BECK­EN­HAM, Eng­land – West In­dies en­dured a shaky start to their sec­ond in­nings af­ter they got a fore­taste of what to ex­pect in their three-Test se­ries against hosts Eng­land when for­mer Un­der-19 in­ter­na­tion­al William Lux­ton led strong bat­ting from the First-Class Coun­ties Se­lect XI with an en­ter­pris­ing, un­beat­en hun­dred in their tour match on Thurs­day.

The Caribbean side was 57 for two in their sec­ond in­nings at the close on the sec­ond day of the three-day match at the Kent Coun­ty Crick­et Ground with Mikyle Louis, open­ing the bat­ting, not out on 28 and left-han­der Al­ick Athanaze not out on nought.

The vis­i­tors lost open­er Zachary Mc­Cask­ie caught at point off pac­er John Turn­er for two in the third over, play­ing a square dri­ve, and left-han­der Kirk McKen­zie en­ter­tained briefly with four bound­aries in 17 in a sec­ond wick­et stand of 37 with Louis be­fore off-spin­ner Bertie Fore­man got him caught at long-on mist­im­ing a loft­ed dri­ve.

This fol­lowed the bowlers on the Caribbean side had lim­it­ed suc­cess against the op­po­si­tion bat­ting, and Lux­ton, bat­ting at five, hit 112 not out to an­chor the Se­lect XI to 373 for four de­clared to gain a first in­nings lead of 34.

With the de­layed ar­rival from Guyana of fast bowler Shamar Joseph, West In­dies cap­tain Kraigg Brath­waite used 10 bowlers, in­clud­ing left-arm spin­ner Gu­dakesh Motie, whose de­par­ture from George­town had al­so been de­layed due to Hur­ri­cane Beryl, and de­vel­op­ment play­er Isai Thorne.

None of the bowlers used re­al­ly dis­tin­guished them­selves, but Thorne, world-rat­ed all-rounder Ja­son Hold­er, vice-cap­tain and main strike bowler Alzarri Joseph, and part-time left-arm spin­ner Kavem Hodge each col­lect­ed a wick­et.

The Caribbean side met re­sis­tance when Hamza Shaikh scored 84, Tom Prest got 53, Har­ry Duke was not out on 46, Har­ry Singh made 34, and Ben McK­in­ney added 22 – but Alzarri Joseph said there was val­ue in spend­ing such time in the field.

He said it was good to be back bowl­ing with a red ball again af­ter a sur­feit of white ball match­es over the past few months, in­clud­ing be­ing part of the failed at­tempt of the vis­i­tors to try to win their third ICC Men’s Twen­ty20 World Cup last month on home soil in the Caribbean and the Unit­ed States.

“It was pret­ty good get­ting a run out af­ter not bowl­ing a red ball for the past cou­ple of months, so I think I got what I need­ed out of it – a few overs un­der my belt and spend­ing some time out in the field,” he said in an in­ter­view with CWI Me­dia.

“These games are al­ways about get­ting your­self pre­pared men­tal­ly and phys­i­cal­ly for the match­es ahead, so all in all, I think every­one got what they need­ed out of this game… Our last Test se­ries [against Aus­tralia this past Jan­u­ary] was pret­ty good, so we are look­ing for­ward to build­ing on that.”

West In­dies may have har­boured hopes of run­ning through the Se­lect XI bat­ting af­ter Hodge got Shaikh caught at deep mid-wick­et from a mis­cued pull in the fi­nal hour be­fore the hosts reached 233 for four at tea.

But the Caribbean side found Lux­ton, whose hun­dred came from 115 balls with a dri­ve to long-on for a sin­gle off Motie, and wick­et­keep­er-bats­man Har­ry Duke dif­fi­cult to dis­lodge, and the pair shared 140 – un­bro­ken – for the fifth wick­et.

Hold­er and Thorne were suc­cess­ful be­fore lunch when the Se­lect XI reached 109 for two af­ter they added 94 to their overnight to­tal.

The lanky Hold­er made the break­through in­side the first hour when he got left-han­der open­er Ben McK­in­ney caught at gul­ly af­ter an open­ing stand of 56 with Singh, and Thorne, a for­mer West In­dies Un­der-19 pac­er, fol­lowed up with the scalp of Singh lbw for 34 in the sec­ond hour.

Af­ter lunch, Alzarri Joseph and Hodge were suc­cess­ful, but the Se­lect XI bats­man scored freely, and the home team reached 273 for four at tea.

West In­dies came un­der pres­sure when Prest, whose 50 from 81 balls came when he swept off-spin­ner Kevin Sin­clair for the last of his nine fours, came to­geth­er with Shaikh and put on 79 for the third wick­et ei­ther side of the lunch in­ter­val.

Joseph got Prest caught be­hind down the leg-side when the bats­man took eva­sive ac­tion and fenced at a short, ris­ing ball, but Shaikh con­tin­ued to plun­der the bowl­ing of the Caribbean side and reached his 50 from 95 balls when he moved far in­side the line and hooked a short, ris­ing ball from fast bowler Jay­den Seales to long leg for his 10th bound­ary.

Hodge end­ed the hopes of Shaikh reach­ing triple fig­ures, but Lux­ton, a mem­ber of the Eng­land side that lost the 2022 ICC Men’s Un­der-19 World Cup fi­nal against In­dia in the Caribbean, struck 15 fours and three six­es from 130 balls in a shade more than 2-1/2 hours to reach the mile­stone and car­ry the Se­lect XI to a mi­nor lead with Duke be­fore the de­c­la­ra­tion came with about an hour re­main­ing.

West In­dies are prepar­ing for a three-Test se­ries against Eng­land that starts this com­ing Wednes­day at Lord’s in Lon­don to be fol­lowed by Tests start­ing on Ju­ly 18 at Trent Bridge in Not­ting­ham and Ju­ly 26 at Edg­bas­ton in Birm­ing­ham.

CMC

Scores:

WEST IN­DIES 339 (Kavem Hodge 112, Al­ick Athanaze 74, Kirk McKen­zie 73, Mikyle Louis 50; Farhan Ahmed 4-48, John Turn­er 4-60) and 57 for two (Mikyle Louis 28 not out).

FIRST-CLASS COUN­TIES SE­LECT XI 373 for four de­clared (William Lux­ton 112 not out, Hamza Shaikh 84, Tom Prest 53, Har­ry Duke 46 not out, Har­ry Singh 34, Ben McK­in­ney 22).