Ian Bell’s 22nd hundred puts England in command against West Indies on Day 1; reach 341/5 at Stumps

After West Indies reduced England to 49 for 3, Bell's 143 alongside Root and Stokes's fifties put the visitors in command on Day One.

Ian Bell helped England erase some of the bitter memories suffered Down Under in the ICC World Cup 2014 with a marvellous hundred, stamping his class, picking up gaps and combating pressure with his natural elegance. West Indies ran through the visitors’ top order in the first session. The pace trio of the Windies wreaked havoc in Antigua as the returning Jonathan Trott was sent packing for a duck from Jerome Taylor. The uninspiring duo of skipper Alastair Cook and out-of-sorts Gary Ballance also didn’t last long, leaving England tottering at Lunch at 49 for 3.

Alongside the confident and daring Joe Root, Bell trundled along with minimum fuss. Root though, lived dangerously and  a couple of half-chances failed to go West Indies’s way. Sweeping at will and pulling with authority, the early threat of the bowlers withered away and the pitch got better too for the batsmen to play their shots freely. Bringing up their respective fifties, Root and Bell stamped their authorites as England went through the second session without losing a wicket.

West Indies would have thought they clawed their way back into the contest after snapping the wicket of Root, just into the final session. There was no avail though as the bowlers were ineffective for the hosts. Ben Stokes, coming back into the team threw caution to the wind put the bowlers to the sword. Nothing seemed to work for Denesh Ramdin and his team as Stokes took the pressure off Bell with an array of cuts, pulls and drives. Bell gradually reached his 22nd ton, cutting Suleiman Benn, with the ball narrowly beating first slip and reaching the fence.

After being dropped rather unceremoniously from the side, Stokes silenced his critics with a knockout of a repartee. Runs came at more than six runs an over during the final hour of the play. With just an over left, Kemar Roach pulled off an near unplayable delivery to Bell, pitching on off-stump and narrowly deviating from the batsman’s defence. Billy Bowden raised his finger to bring an end to a fine knock. With Stokes going strong and the reliable Jos Buttler left to come, it is advantage England at the end of the first day’s play.

Brief Scores:

England 341 for 5 (Ian Bell 143, Joe Root 83, Ben Stokes 71*; Kemar Roach 2 for 66, Jerome Taylor 2 for 73) vs West Indies