West Indies batsman Ridley Jacobs walks from the wicket after being caught by Graham Thorpe off Matthew Hoggard (partly hidden) during play on yesterday's final day of the first Test in the NPower series, at Lord's.
-Dellmar photoTony Becca, Contributing Editor
LONDON:
THE WEST Indies dream of a winning start in the NPower four-match Test series ended in disappointment at Lord's yesterday when they lost the opening Test by 210 runs, shortly before tea on the fifth and final day.
Entering the day on 114 for three and needing another 364 runs to win the match, or more realistically needing to bat out the day in order to save it, the West Indies were dismissed for 267.
Their remaining seven wickets fell for 153 runs in 211 minutes and 51.2 overs, with a defiant and sometimes brilliant Shivnarine Chanderpaul left stranded on 97 and three runs short of a second century in the match.
FINAL SCORE
Final score: England 568 and 325 for five declared; West Indies 416 and 267.
The loss, their second in a row at Lord's and their seventh in 17 matches at the famous ground, left the West Indies one-down in the series.
Like England in 2000, the visitors will have to come from behind if they hope to win or draw the series and in doing one or the other, break England's run of two series victories in a row.
In 2000, England lost the first Test at Edgbaston and then won the second at Lord's, drew the third at Old Trafford, won the fourth at Headingley, and won the fifth at The Oval.
In the gloom of defeat, against the biting spin of left-hander Ashley Giles who preened himself with figures of five for 81 off 35 overs to tick off the fourth five-wicket haul of his career and the first at home, there was one bright light for the West Indies - and that was the batting of Chanderpaul.
A SUPERB 128 NOT OUT
After scoring a superb 128 not out in the first innings, Chanderpaul, now accustomed to fighting out of the corner, batted undefeated once again, faced 152 deliveries in 231 minutes, and after a cautious beginning, after gathering his runs through delicate strokes off his legs into the onside and through careful pushes into the offside and dabs past gully, reeled off some glorious strokes towards the end.
The majority of his 18 boundaries came as he took charge during partnerships with Pedro Collins and Fidel Edwards, while he made a bid for glory.
FALL SHORT
In the end, the Guyanese left-hander was one, probably just one, shot short of becoming the second batsman to score two separate centuries in the match, only the second Guyanese behind Rohan Kanhai to score two separate centuries in a Test match, only the ninth West Indian to score two separate centuries in a Test match, and after George Headley in 1939, Graham Gooch in 1990, and Michael Vaughan the previous day, only the fourth to do so at Lord's.
With light drizzles in the early morning threatening to rob England of a shot at victory, the West Indies started their bid for survival with everything, apart from rain, depending on captain Brian Lara and Chanderpaul who resumed on 11 and four respectively, and for a while, on a pitch that, but for the foot marks before the left-handers at the pavilion end, was still good for batting.
