Just for one more wicket

What a match. When everyone arrived at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium last Friday, you could have scarcely believed the turn of events that would progress over the next few days. In the end, we were treated to a fantastic Test match, culminating in a brilliant last day in which England tried and tried and ultimately came up short.

One can point to Andrew Flintoff's hip injury, which, despite his lion-hearted, heroic effort, slightly hindered his bowling. However, to say that it lost England the game is inaccurate. They bossed the game and the only time they let the West Indies get on top was the mammoth partnership between the high scoring Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul. You can argue that having dominated the game and then not been able to win it shows England for the slightly weakened force they may well be nowadays but in the wake of the Jamaica shambles, the performance was pretty impressive.

Particular highlights? Graeme Swann's display in both innings was highly impressive and was exactly what England fans have been praying for from Monty Panesar in the last few years. His five-wicket haul was the focal point of England's first attempt at bowling to the Windies and was agonisingly close to picking up that final wicket in the dying moments of the match.

Stuart Broad also impressed. He's picked up Chanderpaul's wicket every time he has batted this series and bowled an inspired spell with the new ball on the final day. He batted brilliantly for a number eight in the first innings and Johnathan Agnew on the BBC website was moved to say that he thinks this series could be the making of Broad at international level. Andrew Strauss played a quite superb innings on the first day and was well supported by Owais Shah, Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood. Alistair Cook played his part too although, infuriatingly, he was out in the 50's in both innings of the match.

All in all, England can be proud of their effort. Yes, the inability to pick up the last wicket and win the game was both heart-breaking and disappointing but the whole five days were a good way to bounce back from the shambles of 51 all out the week previous and Strauss will know a lot more about his team and their character. Both teams move on to Barbados next week for the fourth test.

(The Corridor, 2009)