(ESPNCRICINFO) – Nkrumah Bonner and Jason Holder drew the sting out of England’s depleted attack in a tense final session of the first Test in Antigua, as their 80-run partnership, spanning 34.4 resolute overs, thwarted a well-judged declaration from Joe Root that briefly looked set to deliver an unlikely victory in a previously bat-dominated contest.

After Root himself had become England’s third centurion of the match – a feat they last achieved on the tour of India in 2016-17 – West Indies were left needing a stiff, but tantalising target of 286 in a minimum of 71 overs, against an attack lacking the services of Mark Wood, the man whose habitual 90 mph pace might have been expected to unlock an unforgiving surface.

Instead, England’s fight was carried by the disciplined, probing spin of Jack Leach, who bowled with great accuracy, and with five men camped around the bat for the majority of the final session, but with little luck to finish with 3 for 57 in 30.1 overs.

Ben Stokes was England’s other main threat as he once again belied the pre-match caveats about his fitness to bang out 13 more overs for 24, but having prised out the key early wicket of Kraigg Brathwaite, he too was unable to get the better of a dogged fifth-wicket pair.

After 21 wickets had fallen on the first four days of the match, the likelihood of England forcing victory on an unforgiving surface at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium had always been slim. And slim seemed to have left town when it was confirmed that Wood – who had been withdrawn from the attack before lunch on day three – would play no further part in the match, after reporting “acute pain” in his injured right elbow during a nets session before the start of play.

With Wood’s participation in the rest of the series now in serious doubt, it would have been understandable had England chosen to shut up shop from the outset, after resuming their second innings with a stalemate at their mercy on 217 for 1. However, in adding a further 132 runs in 25 overs of an extended morning session, the evidence from the day’s outset was that England always intended to have a dart at West Indies’ brittle batting in the final two sessions.

By the time Bonner had batted for 493 balls across his two innings, and found typically indomitable support from Holder – a man who never needs to be asked twice to produce his best performances against England – West Indies had located a backbone to reinforce their remarkable home record in the Wisden-turned-Richards-Botham-Trophy.

Either side of the tea break, however, it had threatened to be a very different story. After a misleadingly calm start to their chase, in which Brathwaite and John Campbell had compiled their second fifty-stand of the match, West Indies shipped four wickets for eight runs in 9.3 overs to re-awaken the sort of jitters that their opponents have known only too well in recent times.

Suddenly, from 59 for 0, with the vague prospect of hunting down a run-a-ball asking rate in an ODI-style fight to the finish, West Indies were in the soup at 67 for 4, with their only remaining objective being survival – a state of affairs that allowed England to shelve any reticence in their field placings, and throw everything they had into the pursuit of those final six wickets.

The dismissal of Brathwaite was the trigger for West Indies’ wobble for he had been, by a distance, the more fluent of West Indies’ two openers. Aside from one atrocious hack across the line at Leach, for which he had deserved to be bowled for 24, Brathwaite found a comfortable balance between stickability and intent to set West Indies’ tempo with a solid knock of 33 from 82 balls.

Inevitably, however, it was Stokes who dislodged him. After his first-innings exertions, Stokes had been held back until the 24th over – ostensibly waiting until the ball was ready to reverse-swing – and with his seventh delivery, he skidded a full-length nipbacker into Brathwaite’s shin, to send him on his way for 33 from 82 balls.

Suddenly, West Indies’ serenity had been shaken, and Campbell never looked like filling the void. Leach in particular had him in his pocket – he should have been caught for 1 from 19 balls, when he skied a leading edge to Crawley, running back from slip, and the solitary boundary of his innings, an attractive drive through the covers off Leach, came one ball after he had skimmed a less convincing hack over the head of Stokes at mid-off.

SCOREBOARD
ENGLAND 1st innings 311
WEST INDIES 1st innings 375
ENGLAND 2nd innings (o/n 217 for one)
A. Lees lbw b Roach 6
Z. Crawley b Holder 121
J. Root b Joseph 109
D. Lawrence c Permaul b Joseph 37
B. Stokes c Brooks b Roach 13
J. Bairstow not out 15
B. Foakes b Joseph 1
C. Woakes not out 18
Extras: (b-15, lb-4, w-2, nb-8) 29
Total: (6 wkts, 88.2 overs) 349
Fall of wickets: 1-24, 2-225, 3-295, 4-310, 5-312, 6-314.
Bowling: Roach 19-3-53-2 (nb-1), Seales 13-2-57-0, Holder 16-2-56-1 (nb-3), Joseph 23.2-3-78-3 (w-2, nb-1), Permaul 12-0-64-0, Brathwaite 4-0-14-0, Bonner 1-0-8-0 (nb3)
WEST INDIES 2nd innings
K. Brathwaite lbw b Stokes 33
J. Campbell c Overton b Leach 22
S. Brooks c Crawley b Leach 5
N. Bonner not out 38
J. Blackwood lbw b Leach 2
J. Holder not out 37
Extras: (b-4, lb-4, nb-2) 10
Total: (4 wkts, 70.1 overs) 147
Fall of wickets: 1-59, 2-59, 3-65, 4-67.
Bowling: Woakes 9-1-22-0, Leach 30.1-14-57-3, Overton 10-2-23-0, Root 2-0-6-0, Stokes 13-3-24-1 (nb-2), Lawrence 6-3-7-0.
Result: Match drawn.