England confident of victory over West Indies despite wobble

 
21 May 2012

England remain confident of going 1-0 up on the West Indies today, 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 here.

"It's unfortunate to lose the captain, obviously, especially after his hundred in the first innings," he said, after Strauss and nightwatchman James Anderson had both gone cheaply under heavy cloud cover and floodlights.

"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 tomorrow 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 tomorrow knowing the wicket is still a very good one for batting - if anything a lot better than it was on the first two days.

"The wicket tends to flatten out here, and we hope the ball won't talk for them, as for us today.

"Once the ball gets to 30-35 overs old, it seems to go a bit out of shape and not be as responsive for the bowlers. If that happens tomorrow, we'll be very happy."

As for Chanderpaul, Swann was delighted to get his man after the left-hander's admirably and typically tenacious performance.

"It's always nice to get him out," he said.

"It would have been nicer if he'd missed the sweep on 10 or 11, rather than 90 after 250 balls.

"But I thought he batted superbly, and the partnership he had with Samuels just shows you that if you go out on that pitch and bat with application, and really wait for the bad ball, you become incredibly difficult to shift."

England's frustrations were inevitable while Chanderpaul was defying them.

But Swann added: "It's not maddening. If you walked into the game not knowing who he was, it would probably be a bit strange.

"But he's number one in the world, and we've all played against him before.

"We've got our methods and plans to bowl at him.

"He is unique in the way he bats, very good at getting himself off the strike and just occupying the crease.

"It's maddening in the respect we beat the outside edge a lot today, for all the batsmen, but couldn't just pick up the edges we seemed to in the first innings and have done recently.

"That was frustrating to say the least, but I thought we stuck to our guns really well.

"We are happy to get a chase of less than 200."

For West Indies coach Ottis Gibson, formerly England's bowling specialist, there would be huge satisfaction if the hosts were to fall short.

"It would be massive," he said.

"We are coming back tomorrow to fight and make them fight for the rest of the runs.

"If it happens that we come back and win then that would be great; we would celebrate.

"But whatever happens tomorrow, we will be coming to fight hard to win because winning is very tough in any conditions.

"Against the number one team in the world, it is even harder.

"We know it's going to be a battle, but we are up for the battle."

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