Denly shines as England consolidate lead

Gros-Islet (Saint Lucia), February 11 

England made the most of a morning of errors and misadventures to extend their second innings to 108/2 at lunch on the third day of the third and final Test against the West Indies at the Darren Sammy Stadium. After the combination of Mark Wood’s pace and Moeen Ali’s spin earned them a healthy first innings advantage of 123 runs on an eventful second day, the tourists now have an overall lead of 231 runs with eight wickets in hand going into the afternoon session as they pursue a consolation victory having already surrendered the series and the Wisden Trophy after massive defeats in the first two Tests. 

Resuming at the overnight score of 19/0, England suffered an immediate setback when Rory Burns clipped the first delivery of the morning to Alzarri Joseph at square-leg to give Keemo Paul immediate success. However, the young all-rounder left the field on a stretcher shortly after as he appeared to suffer a serious leg injury chasing a ball to the boundary. West Indies did not help their increasingly difficult situation when Shimron Hetmyer put down a simple chance offered by new batsman Joe Denly off Shannon Gabriel. On 12 at the time, Denly advanced to 45 at the interval as he continued to play his shots, stroking six boundaries in his 68-ball innings so far. — Reuters

Brief Scores: England: 277 and 108/2 (Denly 45*, Root 18*); West Indies: 154 (Campbell 41; Wood 5/41, Moeen 4/36)