MANCHESTER, England – West Indies suffered a heavy 269-run defeat in the decisive third Test on Tuesday to meekly surrender the Wisden Trophy to England.
Resuming the day on 10 for two with an uphill task of batting the entire day to save the Old Trafford contest, West Indies buckled for 129 in their second innings an hour before the scheduled tea break to concede the series 2-1.
West Indies won the first Test at Southampton by four wickets before losing the second here last week by 113 runs.
“We still didn’t get the runs we were probably looking for. I felt the wickets were good enough here [at Old Trafford] for us to at least put a bigger first innings effort in both Test matches,” captain Jason Holder said afterwards.
“If you look through our batting performances, you had plenty plenty starts. Quite a few guys got half-centuries, got into the 40s, 30s but didn’t quite kick on.”
Requiring a massive effort to save the game after Monday’s penultimate day was completely abandoned due to all-day rain, West Indies failed to mount a serious effort and the outcome seemed inevitable from the time they lost three wickets in the morning session.
Shai Hope top scored with 31, Jermaine Blackwood got 23 and Shamarh Brooks chipped in with 22 but no other batsman passed 20 as seamers Chris Woakes (5-50) and Stuart Broad (4-36) destroyed the innings.
The spotlight fell on Broad in particular, the 32-year-old trapping Kraigg Brathwaite lbw for 19 in the first session, to bring up 500 Test wickets.
Broad also grabbed a six-wicket haul in the first innings to end with match figures of 10 for 67.
West Indies were tottering on 84 for five at lunch and things grew worse in the second session as they lost their last five wickets for just 45 runs.
