England Run Out Of Time

After dominating the hastily arranged 3rd test against the West Indies for all five days England will feel they did not get the result they deserved. They have a point but also there were critical times when they did not help themselves. They allowed the game to drift instead of adopting a positive approach and using an aggressive declaration.

Deciding not to enforce the follow-on was understandable given the illness to Harmison and the niggling injury that Flintoff had picked up. England needed to score quick runs second time around especially considering there would be some time lost to rain on the final day.

Sending James Anderson in as a night watchman works in some situations but was a counter-productive tactic on this occasion. The victory target of 500 for the Windies to win was pretty pointless as no team has managed such a score in the history of the game anyway. It was not just the extra runs that hurt England it was the fall of quick wickets and the farcical sight of Flintoff batting with an injury.

It will take quite an effort from England to come back and win this series with only two test matches left. Flintoff will probably miss the next test at the very least so there will be an enforced change. Harmison has not made the impact everyone was hoping for which has lead to some labelling him a spent force but overseas tours have never been his strong point.

England was unlucky and could not have come any closer to the win than they did. Strauss will learn from the experience and perhaps may not be so cautious or defensive minded the next time he has to declare. Sometimes you have to dangle the carrot rather than bat the opposition completely out of the game.

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