ENG vs WI 2024, Lord's Test: How West Indies missed out on giving James Anderson a guard of honour

To pay tribute to England pacer James Anderson (who is playing his last Test match), the West Indies Team had decided to give him a guard of honour but missed out on it unintentionally. Just after Shoaib Bashir’s run-out on a duck, the team got involved in celebration a bit too much, missing out on forming the passage for Anderson to pass through as a matter of respect. Speaking to the media after the second day’s play at Lord’s, West Indies seamer Jayden Seales revealed this.

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Seales admitted everyone had thought of giving him (James) the guard of honour but went too far from the dressing room area to return on time and do it before Anderson walked out to the loudest cheer from the crowd.

👏 A wonderful ovation for @jimmy9 before he came out to bat.#LoveLords | #RedForRuth pic.twitter.com/GIRMh7HOGQ — Lord's Cricket Ground (@HomeOfCricket) July 11, 2024

Mikyle Louis’ direct throw affected Bashir’s run out, with Louis running straight towards his brother (part of the squad but not in the XI) near the boundary line to celebrate as everyone followed him. However, Captain Jason Holder - the second-most capped player in the team -ran towards Anderson to shake his hands later on.

"We spoke about it before he came out to bat, that we were going to give him a guard of honour," Jayden Seales said after the day’s play. "Obviously, the run-out took us all the way down to Swiss Cottage, so it was pretty hard to do the guard of honour for the great man. Luckily, Jason caught up with him."

Meanwhile, Anderson didn’t face a ball as England’s inning got wrapped up on 371, leading by 250 runs.

Stokes enters the elite list

England Test captain Ben Stokes entered an elite list of cricketers on day two in London. During the second innings, Stokes picked two wickets, with his second one to dismiss Kirk McKenzie on a duck saw him becoming only the third all-rounder in history, after South African Jacques Kallis and West Indian legend Sir Garfield Sobers, to complete the double of 6000 runs and 200 wickets in Tests.

That, however, helped England near their first Test win this summer, as they required four wickets to take home the first Test.

Meanwhile, James Anderson has picked just three wickets in this game, and even if he picks the remaining four, he would end up with 707 Test wickets, which is one shy of late Shane Warne’s record of 708 Test wickets.

(With inputs from agencies)