ‘Black Lives Matter, mean “the world to him”.
Both the teams were seen kneeling on one knee for 30 seconds at the Rose Bowl Stadium on Wednesday during the start of the opening day of the first Test of the three-match series.
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“It meant the world to me. Just the support from everyone, everyone understanding the moment, everyone understanding the occasion. And to see both teams coming together the way they did, it sent a really strong message,” Holder told ‘Sky Sports’ on Thursday as quoted by PTI.
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“I happened to be on social media last night, and I saw a few Aussies posting the same pic of everyone on the knee, and it just shows the cricket world is actually unified. But I think we could come a lot closer, we could do a lot more for cricket in general,” he added.
Meanwhile, after a rain-interfered first day, which saw only 17 overs of play, Holder starred on the second day with his brilliant spell of 6/42. His efforts helped the visitors in bundling out England for a paltry total of 204.
After the hosts were reduced to 51/3, rattled through the English middle-order one by one. His first two victims were youngster Zack Crawley (10 off 26 balls) and Ollie Pope (12 off 13 balls).
At 87/5, the two most experienced English batsmen, Jos Buttler and stand-in skipper Ben Stokes, tried to steady the ship. They weathered the initial storm from the Windies attack and looked settled for a big score.
However, Holder proved detrimental to their intention and outplayed Stokes (43 off 97) with a brilliant delivery that became outwards after dropping on the seam and kissed the off-stump, breaking the partnership of 67 runs. In his very next over, Holder sent Buttler (35 off 47) back to the pavilion and, in a way, broke the English backbone.
He got Jofra Archer for a duck in his next over to complete an exceptional five-wicket haul. He ended his day at the office with the scalp of Mark Wood.
West Indies finished the day at the score of 57/1 with Kraigg Brathwaite and Shai Hope remaining not-out overnight.
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