England confident of Windies victory

England remain confident of going 1-0 up on the West Indies, despite losing their captain on the way to 10 for two in a dramatic conclusion to day four of the first Investec Test.

The hosts have obvious prospects of reaching a victory target of 191 at Lord's, where pitches are renowned in modern times for becoming better, not worse, for batsmen as Tests progress.

Andrew Strauss received a snorter from Kemar Roach to go for just a single after England had bowled the Windies out for 345. But his team are banking on a significant easing of conditions once the ball, as yet only four overs old, begins to lose its bite.

Graeme Swann gave England a much-needed lift when he was the man to finally shift Shivnarine Chanderpaul (91), who batted for almost 10-and-a-half hours for once-out in this match.

Chanderpaul and his fifth-wicket partner Marlon Samuels (86) engineered West Indies' second-innings fightback, despite Stuart Broad's historic match analysis of 11 for 165.

Swann nonetheless thinks England will prevail. After Strauss and nightwatchman James Anderson had both gone cheaply under heavy cloud cover and floodlights, the England spinner said: "It's unfortunate to lose the captain, obviously, especially after his hundred in the first innings.

"It was always going to be a tricky 15 minutes, batting in the gloom against a world-class bowler like Kemar Roach. But luckily we've got through it relatively unscathed. We've got Trotty [Jonathan Trott] and Cooky [Alastair Cook] at the crease, and we'll be very confident going into Monday that they can see us through."

England have a patchy record in comparable chases of late, notably when they were bowled out for just 72 against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi in January.

But Swann rightly notes the circumstances could hardly be further removed from a situation when England were unable to resist the spin of Abdur Rehman in the desert.

"I'm sure we'll be using our feet a lot more, and not sweeping off the straight!" he said, with a smile. "They're completely different. We'll be very confident going in knowing the wicket is still a very good one for batting - if anything a lot better than it was on the first two days."