Wood’s career-best rips through Windies

Mark Wood announced his return to Test cricket in sensational style with a maiden first-class five-for against the Windies in St Lucia.

Wood’s fiery spell ended with figures of 5/41 to hand England an 142-run lead after Day Two at the Darren Sammy Cricket Ground.

It was the first time he has taken five in a Test innings & a huge boost to England’s chances of avoiding a whitewash in the three-match series.

Introduced in the 22nd over for his first bowl in Test cricket since featuring against Pakistan in May, it took the 29-year-old just five balls to strike as Shai Hope’s skewed drive to Rory Burns at gully.

And he ended his first over on a hat-trick as Roston Chase edged another 90 mph delivery to Burns.

Despite missing out on England’s 15th Test match hat-trick & some agricultural strokeplay from Keemo Paul, Wood continued with one of the quickest spells by an England man in some time & had two more in an eight-over burst before tea.

Shimron Hetmyer, star of the first Test in Barbados, edged to a juggling Joe Root at first slip before Darren Bravo followed in the exact same fashion one over later.

And he returned to clean up Shannon Gabriel with another quick delivery to seal his five-wicket haul & cap a memorable day in the Caribbean.