According to cricinfo.com England made 546 runs before declaring its innings. West Indies reached 92 for 1 in 19 overs, with Chris Gayle cruising on 49 not out, and is now just three days away from securing its first series win in almost five years.
The pair of Collingwood and Prior came together in the first hour at 268 for 4 following the swift demises of both Strauss and Owais Shah, who ran himself out for 33, only three balls after resuming the innings he had aborted on the first afternoon. With Prior pushed up to No 6 to accommodate the extra bowler, West Indies briefly sensed that its opportunity was knocking. But they were swiftly knocked back by a fine counter-punching performance. Never afraid to put bat to ball when offered sufficient width, Prior peppered the arc between cover and third man with a selection of cuts and drives. He struck five fours in his first 24 runs.
At the other end, Collingwood was his typical steady self. Less flamboyant than his partner, but no less effective, he picked off the bulk of his runs with clips and pulls into the leg side. He took his time to get going, which he eventually did by middling an Edwards short ball through midwicket, but by the time Gayle ordered his team into a full retreat, he was in full flow. Two fours in consecutive overs from the innocuous Brendan Nash rushed him through the nineties, and he coolly chiseled a leg-stump delivery round the corner to bring up his fourth hundred in his last 12 innings for England.
West Indies did at least show a modicum of intent at the beginning and end of its day´s fielding. Strauss, who resumed on 139 not out, added only three runs in the morning before stepping across his stumps to be bowled around his legs by Edwards, while Shah — back in the middle after a painful attack of cramp — squandered his opportunity with a suicidal single to the fit-again substitute, Dwayne Bravo, at midwicket. And then, at the opposite extreme, there was Baker, who went wicketless in his only previous Test in Dunedin earlier this year, but finally opened his account with two late strikes — first Collingwood for 161, then Stuart Broad, who slogged a length ball to long-off shortly before the declaration.
Gayle was one away from his half-century at the close, having slammed Graeme Swann for two sixes in his first over and Monty Panesar for first-ball four through the covers. Panesar did strike in his penultimate over of the day when Devon Smith played down the wrong line and was bowled, but with Ramnaresh Sarwan still waiting to make his appearance, West Indies ended the day on a higher note.
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