England struggle as umpire strikes back

Whether it was Michael Vaughan in charge against South Africa, Kevin Pietersen leading in India or Strauss calling the shots in the Caribbean, England have struggled to make enough runs and take enough wickets to dominate regularly. Now they have another uphill battle in the First Test at Sabina Park with the home side sitting pretty on 160 for one in reply to 318 all out.

England can try to comfort themselves by pointing out that it all could have been so different but for the experimental referral ruling which meant that Ramnaresh Sarwan, given out lbw yesterday to Steve Harmison after scoring just five runs, was still batting and unbeaten on 74 last night.

Umpire Tony Hill thought Sarwan was out, West Indies' No3 appealed against the decision and, after nearly four minutes of deliberation, TV official Daryl Harper advised Hill that a change of verdict would be in order on the grounds of height.

England had just won a referral, against Devon Smith, who was ultimately sent packing after initially surviving Andrew Flintoff's lbw shout.

But the Sarwan incident proved costly and might even prove to be a decisive moment in the game.
In truth, though, England have put themselves into difficulty by failing to make the most of batting first and then, yesterday at least, being unable to match West Indian bowling efforts on a slow pitch. Reaching 318 after being 94 for four may look like a good recovery. But Strauss's men should not have slipped to that sorry state in the first place with the captain, opening partner Alastair Cook and Paul Collingwood all guilty of poor shots.

Then Pietersen gave it away after batting so brilliantly, Flintoff fell in tame fashion following a battling knock and adding only 82 runs for the last five wickets yesterday was not what the skipper ordered.

As for England's work with the ball so far, Flintoff was once again the pick of the pack yesterday — and his terrific duel with Chris Gayle, who started by hitting the all-rounder over long on for six, should be the first of many riveting contests between two.

But an unbroken stand of 142 between Gayle and Sarwan left Strauss scratching his head, especially with Monty Panesar struggling to pose the same sort of problems caused by fellow left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn, who struck four times in the first innings.

Much of the talk concerned those umpire referral rulings, though.

"It's brilliant when it goes your way, you're punching the air but when it goes against you, it's not so great," reflected wicketkeeper Matt Prior.

Despite benefiting, Sarwan was unconvinced about the referral system. "I'm not a big fan but I will take it," he said. "There was luck on my side."