England close in on dominant victory over West Indies in first Test at Lord’s as Jimmy Anderson takes two wickets with his final farewell edging nearer

The seam pointed skywards and the ball shot down the slope. A split second later it slammed into the top of the middle and leg, sending a distraught Kraigg Brathwaite back to the pavilion and a beaming Jimmy Anderson into the arms of team-mates.

We’ve seen it all before, of course, but it was painful to think that after Thursday we wouldn’t see it again. Here was a parting gift for a packed Lord’s, which had gone red for the Ruth Strauss Foundation but was now glowing with appreciation: Anderson’s 702nd Test wicket felt as carefully conceived, as perfectly executed, as any of his previous 701s.

On a day when Jamie Smith – like fellow Surrey debutant Gus Atkinson 24 hours earlier – hinted at the brave new world of the Test team during a magnificent 70-minute innings, Anderson conjured a memory from the past and set England on the road to what would be a crushing victory in the first Test against the West Indies.

And while Smith stunned with two huge sixes, the second of which passed not far from Old Father Time’s weathervane on the way up St John’s Wood Road, Anderson elicited a nostalgic roar.

He may not be the bowler he once was: the first innings confirmed what had become increasingly clear during last summer’s Ashes. It is telling that this was only the third time he had struck in his first spell in the last 21 innings. But the old magic lingers just beneath the surface.

Jimmy Anderson took two wickets from his 10 overs on what was likely to be his penultimate day of Test cricket

Meanwhile, debutant Jamie Smith shone with the bat in an innings that saw him hit two huge sixes

Back bowling captain Ben Stokes crossed the 200-wicket mark in Test cricket

When Ben Stokes dismissed Kirk McKenzie, leg-before – his 200th Test wicket – and Mikyle Louis, caught behind, and Atkinson bowled Kavem Hodge off the inside edge to take his eighth of the match, West Indians were 37 for four, still 213 behind.

And when Anderson came back and Alick Athanaze was caught low by Smith for 22, there was a slim chance of a two-day finish. But Jason Holder held on, only to send Atkinson to Ollie Pope at short leg in the final over of the evening, dragging himself away with the scoreboard on 79 for six. After the euphoria of their victory in Brisbane in January, this has been a dismal match for West Indies.

England had converted their overnight dominance into unassailability in the first two sessions, with Joe Root and Harry Brook bowling effortlessly for half-centuries.

But it was only when Smith took charge, with only the lower order for company, that the pulse quickened. He had emerged at the fall of Stokes, bowled for four by a beauty from left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie that spun out of the rough, through the gate and onto middle stump.

Stokes stood open-mouthed in astonishment, perhaps reminded of the recent tour of India where the home players had reduced his output to single figures. It was during that tour that England began to worry about the one-dimensional nature of Ben Foakes’ batting, particularly with the tail.

But Smith is moving through the gears more naturally, having convinced management he is the right fit for the Bazballers with a series of energetic innings for both Surrey and England Lions.

He was cautious at first, scoring seven from his first 34 balls, before taking successive boundaries from Jayden Seales, both sharply driven. Then, after Motie had bowled Root for 68 just before lunch with a deft arm-ball, Smith began to assert himself during a seventh-wicket stand of 52 with Chris Woakes, coming down to launch Seales over extra cover.

Smith made 70, then explained how he wants to be aggressive in his approach to batting

But it was his two sixes that put the selectors’ feather in their cap. The first, from Shamar Joseph, went into the Grand Stand; the second, an even bigger one from Seales, over the Tavern. Lord’s loved it.

Smith lost Shoaib Bashir the next ball, who was run out by Mikyle Louis’s direct hit from 40 yards as the batsmen tried for a second and eventually fell while aiming for a third six – a fourth wicket for the persistent Seales. It was an innings to make the Bairstow-Foakes debate redundant, to iron out the kind of wrinkle that can irritate a dressing room.

“I always want to be aggressive,” Smith said. “I want to play my cricket on the front foot, but over the last two years I’ve moved away from traditional methods a little bit in trying to score my runs.”

Anderson, meanwhile, had walked out on what was almost certainly his final Test innings, but any prospect of a West Indian guard of honour – to match the way the Australians received Stuart Broad at The Oval last year – had been dashed as Louis’s revelry had dragged everyone to the boundary outside the visitors’ balcony. Or, as Seales put it, “all the way to Swiss Cottage”.

And if Anderson was disappointed at not conceding a single final ball, he quickly made up for it during a thrilling opening period of 5-4-2-1. Stokes bowled 10 overs in a row, while Atkinson needs just one more wicket from the remaining four to make an impressive Test debut with 10 in the match.

However, the day was for Anderson, who was reluctant to accept the applause at the end of the day

England, who are likely to complete the match on Friday, will have to get used to playing without Anderson

But the final moments, like the match itself, belonged to Anderson. Four balls after Athanaze had been removed, he was driven through mid-off by Josh Da Silva and responded with the sullenness of a man who will never lose his competitive instincts. Stokes ushered him forward 20 minutes later as England headed for the pavilion steps.

Anderson seemed as reluctant to accept the applause as he was to leave the field. He gets one more chance today, this moody, great bowler who can’t live with the spotlight and can’t live without it. Very soon English cricket will have to get used to life without him.