Manchester, July 17: Ben Stokes dominated the second session of Day 2 of the second Test between England and West Indies at the Old Trafford on Friday in what was a mesmerizing show of batsmanship. In contrast to the previous two sessions of the match in which Stokes and Dom Sibley ground out the runs, runs flowed in this session with 114 runs coming off it.
Roston Chase extended his tally for the innings to four wickets with the scalps of Sibley and Ollie Pope.
Both Stokes and Sibley looked to up the ante post-lunch. Their partnership was on 260 off 574 balls when Sibley looked to take on Chase in the 126th over. He only ended up hitting it towards deep midwicket from where Kemar Roach ran in and took the catch to finally break the partnership.
Sibley departed on 120 off 372. The fourth wicket stand between him and Stokes is the second longest in terms of balls faced in this century for England, below the 574-ball 332 stand between Jonathan Trott and Stuart Broad against Pakistan at Lord's in 2010.
Shannon Gabriel then almost got Stokes out four overs later when an edge off the all-rounder flew towards gully but Shai Hope could not get his hands there in time. Chase got Pope in the very next over with the 22-year-old trapped on the pad and the umpire raising his finger.
The out of form Jos Buttler replaced him and he survived an LBW appeal in the next over.
It was lean pickings for the hosts after that as Stokes and Buttler took the attack to the opposition. They made a quickfire 25-run stand going into Tea.
Brief Scores: England 378/5 (Ben Stokes 172*, Dom Sibley 120; Roston Chase 4/106) vs West Indies