Onions makes West Indies weep
Graham Onions takes five wickets on England debut
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Thursday, 07, May 2009 10:35
Graham Onions has enjoyed a remarkable England debut, taking five wickets to help bowl out the West Indies for 152 - a first-innings lead of 225.
The Durham seamer returned superb figures of 5-38 from his nine-and-a-half overs - including four in just seven balls with the important wickets of Lendl Simmons and Jerome Taylor – to lead the home side's attack.
Onions, winning his first cap alongside all-rounder Tim Bresnan, was ably supported by fellow youngster Stuart Broad and spinner Graham Swann - who are now considered the senior men in the ranks with the uncapped duo in the action at Lord's.
Broad took 2-56 from 11 difficult overs - including taking the new ball against the Windies' confident openers - while Swann provided more joy for the selectors with an excellent 3-16 from five overs.
However, the tourists will be disappointed with their efforts after a solid start from captain Chris Gayle and Devon Smith who put on a quick 46.
With Andrew Strauss' surprise move of opening the bowling with a spinner alongside Broad, it seemed to backfire allowing the batsmen to make some quick progress.
But their good work was undone when a swinging Broad delivery snuck through Gayle's defences with the batsman on 28.
Ramnaresh Sarwan (13) followed soon afterwards, with Broad tempting him into an edge to Matt Prior behind the stumps.
Smith and Simmons tried to resurrect the innings, taking the score to 99-2 but then the lineup started to collapse under pressure on a Lord's pitch that offered the bowlers some help for once.
Smith (46) fell short of his half-century when Swann took his first wicket of the innings before the spinner claimed the scalp of danger-man Shivnarine Chanderpaul for a golden duck.
England were well on top by this point and there was only a brief respite until Brendan Nash (four) became Swann's third victim to a great short catch from Paul Collingwood.
Onions then bounced back from a nervous and inauspicious start to emerge as England's hero with the ball, taking four quick wickets to dismiss Simmons (16), Taylor (duck), Sulieman Benn (two) and Denesh Ramdin (five).
Numbers ten and 11, Fidel Edwards and Lionel Baker, stood firm to put on 24 for the final wicket before the latter earned Onions a place on the Lord's board of honour, becoming the Durham seamer's fifth wicket to end the innings and ensure the follow-on was enforced.
The West Indies second innings got off to a terrible start as James Anderson got into the game by taking two early wickets.
He first had Gayle caught at third slip by Swann and then bowled Sarwan as they Windies ended the day on 39/2 in their second innings and are still 186 runs behind from making England bat again.
Earlier, Swann (63 not out) had made a superb half-century with the bat at number nine opposite centurion Ravi Bopara, until the number three was dismissed for 143 to post a competitive total of 377.
The home side had started the day on 289-7, with Bopara and Swann at the crease and allowed to make some easy runs against lethargic fielding from West Indies.
But once Bopara had gone to Taylor, with the score on 368, the wickets of James Anderson (one) and Onions (golden duck) were mopped up by Edwards in quick-fire fashion.