Streetwise West Indies hold their own

This was a bar-room brawl of a day. Neither side took a step back. Blood was spilled early, when a nasty bumper from Andrew Flintoff split the chin of the flinching Pedro Collins. Much of the crowd revelled in the spectacle, boozing hard and baying harder in support of England. And, in the best tradition of bare-knuckle fighting, the weaker side, West Indies, quite properly used all means to keep themselves in contention. They ended an impossibly long day - seven hours 44 minutes - 162 ahead with five England wickets to take.

West Indies were vastly better than during the last Test, at Edgbaston. There, a dispirited side was crushed by 256 runs and belittled - inadvertently or otherwise - by Brian Lara, who spent much of the game with his head in his hands, or gazing toward the heavens after another mistake by his team, resigned even if not resigning.

By contrast, today offered hope to all West Indians. Two key passages set the tone. First, Carlton Baugh grabbed hold of the match before lunch. After resuming at 275 for 6, West Indies reached an impressive 395 for 9 at the break. The crack of Baugh's bat as he cover-drove his way to 68 proved a suitable accompaniment to a bruising session, and his innings was worth more than the scoreboard hinted: from the start he deliberately held up England's bowlers, seeking whom they could devour on a pitch which had sweated under the covers.

Long conferences between overs, walks to square leg: we're in charge and we'll play at our pace, seemed to be his message. England's seamers, perhaps irked by this, and by three cover-driven fours when Stephen Harmison pitched it up early, dropped short and forgot the stumps. Runs flowed at five an over. Round one: West Indies.

Immediately after lunch Lara won round two as well. Before the break Collins ducked into a Flintoff bouncer and retired hurt: he was due to resume, with eight stitches in his chin, afterwards. But as England stood expectantly in the field, Lara declared, without his batsmen ever emerging. Officially Collins had decided at the last moment he was too sore to bat; unofficially he was never going to return. Opening batsmen like time to prepare mentally. By letting England assume they would be fielding after lunch, Lara wrong-footed them. Marcus Trescothick fell to the second ball of the innings, which may or may have been coincidence. Soon England were 40 for 3. Again, West Indies had refused to be dictated to.

After lunch they added rigorous regime to the ruses. Throughout a partnership of 177 between Andrew Strauss and Graham Thorpe, they bowled straight and ran in hard. Eventually they were rewarded with two late wickets. It had been a day of smart hard cricket, reminiscent of England under Nasser Hussain. But despite West Indies playing very well, England were 223 for 5 at the close and almost on level terms. That was a measure of how much of the hard path to true competitiveness West Indies still have to travel.