A magnificent bowling performance by debutant Darren Sammy has given the West Indies the slightest sliver of hope in the third Test at Old Trafford. England were cruising along at 265/3 when Gayle's offspin trapped century maker Alastair Cook lbw for 106. Then entered Sammy, who then proceeded to produce a spell in which he took the last 6 wickets to fall, triggering a dramatic West Indies-like collapse on the part of the Englishmen. Sammy bowled a steady line and length just outside the batsmen's offstump and got enough away movement to repeatedly take the edges of the batsmen. Sammy's figures of 7/66 were the second best ever by a West Indian on debut after Alfred Valentine's 8 for 102 in 1950. His stunning spell was punctuated by an over in which he took 3 wickets in 5 balls.
Meanwhile, Cook, after inexplicably being given not out by Billy Bowden early in his innings on Friday, went on to make his second ton of the series. Sometimes umpires' decisions go your way and sometimes they don't, with some feeling that they balance each other out in the long run, but how does a batsman feel after watching the ball he edged go straight into the keeper's gloves and then being given not out? How does he feel after going on to make a century after he knows he should have been given out? To make matters worse, the Windies should have had him out another time when Collymore dropped a catch in the deep.
The Windies are set a total of 455 to win and so far they are fighting hard on the fourth day. At the time of writing they are 280/5 with Chanderpaul on 71 n.o and Ramdin on 21 n.o. Can they pull off the impossible on the fifth day? With only Sammy and the bowlers to come this pair represents the last real hope for the Windies.
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