Shiv in the firing line

A drawn Twenty20 series and a win each in the first two NatWest oneday internationals turns today's match at Trent Bridge into a virtual cup final, with England knowing defeat will bring a hollow ring to their insistence that limited-overs cricket now means just as much to them as the Test game.

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To earn the victory that will at least suggest England have made some progress after the ignominy of the World Cup they must do what has seemed beyond them for this entire sodden and forgettable tour — find a way of getting out Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

Such has been the Guyanese veteran's domination over England in both Test and one-day cricket that West Indies have again patched up a batsman whose catalogue of injuries have seen him starting to resemble a long cherished but tatty teddy bear that a child refuses to throw away.

Chris Gayle would carry Chanderpaul on to the field today if he had to, with instructions to defy England just one more time.

Collingwood, whose ups and downs so far against the only major cricketing force below England in the ICC one-day rankings have shown quite how much needs to be done under his captaincy, insists that plans to dismiss Chanderpaul remain intact.

"We weren't too far off getting him out at an early stage on Wednesday, and if we keep applying pressure we'll make the breakthrough," said Collingwood of a batsman who has been dismissed by England just four times this entire tour.

"In the middle overs at Edgbaston he was actually very slow, so if we could get him out then it would be perfect because hopefully West Indies won't have someone to bat around."

Collingwood admitted England have looked deep into their analyst's archives to discover how Chanderpaul, whose unbeaten 116 at Edgbaston was integral to West Indies squaring the one-day series, has been conquered in the past.

He said somewhat cryptically: "I wouldn't say we know the areas he is weak in, but we know his weakest areas. Hopefully, he will make a misjudgment or we will produce a jaffa to get him out.

"People's techniques change and people's approaches to different situations and conditions change as well. Chanderpaul is in such a rich vein of form that his confidence is up and he is very difficult to get out."

England will be intrigued to see whether Chanderpaul, who has not been spotted in the field too often on this tour, will be able to play a full part at Trent Bridge rather than just bat for hours and then retire to the treatment room, as is his wont.

West Indies were able to use a fielding substitute for him at Edgbaston because they insisted that he had suffered a new injury, to an ankle, and not a recurrence of the knee problem that has had to be carefully managed throughout the trip. "If he's fit to bat he'll be fit to field," insisted West Indies coach David Moore.

One bowler likely to be given one last crack at subduing Chanderpaul is Jimmy 'The Bruiser' Anderson, who was affected by an injury to his right bicep in practice yesterday that England insisted was certainly not sustained by hitting Runako Morton.

Anderson, fined around £700 for shoulder-barging Morton during Wednesday's defeat, should be fit to try to not only prove that his overly aggressive approach was an aberration but that he has not completely lost his marbles by picking a fight with a man whose 'previous' suggests he should not be messed with.

Did Anderson know about Morton's chequered past, which includes being involved in a stabbing incident with his cousin, before taking him on?

"I'm not sure Jimmy will be doing it again but whether that's because he'll get fined again or he's heard about Morton's past I'm not sure," said Collingwood. "I didn't expect him to be fined as much as he was but that's the ICC's decision and we have to stick by that."

West Indies' improvement in the one-day leg of their tour can be put down to the acclimatisation process and the impact of Gayle's captaincy.

They know that a series victory, coming soon after the announcement that their Texan benefactor, Allen Stanford, is planning to pump some more of his riches into their cricket, would enable them to erase partially the memories of an embarrassing 3-0 Test capitulation.

Gayle remains in serious hot water with the West Indies board for his justifiable outburst against them at the start of his captaincy.

But a man who, when asked to name the coolest man in cricket says simply "myself", is far too philosophical to allow off-field distractions to affect him.

Victory for West Indies today will make it very hard for the board to censure him further on his return to Jamaica.

Collingwood, however, will be desperate to start his reign with the series victory that often accompanies a change at the top. The stakes are high for a match which might again have more than the usual amount of edge to it.

ENGLAND (probable): Cook, Prior (keeper), Bell, Pietersen, Shah, Collingwood (captain), Mascarenhas, Broad, Sidebottom, Panesar, Anderson.

WEST INDIES (probable): Gayle (captain), Devon Smith, Chanderpaul, Samuels, Morton, Dwayne Smith, Bravo, Ramdin, Sammy, Powell, Edwards.

Umpires: Mark Benson (England) and Brian Jerling (South Africa).

TV — live: Sky Sports 1 (from 10.0).