Bairstow's Century Rescues England On Day 1

North Sound: A fighting unbeaten century from England middle-order batter Jonny Bairstow -- his eighth Test ton -- saw England recover from a disastrous start on the opening day of the first Test against the West Indies to post 268/6 at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium here on Wednesday (IST).

Bairstow built big partnerships with first all-rounder Ben Stokes and then Ben Foakes as England bounced back with the bat on the opening day. West Indies seamers Kemar Roach, Jayden Seales and Jason Holder all picked up two wickets on the day, with Holder producing amazing control to concede just 15 runs from his 16 overs.

England will resume with Bairstow on 109 not out and Chris Woakes on unbeaten 24.

West Indies haven't lost a home series to England since 2004, and showed why they will be confident of extending that run this time around in a dramatic opening session. With the pitch looking every-inch a bat-first track, England were handed that opportunity of batting first after skipper Joe Root won the toss.

But the tourists got off to a wobbly start as debutant Alex Lees fell in just the third over, pinned in-front by Kemar Roach for four runs with an LBW decision that a review didn't overturn. And Zak Crawley followed his opening partner back to the dressing room in the very next over when he was brilliantly caught by Joshua Da Silva off Jayden Seales for eight.

The decision to move the England captain up to number three was one of the major changes following the 0-4 Ashes debacle earlier this year.

But Root's first outing back at first drop was short-lived, as he was set up by a superb bit of bowling from Roach, following up an out-swinger with a peach of an in-dipper that clipped the top of off-stump while the batter shouldered arms. And when Dan Lawrence fell for 20 off the bowling of Jason Holder, England looked in danger of being bundled out extremely cheaply, with the score at 48/4 after 15.4 overs.

Brief scores: England 268/6 in 86 overs (Jonny Bairstow 109 not out, Ben Stokes 36, Ben Foakes 42, Chris Woakes 24 not out; Kemar Roach 2/71, Jayden Seale 2/64, Jason Holder 2/15) vs West Indies.

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