ST JOHN’S, Antigua, Feb 18 (Agencies): Graeme Swann bowled with skill, stamina and admirable patience on a baking hot day in Antigua to claim his maiden five-wicket haul in only his third Test, as England were made to battle hard for the ascendancy in the third Test at the ARG. Despite bowling West Indies out for 285 in reply to their first-innings total of 566 for 9, England opted not to enforce the follow-on with 40 minutes of the day remaining and rightly so, for it was a weary outfit that trooped from the field. With Steve Harmison on and off the field through illness and Andrew Flintoff labouring with a hip injury, their performance was dogged rather than inspired, and while the bowlers rested up for the second innings, England’s batsmen extended the advantage by a further 31 runs, for the loss of the captain, Andrew Strauss, for 14.
Despite outbowling his senior team-mate, Monty Panesar, during England’s pre-Christmas tour of India, Swann was a surprise selection for this contest, especially seeing as Panesar hadn’t even had a chance to confirm his lack of form during the ten-ball Test at North Sound earlier in the week. But by the end of West Indies’ first innings, the selectors’ hunch had paid rich dividends. From an exploratory first over of the morning in which he ripped a beauty past Devon Smith’s edge, to the flighty floater that trapped Sulieman Benn lbw to earn him his fifth wicket, Swann kept England’s bid for victory firmly on course in a performance that made a mockery of Panesar’s recent one-dimensional efforts.
Very little had been expected of Swann when Andrew Strauss tossed him the ball at the start of play, ostensibly to allow Harmison to change ends and attack the now-infamous football ridge at the Factory Road End of the ground. But before long he had become England’s most reliable attacking weapon. He claimed their first wicket of the day with the first ball after the morning drinks break.
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