Cricket: England surrender series initiative by failing to finish job

England 214 & 258 West Indies 191 & 282-7 West Indies win by 3 wkts

When it came the final blow, a neatly punched four by Carl Hooper off Phil Tufnell, was out of all proportion to its overall effect. By snatching an improbable victory from England here at the Queen's Park Oval, the West Indies will have gone close to breaking their opponents for the remainder of this series. There may be four Tests to play, but Michael Atherton's team will find a very different opponent when they lock horns again on Friday.

No one understands the danger of a reinvigorated West Indies side more than the England captain. But if the enormity of losing a Test they should have won had already sunk in, he was not showing it in the immediate aftermath.

"For three days we played much the better cricket," Atherton said. "But we've only ourselves to blame. We didn't finish the job. It was a poor pitch, but it produced a great Test match."

Nothing binds these Caribbean Islands together more than beating the old imperial masters. After a miserable tour of Pakistan, and controversial new captain, they were ready to be beaten.

England should have done, but in the end a thrilling Test was won by the team putting together the highest stand.

Coming together on the fourth evening when the West Indies score was an unpromising 124 for 5, Hooper and the diminutive keeper, David Williams, set about chipping away at the 282 runs needed for victory. When they were parted 129 runs later, after Williams had edged Dean Headley to slip, all but the final walk to the summit of Mt Improbable had been made.

For Hooper, the West Indies vice-captain, this was the most important innings of his career and certainly one of the greatest in the last innings of a Test. With a mixture of poise and controlled aggression, he held his side together when previously they would have disintegrated. It is some measure on this pitch that he was rarely inconvenienced during his knock.

Finishing unbeaten and just six runs short of what would have been a deserving ninth Test century, Hooper at last appears to have come of age and his all consuming effort here may just open the floodgates for the remainder of the series.

But if no praise is high enough for Hooper, then Williams deserves more than a passing mention in despatches.

In recent years, there has been a Trinidadian formula for calculating a West Indies total: take the score when Brian Lara is out and add 40. But, if that is typical of the parochial uncharitability of this Caribbean island the obviously had not reckoned on Williams, the other local lad playing here.

With a previous Test best of 48, Williams was instrumental in giving the West Indies challenge momentum. By taking the odd calculated risk and feeding voraciously off anything loose, Williams rattled England's bowlers who struggled to find the right line and length to this tiny man, who was twice reprieved yesterday, as well as surviving several close lbw appeals.

The first of those chances came with the very first ball of the morning when Angus Fraser dropped the keeper off his own bowling. It was by no means a straightforward chance, but it was not that difficult either, as Williams, on his overnight score of 36, chipped the ball back down the pitch.

Poor Fraser. There is no harsher epithet in cricket than the one that says "you are only as good as your last spell" and the Middlesex seamer, who had taken 11 for 110 in the match, went from champ to chump in the space of one ball.

Fraser's mood was not improved when, with West Indies on 207 for 5, Russell dropped the same batsman down the leg-side.

On their last three tours to the Caribbean, England have thrice been denied victory on this ground. On each occasion Fraser has been in the side, but if he is used to disappointment, losing when you have just taken your best-ever figures, must be a heartbreaking feeling.

The alarming thing from England's point of view, was that a bowler, overlooked for 18 Tests, was virtually fighting a lone battle on a pitch, which although slowing by the day, was unpredictable throughout.

The strike-force of Andy Caddick and Dean Headley, were disappointing, and although Headley took two wickets when Atherton belatedly threw the ball to him yesterday, neither found the consistency required when pitches become sluggish.

Caddick, in fact has been made to look something of a charlie. Before this match, he told reporters that he could match anything Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh could offer in the fast bowling stakes. As they finished with eight and four wickets respectively, and Caddick ended the game with 0 for 99, he would do better to keep any future delusions of grandeur to himself.

Tufnell, who in partnership with Caddick was instrumental in the destruction of Australia at The Oval last August, was also disappointing.

On a worn surface that offered some turn, he was too quick to resort to the negative ploy of bowling over the wicket into the bowlers' footholes. Hooper may be a fine player of spin, but he was just as much prey to the pressure of the tense situation as Tufnell, who can sometimes be too easily cowed by a batsman's reputation.

Inevitably, with the England expected to win this Test once the final innings had started, the critical spotlight will once again seek out Atherton, who as captain, has won just four overseas Test matches from 22.

In fact he did little that was glaringly wrong. Unlike Lara, who had gambled by attacking England the previous morning, Atherton was fairly conservative in his field placings.

However, what he does lack as a leader is an empathy for those less mentally tough than himself; players such as Caddick and Tufnell, for instance.

One of the attractions of sport is that failure and success get magnified out of all proportion. Even so, it is the captain's job to keep perspective, raising those players that need it, while calming down the highly strung.

It is not an easy job to perform, and yet if England are to bounce back and provide a worthy challenge to the West Indies over the rest of the series, it is one Atherton must take on immediately.

QUEEN'S PARK OVAL scoreboard

Final day; England won toss

ENGLAND - First Innings 214 (N Hussain 61no, A J Stewart 50).

WEST INDIES - First Innings 191 (B C Lara 55; A R C Fraser 8-53).

ENGLAND - Second Innings 258 (A J Stewart 73; C E L Ambrose 5-52).

WEST INDIES - Second Innings

S L Campbell c Stewart b Headley 10

(14 min, 12 balls, 2 fours)

S C Williams c Crawley b Fraser 62

(169 min, 120 balls, 11 fours)

*B C Lara c Russell b Fraser 17

(71 min, 52 balls, 3 fours)

C L Hooper not out 94

(352 min, 203 balls, 10 fours)

S Chanderpaul c Thorpe b Tufnell 0

(10 min, 10 balls)

J C Adams c Stewart b Fraser 2

(9 min, 7 balls)

D Williams c Thorpe b Headley 65

(220 min, 172 balls, 7 fours)

C E L Ambrose c Russell b Headley 1

(7 min, 6 balls)

K C G Benjamin not out 6

(21 min, 16 balls)

Extras (b10, lb8, nb7) 25

Total (for 7, 440 min, 98.2 overs) 282

Fall: 1-10 (Campbell), 2-68 (Lara), 3-120 (S Williams), 4-121 (Chanderpaul), 5-124 (Adams), 6-253 (D Williams), 7-259 (Ambrose).

Bowling: Headley 16-2-68-3 (nb4) (5-0-30-1, 3-1-11-0, 4-0-12-0, 4-1-15- 2); Caddick 16-2-58-0 (nb3) (8-1-28-0, 2-0-12-0, 4-1-7-0, 2-0-11-0); Tufnell 34.2-9-69-1 (nb2) (10-3-24-0, 2-1-1-0, 14-5-20-1, 2-0-5-0, 6.2-0-19-0); Fraser 27-8-57-3 (7-2-19-1, 7-2-7-2, 8-3-10-0, 4-1-19-0, 1-0-2-0); Hollioake 5-0-12-0 (2-0-4-0, 3-0-8-0).

Progress: Fourth day (Sunday): Lunch: 29-1 (S Williams 13, Lara 5) 6 overs. 50: 58 min, 12 overs. 100: 132 min, 29.4 overs. Tea: 104-2 (S Williams 58, Hooper 13) 34 overs. 150: 241 min, 54.2 overs. Bad light stopped play 5.36pm. Close: 181-5 (Hooper 40, D Williams 36) 67 overs. Fifth day (yesterday): 200: 353 min, 79.5 overs. New ball taken, 81 overs, 206-5. 250: 409 min, 91.2 overs. Lunch: 259-7 (Hooper 83) 93.3 overs. West Indies won at 1.06pm.

S Williams' 50: 112 min, 70 balls, 10 fours. Hooper's 50: 251 min, 152 balls, 4 fours. D Williams' 50: 179 min, 139 balls, 5 fours.

WEST INDIES WON BY THREE WICKETS

Umpires: S A Bucknor and S Venkataraghavan.

TV replay umpire: C E Cumberbatch.

Match referee: B N Jarman.