England captain Andrew Strauss admitted failing to win the third Test against West Indies by the slenderest of margins felt like a defeat.

Strauss' team failed to dislodge West Indies' final pair Daren Powell and Fidel Edwards, despite having 34 minutes to do so, and were forced to settle for a draw seconds after 6pm on Thursday as the evening gloom closed in on the Antigua Recreation Ground.

"Obviously when you get so close to winning a Test match and don't make it over the final hurdle it's very difficult to take," Strauss said. "It almost feels like a defeat."

He added: "But once the emotion subsides, we can look back and see that we played some excellent cricket. I hope we have shifted the momentum away from West Indies in terms of the series - and if we keep getting better there is no reason why we can't go on and win the series."

England began the final day requiring seven wickets and in the knowledge that a 503-run victory target was beyond their opponents' capability.

Held up by wet weather for one-and-a-quarter hours, however, the portents for victory were not good - and centurion Ramnaresh Sarwan and fellow Guyanese batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul repelled the England threat until the 37th over of the day.

Despite Stuart Broad separating the fourth-wicket pair with the second new ball and a clatter of successes after tea, however, England were agonisingly short of levelling the series.

Strauss refused to grumble about the offer of light to the batsmen, after his side had toiled for 10 overs without success at the 10th-wicket pair.

"Test match wins do not come easily," he said. "On a wicket like this, even against numbers 10 and 11 it is hard to force the issue.

"We were hoping the pitch would deteriorate on day five. It didn't - in fact, if anything it got even flatter and died. We did pretty much everything we could do, and I cannot fault the bowlers. It was one of those days when things did not go to hand."