In last week's drawn first Test at Lord's the Windies demonstrated remarkable fight to save the match after England had piled up a massive 553/5 declared. The Windies' fast bowlers struggled in the first innings with their lack of match practice being on full display. A solid batting performance led by Shiv Chanderpaul's 74 and some dogged batting by lower order batsmen Dwayne Bravo (56), Denesh Ramdin (60) and Daren Powell (36) carried the Windies to a respectable 437.
A strong bowling performance led by Corey Collymore's 3/58 and Chris Gayle's 3/66 restricted England to 284/8 dec and left the Windies with a steep run chase of 401. The Windies started positively at 89/0, but an almost rained out final day resulted in the tame draw.
All that fight by the Windies' lower order has been undone in the second Test at Headingley. England again piled up a massive first innings, on the back of Kevin Pietersen's 226. KP made more than the entire Windies batting as 'collapso' cricket reared its ugly head. Runako Morton was given out to a bad decision, but the remaining batsmen folded meekly to poor shots and poor technique. A batting line up already missing Chanderpaul, out with a knee injury, suffered another blow when captain Ramnaresh Sarwan injured his shoulder diving into the boundary. His tour might just be over as he was taken to hospital. The measly total of 146 left the Windies 424 runs behind England. Ryan Sidebottom, returning to the side after his lone Test in 2001, took four first innings wickets with his left arm seamers. Following on, the Windies struggled to 22/2 at the close of day 2, with Sidebottom taking the wickets of Ganga and would be night watchman Daren Powell. Today's third day was rained out completely and with more rain in the forecast for tomorrow, the Windies can only hope that the weather continues to help their cause.
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