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Flintoff comprehensively bowled by Jerome Taylor in this Gordon Brooks photo
Monday, February 16 – Antigua Recreation Ground, Antigua & Barbuda:
Paul Collingwood produced a typically robust 113 here Monday as England piled up a formidable first innings total and left the West Indies with a tough climb after two days of the 3rd Digicel Test at the ARG.
Collingwood ensured that the visitors, overnight 301 for three, maintained the stranglehold that captain Andrew Strauss’ first day 169 had set up.
England piled up 566 for nine declared and the West Indies, left an hour to bat, lost the crucial scalp of Captain Chris Gayle in reaching 55 for one at stumps.
The West Indies’ pace aces Fidel Edwards (two for 75) and Jerome Taylor (two for 73) produced some inspired moments during the day but the support was patchy and the visitors capitalized.
Edwards lifted the Caribbean men in the day’s second over when he removed James Anderson for four in a spell of sustained hostility that deserved more reward.
The night-watchman was caught behind by Denesh Ramdin as he edged a drive and England slipped to 311 for four.
Collingwood lived through an anxious start and he and a surprisingly subdued Kevin Pietersen gradually restored England’s supremacy in a stand of 94 for the fifth wicket.
Collingwood was the more dominant force, crunching boundaries in his typically forthright style.
He passed fifty just before lunch and Pietersen joined him to the landmark after the break.� But just as the pair was threatening total domination, Taylor brought back memories of his Sabina Park heroics with two prized wickets in three balls.
Pietersen, who hit four fours off 132 balls in 51, dragged a delivery back onto his stumps while Andrew Flintoff fell for a duck as one kept low and sent the all-rounder’s off and middle stumps scampering.
At 405 for six, the West Indies sensed they could limit England but Matt Prior (39) and Stuart Broad (44) formed assured associations with the now-fluent Collingwood, each adding 62 with the century-maker.
Prior eventually fell just before tea, providing left-arm medium pacer Brendan Nash with his first test wicket. The glove-man lofted a catch to deepish mid-off after striking six fours off 61 deliveries.
Broad was equally adventurous in 44 off 55 balls. The left-hander smacked six fours and a disdainful straight six off the disappointing Daren Powell before he edged a drive at Ryan Hinds’ left-arm spin.
In between, the 32-year-old Collingwood arrived at his eighth test century off 186 balls.� The Durham man was out trying to force the pace, caught at deep midwicket off Hinds, signaling the declaration. His eighth test hundred, and third off the West Indies, spanned 202 balls, was spiced with 14 boundaries and lasted five hours.
The West Indies were left an hour to bat and Gayle counter-attacked against a probing new ball attack.� The powerful left-hander smacked five fours and a six before a leaden-footed drive in Harmison’s first over was swatted straight to mid-off. The Jamaican had already hooked the pacer for six and sliced him for four in the same over.� Devon Smith was unbeaten 10 and defiant night-watchman Powell two not out at the close.
