BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):

A succession of questionable leg before wicket decisions using the experimental umpire review system overshadowed a brilliant hundred from Ramnaresh Sarwan that put West Indies on the verge of saving the follow-on in the fourth Test against England yesterday.

Four decisions were referred for a second opinion from video umpire Daryl Harper and three of them resulted in the highly contentious dismissals of Devon Smith, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and Brendan Nash that left West Indies 398 for five, replying to England's first innings total of 600 for six declared, at the close on the third day at Kensington Oval.

But the three questionable decisions threatened to spoil the hard work of Sarwan, who batted all day for his third hundred of the series, a purposeful, undefeated 184 from 200 balls that was the cornerstone of the West Indies' batting.

Sarwan, whose scores were 107, 94, and 106 in his previous three innings in the series, shared vital stands of 108 for the second wicket with Smith, 122 for the fourth wicket with compatriot Chanderpaul, 53 for the fifth wicket with Brendan Nash on his way to his 14th Test hundred, and 64 - unbroken - with Denesh Ramdin.

Sarwan achieved the milestone from 160 balls about an hour after lunch, when he drove Graeme Swann to mid-on and took off like a hare for a single to tumultuous applause from a near capacity crowd.

But the questionable decisions eroded his hard labour and seemed to so incense West Indies that following Nash's dismissal, their coach John Dyson accompanied by their manager Omar Khan apparently trekked to see ICC Match Referee Allan Hurst and had a near 20-minute chat with him.

Unreasonable

No details of the conversation have been released, but it would not be unreasonable to think that they too, like many West Indies fans watching in the ground or on television around the World, had questions about the interpretation of the use of the so-called "referral system".

It meant that Smith scored 55 - his fourth half-century in Tests, Chanderpaul showed signs of his best form in 70, and Nash batted fluently for 33.

Swann was England's best bowler with three wickets for 92 runs from 34 overs, and James Anderson snared two for 79 from 20 overs.

England 1st Innings

600 for six dec.

West Indies 1st Innings

(overnight 85 for one)

D.S. Smith lbw b Swann 55

C. Gayle lbw b Anderson 6

R. Sarwan not out 184

R. Hinds lbw b Swann 15

S. Chanderpaul lbw b Anderson 70

B. Nash lbw b Swann 33

+D. Ramdin not out 25

Extras (b4, lb3, nb3) 10

TOTAL (5 wkts, 109 overs) 398

J. Taylor, S. Benn, D. Powell, F. Edwards to bat

Fall of wickets: 1-13 (Gayle), 2-121 (Smith), 3-159 (Hinds), 4-281 (Chanderpaul), 5-334 (Nash)

Bowling: Anderson 20-3-79-2; Sidebottom 22-2-83-0; Broad 21-2-86-0; Swann 34-7-92-3; Pietersen 5-1-18-0; Bopara 7-0-33-0 (nb3)

Position: West Indies trail by 202 runs with five first innings wickets standing

Umpires: Aleem Dar, R. Tiffin, TV Replays: D. Harper, Reserve: C. Duncan

Match Referee: A. Hurst