Andrew Strauss must somehow try to lift his shattered England team for the second time in a fortnight. And helping them to recover from the agony of Antigua will be his toughest task yet on an already drama-filled tour of the Caribbean.

Strauss's men left Jamaica last week bristling with determination to put matters right after their humiliating 51 all out in the First Test.

But today, as they head for Barbados, their failure to finish off West Indies in fading light last night will keep coming back to haunt them.

Kingston was a horrible defeat but the Antigua draw, with their opponents nine wickets down and last-pair Daren Powell and Fidel Edwards having survived 10 overs, will seem even worse.

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

Strauss's decision not to enforce the follow-on, leaving his fourth-day declaration until England were more than 500 ahead and even the curiously negative tactic of sending in a night-watchman, Jimmy Anderson, on the third evening will be debated long and hard.

But the captain insists he has no regrets and the truth of the matter is that England, whichever route they take, are making a nasty habit of being unable to close deals at the end of Tests seemingly there for the winning.

Three times last year alone — against South Africa at Lord's and Edgbaston and in India, at Chennai — teams led by either Michael Vaughan or Kevin Pietersen were unable to bowl out the opposition when well placed.

Now Strauss knows that sinking feeling. But he realises his side, handicapped by Andrew Flintoff's hip injury, could not have put even an ounce more effort into yesterday's attempt to level the series. And he believes, once the pain has subsided, they can win this series with victories in Barbados and Trinidad.

“Once the emotion subsides we can look back and see that we played some excellent cricket,” said Strauss.

“We 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.”

This tour began, a month ago, amid fears that England would lack spirit in the aftermath of the bust-up that cost both Pietersen and Peter Moores their jobs. Well, even if he achieves nothing else, Strauss has been able to banish that thought because his side could not have been more united yesterday as they battled for breakthroughs on a pitch refusing to crumble.

Flintoff, having pushed his sore right hip through 11 overs, somehow came back for another six deliveries just before the end. But even Freddie could not manage a fairytale finish
“Clearly he is not in full fettle by any means,” said Strauss. “But it was incredible to see him bowling at that pace with that injury. We did pretty much everything we could do, and I cannot fault the bowlers. On a pitch like that, even against numbers 10 and 11, it is hard to force the issue.”

Back in that glorious summer of 2005, England were able to claim a moral victory at Old Trafford when they had Australia nine down at the close. Last night, though, no one tried to dispute which team felt like winners after bad light stopped play with four overs remaining.

West Indian cricket had been having a dreadful week with the embarrassment of the abandoned Second Test and the fall-out from the Stanford affair. But, worryingly for England, there is a new steeliness about Chris Gayle's team.

“This game was a test of character,” said tailender Powell, who batted for more than an hour. And it was a test they passed.