Lunch England 157 for 5 (Root 58*, Stokes 48*, Seales 3-35) trail West Indies 282 (Brathwaite 61, Holder 59, Atkinson 4-67, Woakes 3-69) by 125 runs
The pair shared an unbroken 103-run partnership off 128 balls for the sixth wicket after England lost two key batters in as many overs on Saturday. At lunch, Root was not out 58 and Stokes was on 48.
Within the first half-hour of play, the hosts were 54 for 5, having resumed on 38 for 3.
Ollie Pope, who had been 6 not out overnight, added just four more via a boundary edged wide of second slip before he was bowled by a Shamar Joseph ball which kept low as he attempted to cut and deflected onto his stumps.
New batter Harry Brook had faced just three balls when he fell driving at a Jayden Seales delivery which moved away slightly, brushing the edge as it did so and landing in the gloves of Joshua Da Silva behind the stumps. That gave Seales his third wicket for 26 runs in 5.5 overs at the time.
Root had survived on 3 when, in the second over of the day, Seales struck him on the pad and, despite hearty West Indies appeals for lbw they neglected to review when he was adjudged not out. Replays later showed that, according to ball-tracking, it would have hit leg stump.
In reaching 14, Root overtook Brian Lara’s 11,953 Test runs to move into seventh on the all-time run-scorers’ list as he set about his rebuilding effort, striking Alzarri Joseph for back-to-back fours to move to 25 and he brought up his 63rd Test fifty with a single off Jason Holder.
Stokes was also resolute, his punch down the ground for four off Holder shortly before lunch the perfect illustration, and he slog-swept Gudakesh Motie into the Hollies Stand to move within one more boundary of his fifty. At the break, he hadn’t found it but he had joined with Root in giving home fans cause to breathe easier.
