Lees top-scores in first England outing | Crawley, Root hit fifties

Uncapped opener Alex Lees hit an assured half-century in his first outing as an England player on day one of the warm-up game against a Cricket West Indies President's XI in Antigua.

Tuning up for next week's first Test against the West Indies, England closed the day on 251-4, with Lees (65), fellow opener Zak Crawley (62) and captain Joe Root (54) all passing fifty, and Dan Lawrence (46no) approaching his.

Durham left-hander Lees is the latest county cricket graduate to get his chance at the top of the innings in the England Test team, with Dom Sibley, Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed all recently dropped from the position, as was Crawley before being recalled during The Ashes in Australia.

Lees occupied the crease for five hours and faced 214 deliveries in a hard-working knock. He wasn't as fluent as Crawley at the other end, who hit 11 boundaries in his brisk 106-ball knock, nor Root who was at his typically busy best in the middle.

Lees was largely untroubled in his lengthy stay and he found the boundary rope on six occasions when the bowlers strayed, as well as clearing it once when swinging spinner Bryan Charles for six over long-on.

Charles took his time exacting revenge but eventually removed Lees midway through the final session, bowling him round his legs on the sweep. The spinner had also earlier seen the back of Crawley, beating the batsman with a hint of turn as he left too large a gap between bat and pad when swinging for the fences.

Shermon Lewis bagged the prize scalp of Root, clean-bowled, before Charles dislodged Lees' bails and then picked up Ben Stokes for 11, nicking a booming drive to slip.

Lawrence made the most of his opportunity at No 4 in the closing session, hitting three fours and a six, and the