England debutant Gus Atkinson picked up the baton on the first morning of James Anderson’s farewell Test, striking twice as the West Indies reached 61 for three in the opening session at Lord’s.
The occasion was dedicated almost entirely to England’s retiring record wicket-taker, with Anderson’s daughters Ruby and Lola ringing the five-minute bell, montages of his best moments beamed out on the big screen before play and commemorative merchandise celebrating his 22-year career for sale in the club shop.
Captain Ben Stokes played his part by winning the toss and bowling first under cloudy skies, but Anderson was unable to give a sell-out crowd the breakthrough they wanted to celebrate.
Instead, it fell to newcomer Atkinson to give a glimpse of England’s future. Coming on after 10 wicketless overs from Anderson and Chris Woakes, the Surrey seamer struck with his second delivery in Test cricket, Kraigg Brathwaite chopping a routine delivery into his own stumps.
The 26-year-old, who received his cap from Anderson in the team huddle and replaced him at the Pavilion End, quickly reached 90mph and soon had a second success to his name.
This time it was a classical dismissal, suckering Kirk McKenzie into a drive and seeing a thick edge sail through to Zak Crawley at slip. It was a remarkable introduction to the highest level for Atkinson, with two wickets and three consecutive maidens.
He finally conceded his first run at the start of his fourth, but by then he had already made an eye-catching first impression and left the field with figures of 5-4-2-2.
Stokes joined the action at the Nursery End, finally ready to resume his role as fourth seamer after corrective knee surgery over the winter, and the skipper soon opened his account.
Opener Mikyle Louis had lasted 58 balls on his maiden Test innings, collecting four fours on his way to 27, but played and missed several times against Stokes before eventually nicking one.
He could still have got away with it but Harry Brook had other plans, diving to pluck an outstanding one-handed catch an inch above the turf.
Stokes was open-mouthed in awe, recalling Stuart Broad’s endlessly meme-able reaction to his own catch during the 2015 Ashes.
Anderson returned for a second spell before lunch but could not land the wicket he craved, coming closest when Kavem Hodge squirted an inside edge past leg stump as he departed with figures of nought for 20.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here