West Indies rue their luck

Today was so very nearly West Indies' day. For a session and 10 overs, from just prior to lunch until just after tea, England were in something resembling freefall. From a position of invincibility they contrived to lose seven wickets for 41 in 11 overs, before stepping aside to allow Chris Gayle and Devon Smith to launch West Indies' reply with a blitzkrieg straight out of their NatWest Series win, on this very ground a fortnight ago.

But then it all went horribly wrong again, and by the close, England had reaffirmed their ascendancy. Few people doubted that they would - as statements of intent go, first-day scorelines of 391 for 2 are sure signs that a team means business. But the manner in which they were handed control of this Test leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

As commentators are irritatingly fond of telling us: "You make your own luck". What they really mean is, that when the chips are down, moments of misfortune stand out all the more prominently. And so, no matter how impressively Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Dwayne Bravo played in their late unbeaten 69-run stand, the image of the evening session was of Brian Lara sat distraught on the pavilion balcony, his pads still strapped to his knees. His controversial dismissal not only denied a packed Lord's crowd a contest to savour, it quite possibly wrecked any chance West Indies had of saving this game, and maybe even the series.

Prior to this match, Lara had suggested that England were so over-reliant on Steve Harmison that they lacked a Plan B. It was the sort of incendiary statement that, unless you're Glenn McGrath, invariably comes back to haunt a player. But lo and behold, Harmison was nowhere to be seen when the time came for the big reunion; he had already been banished from the attack by Gayle, who pasted him for four fours - two short balls, two full - in a single over. Although he will doubtless bounce back stronger tomorrow, it was a major psychological hurdle overcome.

It meant that England's Plan B - or lack of - had been laid bare rather sooner than they might have anticipated. Andrew Flintoff bowled some exploratory overs in yesterday evening's warm-down, but he was wisely left to recuperate, so Michael Vaughan turned instead to Ashley Giles, who by the close had grabbed more wickets in a single session that he had taken in the entire series in the Caribbean. He will not dwell on the fact that two of his scalps were dubious at best, but West Indies most certainly will.

Accidents will happen, however, and nobody knows that better at the moment than Mark Butcher. If he happened to be watching Channel 4's coverage today, he will probably have been scouring the adverts for the phone number of one of those "no win, no fee" ambulance-chasing lawyers' firms, so that he could sue that careless taxi-driver who inflicted him with whiplash on Monday evening. Robert Key has turned out to be even more of a pain in the neck for Butcher who, after 42 consecutive matches, is now probably resigning himself to a spell on the sidelines.

The most pleasing sight of the day for English fans, however, was the return to form of Vaughan. His 103 means that he has now scored centuries in each of his last two Test innings against West Indies, although those two scores have been bracketed by a sea of mediocre returns, so it is too early to rejoice just yet. But, following on from Nasser Hussain's matchwinning effort against New Zealand, it also means that an England No. 4 has scored a hundred in consecutive appearances at Lord's.

After years of underperforming at the home of cricket, England are finally discovering that a Lord's Test is an occasion to savour, and their returns are becoming all the more impressive. Maybe you do make your own luck after all.

Andrew Miller is assistant editor of Wisden Cricinfo.