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June 18, 2007 (Link to Scorecard)

West Indies are battling hard to save the fourth and final test at Chester-le-street. Chris Gayle has finally got some runs under his belt to come to the rescue along with the ever reliable Chanderpaul. But Windies will have to bat enough time on the final day to put England away from victory. The tourists are still 30 runs in the deficit with seven wickets remaining.

Crisis Man Paul Collingwood came up with his 5th hundred early on to take England to a superb total of 400. At one stage England were reeling down at 165 for 6 losing Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell early in the day. Strauss got out for 77 to Fidel Edwards while Daren Powell removed Bell.

Collingwood then got the company of Matthew Prior to ease England out of the mess with a great partnership. The West Indian bowling and fielding dropped standards quickly to allow England get off the hook. Fidel Edwards came up with his fifth wicket when he had Matt Prior caught by Devon Smith. But by then Prior had helped himself to 62 with 4 fours and two sixes which was instrumental in putting up as many as 169 runs for the 7th wicket with Collingwood. Corey Collymore, the bowling centurion got rid of Collingwood who had ended up with 128 which came in 188 balls with 17 fours. The last wicket for England added 31 runs with Ryan Sidebottom smashing an unbeaten 26 from 19 with 5 fours. The extras conceded by West Indies were a whooping 51 runs which included 23 no balls!

In the final session, West Indies got themselves into a dangerous position of losing the Test Match when they lost three quick wickets. A demotion in the batting order didn't make any change for the Skipper Daren Ganga who still couldn't get beyond the single digits score. Along with Ganga, the no.3, Devon Smith, the opener and Runako Morton have also been dismissed. Hoggard accounted for the wickets of Smith and Ganga while Monty Panesar got Morton bowled. From 38 for 3, Windies were safely taken to 83 for 3 with Gayle working up a half century, 52 from 63 balls with 7 fours in the company of Chanderpaul who has got 16. Bad light brought a slightly early close to the day much to the delight of the West Indians.

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