England falter after Ben Stokes takes six-wicket haul at Lord’s against West Indies

But after Ben Stokes produced a blistering spell of 6-22 which left Jimmy Anderson agonisingly one wicket short of his 500th Test victim, England’s own batsmen also failed to get out of the shadows.

There will be other days for Anderson and, given the speed with which conditions impacted the momentum of this match, his landmark will almost certainly arrive before the end of the weekend.

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And there will be other days for England who still have plenty of batting left for all that they were a less-than-impressive 46-4 at the close.

Yet this was Stokes’s day for all that after pounding in for a nearly unplayable spell of 14 and a half overs in just over two hours of graft either side of tea to blow the match open, would not have expected to be back in at the close.

When rain pipped bad light to stop play with Stokes and Malan both unbeaten on 13, Joe Root’s side trailed West Indies 123 all out by 77 runs.

The day started with two early wickets for Anderson which appeared to set the stage for him to take all the plaudits, yet at 6.34pm it was a stage so crowded you could barely see a fairy ring.

And there were precious few batsman battling for the bouquets.

If any deserved to take a bow it was Kieran Powell, for all that when he was caught and bowled by Stokes to leave West Indies 78-4 in the middle session, he would scarcely have believed 39 would be the top score of the day.

From the moment West Indies captain Jason Holder called correctly at the toss and opted to bat though, the clouds appeared to darken and build in the distance over the Warner Stand.

And by the time Anderson had the ball in hand running in from the Pavilion End it was gloomy, heavy and tailormade for swing bowling.

Despite the disappointment of Alastair Cook dropping Kraigg Brathwaite in his second over, Anderson was quickly into his personal race to 500 taking 2-0 in 12 balls.

The wickets, coming either side of a 40-minute rain break in the opening session, moved him to 499.

Frustratingly for him and the Lord’s crowd, the final step was proved elusive and when Stuart Broad left the field for treatment for a sore left heel after lunch, Root unleashed Stokes on a mammoth two hour spell from the Nursery End which proved too good to stop – both for the England captain and the West Indies.

Toby Roland-Jones, selected here in place of Chris Woakes, had stepped up to the plate in his second spell getting Shai Hope and Jermaine Blackwood, the former chipped out skilfully with a devilish lifter, the latter other just tempted into a rash shot.

In between, Stokes took the first of his half dozen taking a sharp low catch in his follow through to get rid of Powell.

From there to the end of the West Indies innings, Stokes settled into a rhythm, hooping the ball between 85 and 90mph both ways.

Stokes produced belters to get rid of Roston Chase and, with the second over after tea Holder – one an outswinger and the other going the other way but both clipping the top of off stump.

Yet as soon as the West Indies captain was out Root brought Anderson back with a suitable sense of occasion.

The wicket would not come though Despite him tangling the hapless Devendra Bishoo in a web of tracer bullets he could not land the killer punch.

At the other end Stokes was chipping them out, with Anderson selflessly helping out to grab Stokes’s fifth wicket with a superb diving catch at fourth slip which bagged Kemar Roach and left them nine down.

Stokes needed just one more ball to finish it.

It was the third six wicket haul of Stokes Test career but if he had thoughts putting his feet up he was to find himself back in the middle before the end of the day.

England’s reply was 16 deliveries old when Mark Stoneman nicked Roach behind. Cook was undone by the perfect seaming ball, losing the top of his off stump and Tom Westley was lbw, his fifth single figure score on the trot.

Root was back with him after the first ball of the next over leaving England 24-4 before Stokes and Malan staged a recovery of sorts.