England’s Joe Root and Alastair Cook on Thursday crafted superb centuries to lead the hosts to a commanding 348-3 on the opening day of their first day-night Test against the West Indies.
Captain Root mastered the pink ball to make 136 and Cook was unbeaten on 153 at the close as England recovered strongly from a perilous 39-2 to take control of the game at Edgbaston.
“Today was about making sure we got into a position of strength,” Root said. “It’s something we did well in the last two games and to do it today is brilliant, but it will mean nothing if we don’t back it up tomorrow.”
“I know it’s simple and boring, but all we tried to do was do the basics well. We went in with an open mind and played the situation in front of us,” he added.
Root would have been hoping for a steady opening stand after winning the toss, but Mark Stoneman, making his debut as Cook’s latest partner, was bowled off-stump by a fine delivery from Kemar Roach.
Miguel Cummins then trapped Tom Westley LBW, the West Indies successfully reviewing the umpire’s not-out decision to leave England in trouble at the start of the three-match series.
Cook and Root dug in, taking advantage of good batting conditions and wayward bowling and fielding with a flurry of crisp boundaries.
Former captain Cook brought up his fifty shortly before lunch and Root soon followed him to the milestone, posting a half-century for the 11th Test in a row to equal the record in five-day cricket.
The prolific right-hander continued to play immaculate strokes all around the ground and he reached his 13th Test hundred by sweeping off-spinner Roston Chase for his 19th four.
Cook soon joined his partner on three figures, his 31st Test century, and the pair extended their magnificent third-wicket partnership to 248 before a tiring Root was bowled by a full-pitched ball from Roach.
Dawid Malan arrived at the crease with the floodlights on and under pressure after failing to get a decent score in his first four Test innings.
However, the West Indies inexplicably delayed taking the second new ball and he was able to survive and move on to 28 not out before play ended at 9:30pm.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with