sport

West Indies Deny England In Antigua

Strauss - close but no cigar.

England failed in their race against time to dismiss West Indies as the third Test ended in a nailbiting draw at the Antigua Recreation Ground.

Andrew Strauss' team remain 1-0 behind in the Test series after West Indies' last pair Daren Powell and Fidel Edwards negotiated 10 overs.

West Indies closed on 370 for nine, with four scheduled overs remaining, when the offer of bad light by umpires Daryl Harper and Rudi Koertzen was taken.

After setting their hosts an improbable 503-run target, England entered the final day requiring seven wickets.

Despite dominating this hastily-arranged match, however, they could not finish the job.

Held up for what seemed an eternity by overnight pair Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and hampered by early morning rain, which snipped one-and-a-quarter hours off the start of the fifth day, England toiled away on what remained a good surface despite limited preparation.

Two successes apiece for pace bowler James Anderson and spinner Graeme Swann post tea raised hopes.

But England lacked the cutting edge to finish the job as Powell and Edwards displayed tremendous powers of defiance.

Things had looked up when Swann took his match haul to seven as left-hander Brendan Nash's indecision in playing a shot at a delivery from around the wicket cost him dear.

That incision into the middle-order reduced England's equation to four wickets in just over two hours of daylight.

Anderson then claimed a first success of the match when Jerome Taylor turned a delivery tailing into the stumps straight to midwicket, where substitute Ian Bell, on briefly for Andrew Flintoff, tumbled to take the catch.

And another delivery angled into a right-handed batsman caused further damage as Denesh Ramdin played on at 4.50pm local time.

During a tense final hour, with the game in the balance, giant left-hander Sulieman Benn flirted with disaster when he scampered through for a single after being forced on to the back foot by Steve Harmison.

When Owais Shah's shy from square-leg missed with Benn a yard-and-a-half short of his ground, England might have thought their chance was slipping.

But in the very next over, following a drinks break, Swann put the tourists on the brink when the third leg-before appeal in quick succession was answered in the affirmative by South African Koertzen.

Benn's departure left England with more than half an hour to claim one more wicket.

But desperation was setting in when, with the light fading, Strauss asked Flintoff to send down a third spell of the day.

There was no fairytale ending, however, and after failing to separate the 10th-wicket duo in six balls from the pavilion end, Flintoff was forced to give way to Kevin Pietersen's off-spin after a ruling by the umpires that facing the fast men in murky light was unfair.

Stuart Broad struck twice in quick succession with the second new ball to enhance England's victory bid during the afternoon session.

Fast bowler Broad removed overnight pair Sarwan and Chanderpaul inside a 20-minute spell after breaking the marathon 37-over wait for an inroad today.

Sarwan had his off-stump uprooted by a delivery which nipped back and kept low, shortly after celebrating his second hundred of the series.

Then Chanderpaul was undone by one which angled into him from around the wicket and left him off the pitch to take the outside edge.

Broad's ability to create chances proved crucial and he had clearly unsettled Chanderpaul, who hooked perilously close to a sprawling Steve Harmison at long leg moments before departing.

With the adrenaline undoubtedly pumping, Broad also knocked out Ramdin's off-stump when the batsman pulled away at the last minute, unprepared to face his opponent.

It took England until the 37th over today for a success as not even the talismanic Flintoff could inspire a breakthrough.

All-rounder Flintoff, hampered by a hip injury which is serious enough to require a scan tomorrow, sent down an initial spell of 5-1-9-0 from the Factory Road end after lunch.

Flintoff, who had an anti-inflammatory injection in his right hip on Tuesday, was unable to charge in with his usual gusto but did work up more of a pace after he re-emerged for another six-over burst immediately after tea, grimacing through the pain as he did so.

Sarwan completed his second hundred of the series in the first over of the second new ball when he guided an 11th boundary to third man off Anderson.

Their patience was emphasised by left-hander Chanderpaul going 34 deliveries in the 40s without scoring.

Strauss' team entered the fifth morning favourites to win and level the Test series at 1-1.

However, their efforts were delayed by 75 minutes by early morning rain.

The wet weather which blew in to the island this morning prevented play resuming at the scheduled 10am start, and in a bid to make up time lunch was put back to 12.30pm.

Sarwan, whose previous scores in this series have been 107 and 94, was in determined mood once more.