West Indies' second wicket pair of Chris Gayle and his former deputy Ramnaresh Sarwan batted England into the ground with a hundred-run partnership in the opening Test at Sabina Park on Thursday. England's bowlers lacked penetration, as Sarwan, undefeated on 74, and Gayle, 71 not out, carried West Indies to 160 for one, replying to England's first innings total of 318, when stumps were drawn on the second day.
The closest England came to separating the two batsmen came when they asked for an lbw decision be referred to the video umpire with Sarwan on two from the bowling of Andrew Flintoff, and then umpire Tony Hill's lbw verdict from the bowling of Steve Harmison was overruled by video umpire Daryl Harper when the same batsman was five. After this, England could not find a way through either batsmen, as they both stroked the ball with crisp assurance.
Monty Panesar, whose left-arm spin was expected to trouble the West Indies batsmen, failed to make an impact, and Gayle slapped him through square cover for three to reach his 50 from 70 balls. Steve Harmison, who has fond memories of the ground, following his best bowling in Tests of seven wickets for 12 runs, also looked way below his best, and Sarwan nursed him behind square for two to reach his 50 from 111 balls.
"I think it is important to try to form some sort of partnership on Friday and try to strengthen our position," said Sarwan. "We have had quite a few collapses in the past, so hopefully myself or Chris will be able to go on and get a big score." England's only success came prior to tea, when they claimed the scalp of Devon Smith for six, when he was adjudged lbw, after he completely missed the flight path of a delivery from Flintoff, and was struck on his left boot.
Umpire Hill initially gave "not-out", but under the new decision review system, the batsman was dismissed after referral to the video umpire. But two other referrals to the video umpire went against the visitors and they were eventually docked one of the two reviews allowed to the fielding team in each innings.
The first of the two confirmed that Sarwan was clearly not-out, when Flintoff appealed for an lbw verdict for a delivery that was clearly heading down the leg-side. The second saved Sarwan from being dismissed, when he was struck playing back to an off-cutter from Harmison, and Hill adjudged him lbw. But England's bowlers were not as consistent as they would have liked, and the two West Indies batsmen reeled off an array of exciting strokes.
England's first innings was terminated about 20 minutes after lunch, when Harmison and Panesar fell lbw with both batsmen unsuccessfully challenging their dismissals. Sulieman Benn was West Indies' most successful bowler with four wickets for 77 runs from 44.2 overs, Jerome Taylor took three for 74 from 20 overs, and Daren Powell grabed two for 54 from 20 overs. Before lunch, Matt Prior completed a purposeful half-century that helped England reach 311 for eight at the interval.