Andrew Strauss and his England team were today left with nothing more than a huge feeling of frustration and a bunch of what ifs' to contemplate after narrowly failing to square their Test series against the West Indies.

A brilliant last burst by Strauss's bowlers almost engineered a sensational equalising victory in Port of Spain but the home side clung on, eight wickets down, to earn the draw which gave Caribbean cricket its most encouraging result for six years.

England, though, will know they only have themselves to blame for losing to the West Indies for the first time in more than a decade. And Strauss must wonder whether a bit more boldness with his declarations in Antigua and Trinidad might have paid dividends.

In a series that produced 17 individual centuries, England caved in hopelessly during their second innings in Jamaica to be routed for 51.

“That has ultimately cost us the series,” said Strauss. “That was a freaky situation where we played badly and we weren't switched on.

“We have to understand it is in those small margins which Test matches are won and lost and series are won and lost. We can't afford to be on the receiving end of those sessions.”

Yet, although England were rightly critical of pitches generally too flat to produce a proper contest between bat and ball, they had their chances to win the Third and Fifth Tests before running out of time.

Antigua saw last pair Daren Powell and Fidel Edwards survive 10 overs. That should have been long enough to part two tailenders but wasn't, an outcome which put the timing of Strauss's declaration under the spotlight. As for yesterday, former England all-rounder Ian Botham was not alone in urging England's new captain to declare before lunch rather than during the interval. “Pathetic” and “weak” were among the words used by Botham to describe the timing of a decision which left the visitors with just 66 overs to take 10 wickets and challenged the West Indies to score 240 runs.

But even then, with paceman Jimmy Anderson and spinner Graeme Swann outstanding and Monty Panesar back to form, the West Indies almost lost.

England had 20 balls to capture the last two wickets but Denesh Ramdin and Edwards stood firm.
“I am very proud of the way the team played, just dejected that we were not able to force a result,” said Strauss, who expressed no regrets about not giving his attack a little more time.

But he admitted: “When we got them five down, taking wickets took a little bit longer after that and we felt we were just behind where we wanted to be.

“We got close but we don't have a Shoaib Akhtar who can blast people out, or a Muttiah Muralitharan, so we have to be realistic. To get them eight down on a very flat pitch was an outstanding effort from our bowlers.”

England, who are about to be rejoined in the Caribbean by Andrew Flintoff following treatment at home on his hip injury, must now try to get their heads around a set of limited overs internationals, beginning with a Twenty20 match in Trinidad on Sunday.