England keep victory hopes alive
Collingwood came to England's rescue with an assured 128
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Monday, 18, Jun 2007 11:27
An intriguing final day's play is in prospect in the fourth Test after a century from Paul Collingwood and some early success for Matthew Hoggard gave England a glimpse of an unlikely victory at the Riverside.
After finishing their first innings on 400 all out - a lead of 113 runs - England dented the West Indies' response to leave them struggling on 83-3.
The West Indies had seemed set to do away with any hope of a home win with which to crown England's series win after they made a couple of early breakthroughs of their own this morning.
Andrew Strauss fell 23 runs short of his century as the ball nipped and swung dangerously under some morning cloud cover.
Fidel Edwards found the opener's outside edge before Daren Powell repeated the trick to extract Ian Bell for 11 just as he looked to be finding his groove at the crease.
At 165-6 it seemed that, once again, a fragile middle order had cost England the chance to post a big score.
But, ably accompanied by Matt Prior, Collingwood thrashed 128 runs off just 188 balls to build a 169-run stand for the seventh wicket.
Prior (62) became Edwards' fifth victim of the innings before Collingwood dragged on from a Powell delivery as the pair returned to the pavilion having pushed their team into a dominant position.
Beleaguered opener Daren Ganga opted to let Devon Smith face the England attack's opening salvoes, but the tactic soon failed as Hoggard dispatched the replacement back to the pavilion for a duck.
Ganga's new role at number three seemed to suit him little better as Hoggard induced the edge after he had chalked up just six runs and when Runako Morton fell to Monty Panesar soon after the tourists' slide seemed irrecoverable at 38-3.
But Chris Gayle claimed an overdue half-century before the close and with England's first-innings nemesis Shivnarine Chanderpaul manning the other end, the West Indies will resume with a good deal of hope.