England are in a good position, having ended the day on 258-4, a far cry from the 122-4 they were in when Buttler came to the crease.
Before that, Kemar Roach had removed second-Test century-maker, Dom Sibley, for a duck, trapping him leg before wicket in the first over of the day.
Then came the run out of Joe Root for 17, Roston Chase clipping the bales.
Ben Stokes and opener Rory Burns tried to fashion a recovery before the latter was pushed back with some short deliveries before being bowled by Roach for 20.
The West Indies were looking good with England at 92-3, and when Burns was caught brilliantly at slip by Rahkeem Cornwall off the bowling of Roston Chase for 57, the West Indies were in great shape with two new batsmen and England teetering at 122-4.
But that’s where it ended as Pope, 91, and Buttler, 56, saw out the day in relative comfort, their partnership now worth 136.
“I thought we started very well. Obviously Buttler and Pope had a good partnership, they batted well and so we know we have some hard work come tomorrow,” said Brathwaite in a press conference following stumps.
While Pope and Buttler have rescued England from a precarious position, Brathwaite does not believe the game has gotten away from the West Indies and tomorrow brings a fresh opportunity.
“We had a plan and obviously to bowl first but it’s been a pretty even day and obviously good from the two at the crease but I think tomorrow we have to start well and look to limit them to as few as possible,” said Brathwaite.
While tomorrow’s morning session is important, Brathwaite says the West Indies won’t panic and will stick to their plans and be patient.
“We have to start well and by that I mean we don’t have to rush wickets. I think if we build pressure by bowling a lot of dot balls and no boundary balls, that will create pressure to bring wickets. We don’t have to rush it in the morning session, I believe once we keep it tight, the tightness will bring wickets,” he said.
Under overcast skies West Indies captain Jason Holder had chosen to bowl first, only to see his much-vaunted pace-bowling attack repelled by dogged English batting that kept his side in the field for 162 overs and the better part of two days.
Architects of the English first-innings total of 469-9 declared were the side’s vice-captain, Ben Stokes, 176, and opener Dom Dibley, 120.
To help keep the run-scoring in check, Chase bowled a mammoth 44 overs to claim 5-143, while pacers Kemar Roach, 2-58, Alzarri Joseph and Holder, 1-70, offered support with their wickets.
In reply, the West Indies have already lost the services of John Campbell, after Sam Curran trapped him leg before for 12. Opener Kraigg Brathwaite, 6, and Joseph, the night watchman, 14, are the batsmen at the crease, with the West Indies 32-1.
Despite the setback, Chase believes the West Indies have the tools to overhaul England’s total.
“I would never say that the 400 and odd is beyond us with the talent of the players that we have,” he said in a post-match conference on Friday.
Chase does recognize though, that batting on the third day may provide different challenges to the ones the English batsmen managed to navigate on the first two days.
“I would say that the wicket is slower than in that first innings when the ball was skidding on, so you have to give yourself time to adjust,” said Chase.
Even with that fact, however, Chase is still optimistic about his side’s chances, even though the odds of an England win stand at 70%.
“But I am backing our players to get the total or even close to it and then put them in a place where they have to decide what they are going to do,” said Chase.
Odds for the game ending in a draw now stand at 28% with a West Indies victory at this stage at a mere 2%.
The West Indies lead the three-Test series 1-0 and only need a draw to secure their hold on the Wisden Trophy.
England skipper Joe Root gave the signal to declare the innings on 469-9 just about an hour before close of play but before that, the side’s vice-captain, Ben Stokes, 176, and opener Dom Dibley, 120, made the West Indies toil.
Chase, himself, bowled a mammoth 44 overs to claim 5-143, while pacers Kemar Roach, 2-58, Alzarri Joseph and Holder, 1-70, offered support with their wickets.
In reply, the West Indies have already lost the services of John Campbell, after Sam Curran trapped him leg before for 12. Opener Kraigg Brathwaite, 6, and Joseph, the night watchman, 14, are the batsmen at the crease, with the West Indies 32-1.
“Most teams being out there for 160-odd overs you would begin to see the tiredness and the lines and lengths start to go wrong, but we didn’t let it get away from us. We still kept the run rate to under three and that was our aim from the beginning,” said Chase.
A large part of that were the 32 overs bowled by Roach. The pacer went at a miserly 1.76 runs per over even though he didn’t get among the wickets til late in the day when he had Stokes caught behind attempting a reverse sweep, and Woakes caught at slip with a peach of a delivery with the very next ball.
“We didn’t get wickets in clusters or really fast like we did in the first game but we stuck to the game plan and stuck to the task,” said Chase.
The West Indies were in for a surprise after believing they could get the most out of the wicket on day one under gloomy skies and with some moisture from rainy days still affecting the pitch.
“I thought the conditions played a big role in us deciding to bowl first. Outside was very overcast and dark, the lights were on before play even started, and having the success we had in the first game as well, everyone was down for the decision to bowl first. But as I said, the English batters played tremendously so kudos to them,” said Chase.
There were a few instances when things looked to be falling apart for the West Indies toward the end of the England innings.
Roach dropped a catch, pushing his effort over the ropes for six, Shannon Gabriel missed an easy run out, having caught the return but failed to make contact with the stumps, as well as a couple of other misfields.
Those instances, though, Chase explained are bound to occur after such a long time in the field.
We made a few blunders in the field which is going to happen when you’re out there for that long because your body is under tremendous strain but all in all I think it was a good effort from the guys,” said Chase.
On Friday, England declared their first innings in the second Test of the #raisethebat Series at Old Trafford on 469-9 thanks to innings from their vice-captain Ben Stokes, 176, and opener Dom Sibley, 120.
Sibley and Stokes were patient in compiling their respective innings, the former facing 372 deliveries for a strike rate of 32.26. Stokes was a little more adventurous, scoring at 49.44.
Chase eventually removed Sibley, the opener counting as one of his five wickets after 44 overs of bowling.
“I would say the approach should be to play each ball on merit,” said Chase. “Just take a page out of the English players’ book, especially Sibley and how patient he was and just really waited on the bowlers to come into his areas and score,” he said.
Chase was also cognizant of the way the pair ran between the wickets, always keeping the pressure on the West Indies to field well and thought this was something his West Indies teammates should also take onboard.
“I thought that they ran really well between the wickets so that is something that we can take from them as well and just stay patient,” said Chase.
The West Indies, in their reply, are 32-1, with opener John Campbell back in the pavilion for 12.
Campbell struck a couple of handsome drives but then misread the line of a delivery from Sam Curran to fall leg before.
Alzarri Joseph, the night watchman is not out on 14, while opener Kraigg Brathwaite is on six.
Come tomorrow, Chase wants the two to “just take that leaf from their book and play each ball on merit and when the opportunity comes to score, just score and go about cricket the normal way, run hard between the wickets.”
The West Indies lead the #raisethebat Series for the Wisden Trophy 1-0 and could secure their hold on the trophy with a draw in the second Test.
Burns was the only dismissal in the morning session on Saturday, caught by John Campbell at backward point off Roston Chase for a 104-ball 42.
Sibley got to his 50 off 164 deliveries but lost out to Shannon Gabriel soon after.
Joe Denly, 20, and Zack Crawley, 7, are the men at the crease with England 125-2.
England had resumed its second innings on 15-0 at the empty Rose Bowl in reply to West Indies' first-innings total of 318. Progress was slow in the morning with at one point only three runs off nine overs, and 64 runs from 30 overs overall in the session.
England scored 204 in its first innings of the rain-affected test.
The West Indies began day five of the second Test with the ball and a 214-run deficit, but were quickly put under pressure by the big-hitting Ben Stokes, whose, quickfire unbeaten 78 ballooned that lead to 311 with just 11 overs played.
Then Stuart Broad, 3-42, Chris Woakes, 2-34, Dom Bess, 2-59, Stokes, 2-30, and Sam Curran, 1-30, combined to dismiss the West Indies for 198.
“I think in the five days we played some good cricket,” said Simmons.
“For me, we lost control of the game in five or six overs with the new ball yesterday evening,” he said.
At the time Simmons referenced, the West Indies, in their first innings, replying to England’s 469, were 240-4 when things fell apart very quickly.
“We were in a place where we were in a good position to bat through the day and through some of today and close off the game, but a spell from Broad there is where we lost the game. We lost our way there and we couldn’t hold it back,” said Simmons.
Thursday featured a century partnership between England vice-captain Ben Stokes, 59 not out, and opener Dom Sibley, 86 no out, which helped the hosts recover from 81-3 to end day one on 207-3.
Earlier Roston Chase had breached the top-order defiance of Sibley and Rory Burns, removing the latter just before lunch for 15. Chase was back at it straight after lunch, getting rid of Zak Crawley, who had scored 76 in the second innings of the first Test, this time for a duck.
England captain, Joe Root, who looked in good shape, was setting up an England fightback when Alzarri Joseph, 1-41, had him driving to a delivery that swung away from him and left his shot in the big hands of Jason Holder at second slip.
There were to be no further reasons to smile for the West Indies who bowled 50.4 wicketless overs at Stokes and Sibley.
There was a chance after Shannon Gabriel’s half volley outside Sibley's off stump was edged to Holder, who was making his first mistake of the series, beaten for pace to see the chance floored.
“It was a typical Test day. I thought England batted well. They were very patient,” said a calm-sounding Brathwaite of the day’s events.
According to Brathwaite, while the West Indies did not grab many wickets, the team bowled well enough to still be in the game.
“I know we just got three wickets but I still think we were in the game. We didn’t give away any quick runs,” said Brathwaite.
The West Indies vice-captain expects more runs to be scored on the Manchester wicket than was the case in the first Test at the Ageas Bowl.
“It’s a decent pitch, so you know when we get a chance to bat you know, we just have to be patient and believe in ourselves,” he said.
“We would have loved more wickets but we kept in touch. It was good from us. We kept pressure on, it was just unfortunate that we didn’t take some of the chances.”
Dom Sibley’s marathon, unbeaten 140 – from 415 balls and spanning 580 minutes – underpinned a sensational effort from the champions as they eclipsed their previous highest chase of 410 in 2002.
In finishing on 501 for five Surrey achieved the highest winning target in the County Championship since Middlesex chased down 502 to beat Nottinghamshire in 1925.
Ben Foakes (124) also completed a century on the final day while Jordan Clark hit the winning run shortly after tea.
Elsewhere, Sam Cook, Simon Harmer and Jamie Porter helped Essex record a 196-run victory over Somerset.
Fast bowler Cook grabbed two wickets in two deliveries with the new ball before Harmer took two more to claim match figures of eight for 178 and Porter rounded off the tail.
Somerset needed to bat out 151 overs, or reach 466 to win, but they were eventually bowled out for 269 with two sessions to spare.
Lancashire made short work of scoring the 92 runs they required to clinch a six-wicket victory against Hampshire in just over an hour’s play on day four.
An unbeaten 64 by Red Rose captain Dane Vilas steered his side to a first championship win of the season before lunch.
Joe Clarke turned his first red-ball century for 21 months into a maiden double-hundred as Nottinghamshire denied Warwickshire victory.
Thanks to Clarke’s unbeaten 229, spanning eight hours and 38 minutes, Notts clawed back a deficit of 416 on first innings after following on.
In Division Two, Worcestershire fell agonisingly short of their target of 386 in a tense draw with Sussex.
All four results were possible with two deliveries of the match remaining, before Joe Leach needed five off the final ball but a swing and a miss left the visitors stranded on 381 for eight.
Chris Wright and Callum Parkinson took four wickets apiece as Leicestershire dismissed Gloucestershire for 202.
That left the Foxes needing 221 to win and they got home for the loss of five wickets with Rehan Ahmed hitting a rapid 71 and Colin Ackermann making 78 not out.
Yorkshire celebrated a championship victory for the first time in 14 months as they knocked off 65 to beat Derbyshire by three wickets.
Shan Masood’s unbeaten 95 off 112 deliveries and a run-a-ball 41 not out from Dom Bess saw the visitors home after Dawid Malan had fallen to the first ball of the day.
Chris Cooke (134 not out) and Timm van der Gugten (52 not out) batted Glamorgan to a draw at Durham with an unbroken stand of 153.
England were 264-3 at the end of a wicketless first session in which the hosts added 57 runs in 26 overs — the kind of rate that took Test cricket back to the old days.
Sibley beat Stokes in their painstaking crawls to the milestone, bringing up his second Test hundred with a straight drive for three runs about 10 minutes before lunch. The opener gave a big fist pump to celebrate his 312-ball century, England's fifth slowest since 1990.
Sibley would hole out to Roston Chase for 120 in the second session as he tried to push the scoring.
Stokes, in the meantime, had stepped on the accelerator after lunch when he went to three figures. By tea, Stokes was 172 and England were 378-5.
Again it was Chase who moved the needle for the West Indies, trapping Ollie Pope for just seven.
At the crease with Stokes is Jos Buttler on 12.
Chase now has figures of 4-106, while the West Indies had to do without Alzarri Joseph, the other wicket-taker, for part of the day after the pacer complained of tri-cep pain. Joseph has figures of 1-70.
