WEST INDIES v ENGLAND: AFTER TWO days of this fourth Test, the bookmakers had marked the draw up at 10 to 1 on. They were not going to be driven out of business on that one. Once they had survived the whirlwind that is Fidel Edwards, there was little doubt England would be able to bat out the match without real alarm, and they duly did so, with the match ending at 3.50pm yesterday with England 279 for two, a lead of 130.

Alastair Cook's eighth Test century, his first in more than a year, saw them through, although now they must resign themselves to moving on to Trinidad today in the knowledge that they need a win in the final Test that starts on Friday to square a series upon which they had embarked with hubristic hopes. The post-match smile of the West Indies captain, Chris Gayle, told its story.

Requiring 150 to even establish a lead, England reached that landmark midway through the afternoon for the loss of Andrew Strauss (38), bowled while attempting to cut Gayle in his first over, and Owais Shah (21), a bag of nervous energy who was hit full on the boot by Sulieman Benn and had the good grace not to appeal the lbw decision.

By the time they shook hands Cook had thrust aside the notion, built up by 27 previous innings in which he had passed 50 11 times without going on to three figures, that he had forgotten how to convert starts into something more worthwhile, and had cruised to 139, his highest Test score.

At the other end, Kevin Pietersen, who had greeted Cook's hundred by hugging him in a manner which suggested he had just discovered his long lost brother, remained unbeaten on 72, their unbroken third-wicket partnership worth 150.

The beneficiaries from this last five days have been the batsmen, who have managed metaphorical horticultural plate-spinning by making hay and gathering rosebuds all at the same time. Only 17 wickets fell in five days, a reward that did not reflect effort and indicated that the real contest was not between bat and ball, but between bowler and pitch, won hands down by the latter.

There are several ways of viewing this. One is to say that the surface (resurrected from a situation where the grass had been killed off towards the end of last year following the annual carnival held at the ground, to celebrate the end of the harvest) had rather more about it than that rolled into submission at the Antigua Recreation Ground for the third Test. Think a dormant volcano rather than an extinct one, where an exceptional group of bowlers might have had their say.

Consider also that in England's first innings, West Indies missed sufficient chances to promote the view that, had they been taken, England might have struggled to reach 350. Butterfingers are no fault of the pitch.

However, once the new ball lost its initial hardness, and the swing of the first two days had disappeared for some reason, batting became little more than a simple exercise in lining up willow with leather. Not even Edwards, who would bang the ball in on plasticine if it were in the team cause, could get much change.

Paul Collingwood has suggested that the Kookaburra ball, used in all Tests except those in England and India, goes too soft too quickly, so perhaps there is a case for experimenting with a variety of composite centres in search of something longer-lasting.

Batsmen may not have it all their way in Trinidad, however, for only once in the last 14 matches has there been a draw at Queen's Park Oval and not in the last 10 matches. One imagines the road roller has been pounding the life out of the pitch since the destiny of this match became apparent.

The conundrum for England is that seamers have done the damage there in the three Test matches since and including the last time England played there in 2004 – 13 wickets for South Africa's Makhaya Ntini four years ago, for example.

Spin, England's most successful wicket-taking mode in this series, would not on historical evidence seem the best option with which to win a match.

That will tickle Graeme Swann and his dodgy elbow.

Guardian Service

Kensington Oval Scoreboard

FOURTH TEST

West Indies v England

in Barbados

Overnight: England 600-6 dec(A Strauss 142, R Bopara 104, P Collingwood 96, A Cook 94, T Ambrose 76 no) 6-0 v West Indies 749-9 dec(R Sarwan 291, D Ramdin 166, S Chanderpaul 70, D Smith 55, J Taylor 53, G Swann 5-165)

ENGLAND– Second innings

A Strauss b Gayle 38

A Cook not out 139

O Shah lbw b Benn 21

K Pietersen not out 72

Extras (b6 nb3) 9

––––

Total (2 wkts dec, 81 overs) 279

Fall of wickets: 1-88, 2-129.

Did not bat: P Collingwood, R Bopara, T Ambrose, S Broad, G Swann, R Sidebottom, J Anderson.

Bowling: Edwards 10-1-41-0, Powell 12-0-35-0, Benn 21-1-64-1, Taylor 4-0-15-0, Gayle 17-5-46-1, Hinds 14-1-56-0, Sarwan 3-0-16-0.

West Indies drew with England