Taylor burst boosts West Indies spirits

England Lions 143 for 6 (Ambrose 49*, Rashid 13*) trail West Indies 203 (Bernard 58, Woakes 6-43)
Scorecard

Jerome Taylor handed the West Indians a timely boost with a hostile first spell of his tour, to take out the England Lions top order, after the visitors' batting had continued to struggle in bowler-friendly conditions. Taylor's three-wicket new-ball burst reduced the Lions to 13 for 3 before they rallied to 143 for 6 in reply to the West Indians' 203 with Chris Woakes claiming a career-best haul.

Taylor only arrived earlier this week having been allowed to spend extra time at home to recover from a car accident, but he showed no ill-effects as he slotted straight into his work to revive memories of his memorable spell at Sabina Park when he took 5 for 11 to skittle England for 51.

He began by putting a dampener on Robert Key's day after the Lions captain had been named in England's Twenty20 squad. Key couldn't respond with a score when he played around his first delivery and was trapped leg before. His opening partner, Stephen Moore, fared little better as he fended a catch to second slip and when Jonathan Trott edged behind England's second-string were in deep trouble.

Ian Bell, eager to continue his good form after being omitted from the Test squad, managed to weather the early problems as he and Samit Patel - another with plenty of prove - steadied the innings. Taylor's support bowlers were not quite the same threat and runs came more easily but David Bernard broke through with Bell given out to a marginal lbw decision.

Disappointingly for Patel, on a day where he was again criticised by Geoff Miller, he top-edged a pull when well-set on 27 as the Lions wobbled again on 78 for 5. It required some pugnacious strokeplay from Tim Ambrose to revive the innings as he struck 10 boundaries in a confident, unbeaten 49, between stoppages for bad light which limited play to 68 overs, although he also lost Luke Wright to Bernard's medium pace.

Before the West Indian bowlers made their impression the batting had given cause for concern ahead of the first Test. They crashed to 131 for 8 as Woakes continued his form from the opening day to claim the first six wickets, notching the impressive scalps of Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Brendan Nash.

Wright ended Woakes' monopoly and Sajid Mahmood also made his first mark before Bernard offered some belated resistance and made a late bit for a Test recall, more than six years after his only previous appearance against Australia. He added 80 with Sulieman Benn to give the total some respectability and thanks to Taylor it was looking more than handy by the end of the day.