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Kemar Roach bowled with pace the day after his no-ball problems © PA Photos
Andrew Strauss conquered his uncanny record of getting out immediately when beginning a day's play with an unbeaten hundred to his name, but the rest of England's batsmen proved less resilient as West Indies thrust themselves back into contention in the second Test by conceding only a first-innings lead of 58 on a sun-baked surface.
It was an excellent display by the West Indies, who had seemed destined to face a back-breaking day in the sun as England resumed on 259 for 2, but who bowled resourcefully. They removed four wickets in the morning session before a successful policy of containment on a soporific afternoon, led by a wholehearted stint by their captain Darren Sammy, eventually brought rewards with the wicket of Strauss and three more wickets late in the session.
Dispensing with an England tail is not an easy business. Folklore has it that the pup with the shortest, thickest tail is the pick of the litter and in terms of Test rankings it appeared the belief might be well-founded as Tim Bresnan and Stuart Broad, an eighth-wicket partnership brought together when West Indies still led by seven runs, added another 53. But Broad fell to a top-edged paddle sweep against the offspinner, Shane Shillingford, Graeme Swann feathered an inside edge against Marlon Samuels that much to his bemusement was spotted by the new, exceptionally-sensitive Hot Spot and Samuels added James Anderson, struck on the boot, in his next over.
Bresnan and Broad came together after the departure of their captain, Strauss, who was 102 not out at the start of the third day and who crucially broke his habits of old by surviving for another two-and-threequarter hours on the third day. Strauss, on 141, had just produced his final act of defiance - a square cut against Sammy - when he tried to repeat the shot and was caught at the wicket.
England's individual batting weaknesses were exposed at regular intervals before lunch: Kevin Pietersen's fondness for moving across his stumps, Jonny Bairstow's apparent fallibility against short-pitched quick bowling - the second new ball did not help - and Matt Prior's vulnerability to the good-length ball that seams back as West Indies entered lunch holding a lead of 30 and with four more wickets to get to bring the Test alive.
Strauss, in a statistical quirk, has only ever added six runs when he has had a hundred in the bank at the start of play, and he managed only a single after making a century in the first Test at Lord's. The sequence having been latched onto the media, he committed his mind to sorting it out. He struck only two boundaries in the session, a flick through square leg against Shillingford, and much later cracked Sammy to the cover boundary.
He had admitted to his "frustration" on the previous evening. "Scoring a hundred takes a bit out of you physically so it is a bit tricky the next morning but there's no reason why you can't kick on and get a big score. It's a mindset thing the next day, to try and reconnect with what you did the day before rather than worrying too much."
He never quite recovered the fluency of the previous day as England's visions of 600-plus evaporated; not as much reconnecting with his form of the previous day as sticking around in the hope of an introduction but his longevity looked more vital with every passing hour.
Pietersen, 72 not out overnight, had tweeted his intention to go to bed shortly before seven o'clock. Perhaps he is still on India time, a sort of vicarious link to the IPL. Or perhaps he was so eager to make use of a flat pitch, and pull alongside Strauss' collection of Test centuries again, that he felt 12 hours sleep was advisable. Whatever, it did not do the trick as he only added only eight.
England, resuming on 259 for 2, had 12 overs before the second new ball, and Pietersen looked eager to make full use of them, sweeping Shane Shillingford's second ball delicately for four. But he fell in the next over, lbw as Ravi Rampaul cut one back. The impression that one of England's reviews is reserved exclusively for Pietersen, or at least that he thinks it is, was heightened when he reviewed it, although Hawk Eye did uphold the decision only on "umpire's call."
When Aleem Dar gives a batsman out, it is safest to assume that he is probably right, but he erred when he turned down West Indies' appeal for lbw against Ian Bell with the first over of the new ball. West Indies reviewed it and Bell - who had also been dropped on 15 by the wicketkeeper, Denesh Ramdin, off Shillingford - was shown to be clearly out. The last of the morning's victims was Prior, whose aggressive intent ended when Sammy cut one back to bowl him.
But most discussion will be sparked by the innings of Bairstow, who endured a torrid time against a blistering spell of new-ball bowling by Roach. He fended his second ball, throat high, just short of gully, and was uncertain throughout, late on some shots, indecisive on others.
Roach claimed his man when, on 4, he pushed early at a delivery and lobbed up a leading edge to Shivnarine Chanderpaul at mid-on. It was a lesson for Bairstow, in only his second Test, about the demands of life at the top level and with South Africa's tearaway Dale Steyn in wait later in the summer, it might also have been a lesson for England's selectors.