England's Robert Key is clean bowled by Corey Collymore for six runs during yesterday's third day of the third Test between the West Indies and England at Old Trafford.
- Dellmar
Tony Becca, Contributing Editor
MANCHESTER:
WHEN THE West Indies arrived at Old Trafford yesterday for the third day's play of the third Test match against England, they were out in front, if only by a nose, and the feeling was that they could, with a little luck, surprise England and leave themselves in a good position to snatch a victory that would hand them a chance of sharing the series.
When they walked off the field, however, the odds were on a draw - a result which, with England leading 2-0 in the four-match contest, would leave the West Indies without a hope of doing to England what England did to them in 1954 when, after losing the first two matches, the tourists won the third and went on to draw the five-match contest.
VICTORY NOT IMPOSSIBLE
At stumps on a day that was overcast in the morning but bright and sunny in the afternoon, England, replying to the West Indies 395 for nine declared, were 233 for five with Graham Thorpe on 89, and although victory for one or the other is not impossible, with the match still in the first innings after losing the entire second day's play due to rain and only two days to go, only a foolish man would bet on any other result but a draw.
Whatever the result, the West Indies, 275 for six at the start, made two good tries yesterday to move into a winning position - one at the start of the day's play when Carlton Baugh Jnr entertained the fans with some audacious and cheeky strokes, and one, the one that frightened the hometown fans, at the start of England's innings when, in the tourists best bowling performance of the series, pacers Fidel Edwards, Corey Collymore and Dwayne Bravo picked off Marcus Trescothick, Robert Key and captain Michael Vaughan as the home team buckled at 40 for three before Andrew Strauss, 90, and veteran Thorpe steadied them with an attractive fourth-wicket partnership of 177 off 314 deliveries.
Batting second for the first time in the series and facing a reasonable total, England lost Trescothick for zero when the left-hander, playing his 100th Test innings, went back to Edwards to the second delivery of the innings, was beaten for pace, and was caught low down by Ramnaresh Sarwan at second slip.
ZERO FOR ONE
That was zero for one, and Collymore made it 13 for two in the fourth over when he ripped out Key's offstump the right-hander leaning forward, attempting to drive through mid-on and missing an away cutter pitched on a perfect length between the middle stump and the offstump.
It was 40 for three in the 17th over when, after two lovely drives to the mid-wicket boundary - one off Edwards and one off Collymore - that suggested he was in good nick, Vaughan was bowled by a Bravo yorker that brushed the front pad before knocking back the offstump.
Unfortunately for the West Indies, Strauss and Thorpe, dropped on 58 backward point by Sarwan off left-arm wrist spinner Dave Mohammed, were in good form, and but for Bravo who maintained his line and length and struck two more times, the pacers who looked so good earlier on were treated with scant respect as the two left-handers reeled off boundary stroke after boundary stroke.
With the shadows lengthening across the field, however, Bravo, three for 36 off 19 overs, revived the Windies hopes when he bowled Strauss at 217 for four in the 68th over and trapped the dangerous Andrew Flintoff leg before wicket for seven at 227 for five in the 74th.
Without a doubt, Strauss - 292 minutes, 227 deliveries and eight boundaries, and Thorpe - 250 minutes, 168 deliveries and seven boundaries, were the batsmen of the day.
