Windies wobble chasing 240 for victory

West Indies made a shaky start to their second innings, after England set them 240 for victory in the fifth and final Test on Tuesday.



At the break, West Indies were 78 for three with Ryan Hinds not out on 15 and Shivnarine Chanderpaul not out on five, after England declared their second innings on 237 for six during lunch on the last day of the Test at Queen’s Park Oval.



West Indies lost Lendl Simmons for eight, Devon Smith for 17, and Ramnaresh Sarwan for 14 to slump to 58 for three about 35 minutes before the break.



But Chanderpaul joined Hinds and they defied England for the remainder of the break to enhance West Indies’ chances of earning a draw and winning the series.



Simmons was dubiously caught at second slip off James Anderson, a dismissal which television replays suggested fielder Paul Collingwood did not take cleanly.



Smith was adjudged lbw to off-spinner Graeme Swann slogging at a well-flighted delivery and missing.



And Sarwan was caught at slip playing back to a ball of no great merit from Swann, whose figures at tea read 12-6-8-2 to take his tally to a series-leading 18.



Before lunch, West Indies bowled without discipline and Kevin Pietersen raced to his 16th Test hundred of 102, as England chased quick runs to build a competitive lead in their bid for a series-levelling victory.



West Indies knew that England would hunt quick runs in the morning period to give them a chance of victory and a share of the five-Test series, after they resumed on 80 for three.



But outside of employing a number of time-wasting tactics, the home team did very little to stem the flow of runs, and Pietersen reached his 100 from just 88 balls, when he clipped an over-pitched delivery from Lionel Baker through backward square leg for a single.



In the next over however, Fidel Edwards had him caught inside the deep mid-wicket boundary essaying a pull at a short, rising ball.



West Indies had snared an early scalp, when Collingwood was caught and bowled by Hinds for nine in the fifth over of the morning.



For the next hour and 15 minutes, West Indies came under siege from Pietersen and Matt Prior, as they added 106 for the fifth wicket.



West Indies saw Pietersen reach his 50 from 42 balls, when he struck Hinds to the deep fine leg boundary for his fifth four, and Prior celebrated his 50 from 39 balls some time later, when he nudged Lendl Simmons into mid-wicket for a single.



But Baker made the breakthrough, when he bowled Prior for 61 extracting the England wicketkeeper/batsman’s middle stump with a fast, straight, full-length ball which he tried to clobber to the mid-wicket boundary.



West Indies managed to bring things under a bit more control after Prior’s departure as Pietersen remarkably reached the 100-run threshold for the first time in the series.



He became the seventh batsman to score a hundred in the Test – the fourth time it has happened in history – and 17th in the series before Edwards removed him.



West Indies lead the five-Test series 1-0, following an innings and 23-run victory in the opening Test at Sabina Park in Jamaica, where they bowled England out for their third-lowest total in Tests of 51.



West Indies need only a draw to secure a series victory over England for the first time in 11 years and their first series victory over a side above them in the World rankings for six years.



This was followed by the aborted second Test at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground in Antigua, and drawn Tests at the Antigua Recreation Ground and Kensington Oval.