A barmy over even by Steve Harmison standards, and an old halfway line, has put a real spring in England's step today as they attempt to level their Test series against the West Indies.

Harmison would have been watching from the dressing room, not striking for gold on a transformed football field, had the Antigua match gone ahead as scheduled at the Sir Viv Richards Stadium. But switching venues because bowlers were sinking in the sand threw Harmy' a lifeline — and he has repaid captain Andrew Strauss by capturing the precious wicket of Chris Gayle.

Mind you, Harmison was in danger of being blasted from the attack at the Recreation Ground until his fourth legitimate delivery dismissed Gayle.

The dynamic opener hooked Harmison clean out of the ground and pulled him for another boundary before slapping a third ferocious shot to mid-off where Jimmy Anderson held a head-high catch. Add three no-balls and the bowler who once launched an Ashes series by sending his first delivery straight to second slip had figures of 1-0-13-1.

Harmison was only recalled for this week's hastily-arranged Third Test, after being dropped for the quickly abandoned Second, because England thought his extra pace and bounce would be useful on an under-prepared pitch. So far, so good then, with the West Indies resuming today at 55 for one in reply to 566 for nine declared.

As is often the case, though, the visitors' success in the field last night was at least half due to Andrew Flintoff — and a halfway line.

Flintoff so ruffled Gayle with a typically hostile burst that the left-hander decided to thrash his way out of trouble. Twice he succeeded against Harmison but then paid the price.

Halfway line? Groundstaff at the Rec could not remove an old football pitch marking that runs across the batting strip and which, if hit, can make the ball either scuttle through low or lift alarmingly.

Flintoff knows about it, having been cleaned up yesterday for a second- ball duck by the one virtually unplayable delivery in England's innings, from Jerome Taylor, which rattled the stumps barely a third of the way up.

The line had nothing to do with Harmison's success. But Flintoff seemed to locate it a couple of times and that played a part in putting uncertainty into Gayle's mind.

“It's difficult because if you're consistently hitting that area the ball is misbehaving a little bit,” said Paul Collingwood, who made 113.

“But the other parts of the pitch are playing pretty well. Short balls are going through pretty quickly but the more you can hit those areas where the halfway line is then the more you can extract inconsistent bounce. We hope we can home in on that. It seems to be Freddie's length and we all know how accurately Freddie can bowl.”

Collingwood saved his Test career with a century against South Africa last August. He hit another hundred in India before Christmas but two failures in Jamaica at the start of this series again put him under pressure.

Having survived a couple of close shaves early yesterday, Collingwood comfortably outscored a subdued Kevin Pietersen before being forced back into his shell by the loss of KP and Flintoff in the space of three deliveries.

Collingwood was not to be denied his eighth Test century, however, and breezy knocks from Matt Prior, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann meant England progressed smoothly enough. Then they were able to set about making life uncomfortable for the West Indies.