PORT-OF-SPAIN,

Trinidad (CMC):

Brendan Nash and Shivnarine Chanderpaul hit half-centuries to help West Indies overcome their captain Chris Gayle unexpectedly retiring hurt, immediately after reaching his 10th Test hundred, in the fifth and final Digicel Test against England yesterday.

Nash was undefeated on 70 and Chanderpaul, hobbling through the latter stages of his innings, was unbeaten on 52, as West Indies, replying to England's first innings total of 546 for six declared, reached 349 for four at the close on the third day at Queen's Park Oval.

The pair have added 146 in an unbroken fifth wicket partnership to ease West Indies' pain, after Gayle limped off with a strained hamstring on exactly 100 and Lendl Simmons fell soon after for 24, to leave West Indies 203 for four about an hour and 15 minutes before tea.

Good partnership

Significantly, the Nash-Chander-paul partnership helped West Indies avoid the follow-on, which was formalised in the penultimate over of the day, when England keeper Matt Prior conceded four byes off Monty Panesar to send the number of byes in the innings to 30 and made extras the third-highest scorer in West Indies innings on 61.

Nash reached his 50 from 98 balls when he upper cut the ragged Amjad Khan over the slips and away to third man for his ninth four and Chanderpaul reached his 50 from 142 balls when he glanced Panesar to deep fine leg for two.

But concern earlier was fixed on Gayle when he pulled up after going for the single that carried him to his second hundred of the series.

Reaching the milestone

He reached the milestone from 161 balls when he turned a delivery from Stuart Broad into midwicket and Owais Shah misfielded. He ran through for the single and was fortunate that a throw from Graeme Swann missed the stumps at the bowler's end.

Gayle went down almost immediately after completing the run and belatedly acknowledged the applause of the crowd after spending a few seconds on his knees.

West Indies physiotherapist C.J. Clark was summoned and following a few agonising minutes of treatment on the field, Gayle eventually hobbled off to the anguish of scores of home team fans in the ground.

Gayle and Test newcomer Lendl Simmons had batted confidently to add 77 for the fourth wicket when the incident occurred.

In the morning session, the WestIndies also suffered a major setback when current batting hero Ramnaresh Sarwan was one of two wickets that fell to leave them on 176 for three at lunch.

After West Indies resumed from their overnight total of 92 for one, they lost Daren Powell for a duck and Sarwan for 14 in the first hour.

Gayle reached his 50 from 76 balls when he drove Swann to long off for a single and showed great restraint to anchor his side through the morning session. He lost compatriot Powell in the fourth over of the morning when a delivery from Broad bounced awkwardly on the West Indies nightwatchman and he fended a catch to gully.

Sarwan entered to rapturous applause reserved for the man whose name now graces the monstrous pavilion from where he emerged, but he never looked the confident player that had amassed 598 prior to this innings.

BOWLING ACTION

He got off the mark with a sweetly-timed shot through mid-wicket for four, but Paul Collingwood dropped him on 12 at slip off Panesar. But Sarwan, whose scores in the series before this were 107, 94, 106 and 291, did not make full use of his reprieve and was adjudged lbw playing across to become the first wicket in Tests for Amjad Khan, whose bowling action raised a few eyebrows around the ground.

West Indies were 118 for three and hometown boy Simmons, too, entered to a warm reception, and absorbed the pressure from England to help Gayle stabilise the innings until the home team was literally hamstrung by the unexpected exit of their captain.

Simmons was adjudged lbw to Panesar, as West Indies tried to recover from the unscripted challenge of losing Gayle.

Nash joined Chanderpaul and they batted typically dogged to see West Indies through to tea on 176 for three.

SILLY MOVE

Nash was dropped on 19 just before the break when silly point fielder Alastair Cook failed to hold a bat-pad chance off Panesar.

He was also fortunate to survive an lbw appeal from Panesar when he was 22, which television replays suggested umpire Russell Tiffin should have given.

After tea, Nash and Chanderpaul batted the West Indies out of danger and enhanced their chances of at least earning a draw in the Test which would be enough for them to secure a series victory over England for the first time in 11 years and their first series victory over a side above them in the world rankings for six years.

West Indies lead the five-Test series 1-0, following an innings and 23-run victory in the opening Test at Sabina Park in Jamaica, where they bowled England out for their third-lowest total in Tests of 51.

This was followed by the aborted second Test at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground in Antigua and drawn Tests at the Antigua Recreation Ground and Kensington Oval.

ENGLAND 1st Innings

(P. Collingwood 161, A. Strauss 142, M. Prior 131 not out)

WEST INDIES 1st Innings

(overnight 92 for one)

Fall of wickets: 1-90 (Smith), 2-96 (Powell), 3-118 (Sarwan), 3-195(Gayle retired hurt), 4-203 (Simmons).

Bowling: Anderson 17-1-40-0; Broad 19-6-42-1; Khan 15-0-74-1 (nb15, w10); Swann 26-8-73-0; Panesar 32-3-84-2.

Position: West Indies trail by 197 runs with six first innings wickets standing.

Umpires: D. Harper, R. Tiffin.