BIRMINGHAM, England, CMC - Yet another depressing batting collapse saw West Indies squander a promising position as England took complete control of the second cricket Test by the end of the third day, yesterday.
Given hope by a 209-run, third-wicket partnership between Ramnaresh Sarwan and Brian Lara, the visitors lost their last six wickets for just 13 runs after lunch to be dismissed for 336, trailing on first innings by 230 runs.
Mindful of a pitch showing increasing signs of wear and variable bounce, Michael Vaughan declined to enforce the follow-on and although the hosts lost three wickets in increasing their overall advantage to 378, the manner of at least two of those dismissals would have convinced the England captain that he had made the correct decision.
It has also presented Marcus Trescothick with the opportunity to emulate his captain’s feat from the first Test and score two hundreds in the match.
He resumes on the fourth morning on 88 in partnership with Graham Thorpe, not out on 28, having lifted England from the discomfort of 52 for three to 148 without further loss.
Sarwan continued from where he left off the previous evening, capitalising on a chance at 92 off James Anderson to reach 139, his sixth Test century and first against the English.
But with most attention focused on his overnight partner and a sense of anticipation growing, Lara fell for 95, missing out on a 27th Test hundred and remaining tantalisingly 20 runs short of becoming the fourth batsman in Test history to compile 10 000 runs.
Immediately unsettled by the appearance of Andrew Flintoff with the ball 40 minutes into the day, the West Indies captain completely missed the line of a full-length delivery, complained to everyone within earshot, and then flailed at the next ball to give a catch to Graham Thorpe at gully.
As much as he would have been disappointed at not achieving those personal landmarks during the innings, his greater concern over the frailty of the middle and lower order would have haunted him on his way back to the pavilion.
Those fears were temporarily eased when the obdurate Shivnarine Chanderpaul joined Sarwan in adding another 76 runs for the fourth wicket before Flintoff struck again to make the threatening nightmare a reality.
A day after his bludgeoning 167 dominated England’s massive first innings total of 566 for nine declared, the inspirational all-rounder claimed a second vital wicket as Sarwan dragged an attempted forcing shot through the off-side onto his stumps just after lunch.
The West Indies vice-captain’s innings was as classy as it was assured, decorated by 25 boundaries off 226 deliveries that spanned just over five hours in the middle.
He was thankful for Thorpe’s lack of alertness at gully at the start of the day when he slashed at Anderson and was dropped still eight runs short of the milestone that underscored his growing maturity and went some way to making amends for his failures in the first Test at Lord’s.
His dismissal lifted England’s spirits considerably, not that they ever really flagged in the manner so typical of their opponents, but Vaughan certainly sensed the chance to close in for the kill when Dwayne Bravo strode to the crease at 297 for four.
That sense of anticipation proved fully justified with left-arm spinner Ashley Giles taking four of the last six wickets to lift his tally in the series to 13 from three innings.
He began by removing Bravo, whose obvious technical flaw in playing across the line to the leg-side was exposed by the classic leg-break that spun across the right-hander and hit the top of his off-stump.
His demise triggered the inevitable slide in the space of 10 overs that had another capacity crowd, many of them in all sorts of outrageous attire, in a state of near delirium.
Ridley Jacobs’ fallibility outside the off-stump presented Matthew Hoggard with his third wicket of the innings, when the veteran keeper/batsman was well taken by Marcus Trescothick low at first slip for a duck.
With the score still at 325, Chanderpaul, who was dropped earlier by Vaughan at short midwicket, pushed forward to Giles and Australian umpire Simon Taufel upheld the appeal for a bat-pad catch by Robert Key at silly-point.
The stodgy left-hander’s demise for 45 broke a string of three consecutive unbeaten Test innings in which he had compiled 371 runs in 1 031 minutes in the middle.
With his departure, a swift end was expected and duly followed, accompanied by the usual bout of nonsensical cricket that rubbed salt in open West Indian wounds.
With the pitch starting to break up alarmingly, the West Indies players were able to see first-hand how difficult, if not impossible, it will be for them to survive in the fourth innings of this match.
Jermaine Lawson made the most of his opportunities under overcast skies in the final session, snapping up the three wickets that gave the few West Indian faithfuls in the stands brief hope of a miraculous fightback.
Andrew Strauss had only himself to blame when he chased a wide delivery and edged a catch to Jacobs, but variable bounce contributed to both Key and Vaughan giving catches to Chris Gayle at mid-on, the captain’s dismissal the result of a superb effort by the fielder in running and leaping backwards at full stretch.
Contemporary West Indies cricket is defined as much by fielding errors as batting collapses and Jacobs somehow contrived to drop Thorpe off Collins, while Lara just managed to get his fingertips to the ball leaping at first slip when Trescothick slashed at Bravo.
The opener offered another sharp chance just before the end of the day, driving back at Bravo, who could not react quickly enough to snare the opportunity.
For Lara, it encapsulated the commonplace turnaround from excited anticipation at the start of the day to increasing despair seven hours later.
ENGLAND 1st innings 566 for nine declared (A. Flintoff 167, M. Trescothick 105)
WEST INDIES 1st innings (o/n 184 for two)
C. Gayle b Hoggard 7
D. Smith c Giles b Hoggard 4
R. Sarwan b Flintoff 139
B. Lara c Thorpe b Flintoff 95
S. Chanderpaul c Key b Giles 45
D. Bravo b Giles 13
R. Jacobs c Trescothick b Hoggard 0
O. Banks c wkpr Jones b Harmison 4
P. Collins c Flintoff b Giles 6
C. Collymore lbw b Giles 2
J. Lawson not out 0
Extras: (b-9, lb-5, w-1, nb-6) 21
Total: (all out) 336
Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-12, 3-221, 4-297, 5-323, 6-324, 7-324, 8-334, 9-336.