England Cricket / Editor / 22 May 2007 /

Headingley Carnegie, Friday May 26

England's rain-affected draw with the West Indies in the first Test at Lord's offered up more questions than answers for both teams, with punters clearly believing the tourists have more chance of winning matches and perhaps even the series on the evidence at hand so far.

The Windies are now priced at 11 to win the series, having traded as high as 24 to small stakes, although England remain a strong favourite at 1.27 and 1.86 to win the second Test.

Batsmen were clearly on top in the opening game, with neither side looking to have the attack that would be able to take 20 wickets in a match, although it would be no surprise to see plenty of changes in personnel when the sides meet up again at Headingley from Friday.

The Caribbean outfit will probably take more positives from Lord's, as the game was realistically their first of the tour in the wake of the rain-out of their proposed warm-up against Somerset at Taunton. However, they must wish they could have just one of their once-feared attack of Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and Malcolm Marshall back in their current side.

Jerome Taylor and Daren Powell both bowled with decent pace but showed little in the way of destructive ability, while Corey Collymore looks on the decline and rarely managed to send balls down at over 80mph. That left second-change all-rounder Dwayne Bravo to provide more of a strike threat.

Despite that, it is Collymore who tops the leading West Indies wicket-taker market at 4 after taking three wickets early in England's second innings as they looked for quick runs, with Powell next best at 4.1, despite bagging just two scalps.

But all four were readily seen off by England in a first innings that ended at 553-5 and could have gone on for much longer had centurions Matt Prior and Ian Bell been allowed to bat on past the end of Friday night.

Prior and Bell were two of England's four century-makers in the first-innings and, with Kevin Pietersen (now the 3.45 favourite to top the home side's scoring charts) smacking an impressive ton second time up, that makes five of England's top seven already in mid-season form and hopefully, at least for new coach Peter Moores, justifying the order he used in his first match in charge.

Cook followed up his first-innings' ton with 65 to currently lead the race with 170 runs, although he is second favourite at 3.5 behind 'KP', who has 135 runs to his name.

Prior's emergence has to go down as the big positive from the match, giving England a credible number seven in their line-up, even in the absence of Andrew Flintoff, whose availability for Headingley remains in question despite his inclusion in the squad.

Where there was a positive in Prior, however, there was a negative in Owais Shah, who managed to score only 10 runs in his two innings on a pitch that offered plenty of help to the rest of the team, and his fidgety style at the crease does little to inspire confidence.

Michael Vaughan is sure to bat at three, with Shah dropped from the squad, if he is fit to play on his home ground and he takes the captaincy back from Andrew Strauss. If he does not make it, Bell could be pushed back up the order although there has also been some talk of Ravi Bopara being added to the squad as well later on - his ability to bat up the order as well as provide some extra bowling depth could see him get the nod.

Flintoff's absence did go to show up England's lack of bowling options if, for whatever reason, his regular team-mates do not shine. Of course, the attack did become limited after Matthew Hoggard hurt his thigh in the first innings but Steve Harmison's form with Durham failed to translate to the international arena. Liam Plunkett was forced to bowl much more than he would have in normal circumstances, while Monty Panesar took all of the plaudits on a pitch that should not have suited him.

Headingley should provide some help for the ever-improving spinner, with young Yorkshire 'leggie' Adil Rashid already having enjoyed success in county cricket this season, so expect the Northants man to be England's main threat again this week - he is the 1.78 favourite to be England's leading wicket-taker in the series.

James Anderson seems most likely to replace Hoggard, although England did opt to include Nottinghamshire left-armer Ryan Sidebottom in the squad to provide some variety - as a former Yorkshire player, he has experience of Headingley as well and is worth monitoring in the top wicket-taker markets if he starts on Friday.

But it is Harmison's ineffectiveness that will worry Moores more than anything as his return to the international fold seemed to affect him mentally. He had taken 27 wickets in four games with Durham and looked a lot more relaxed, but he sprayed the ball all over the place in taking only 1-117 in the first innings at Lord's - a track Harmison has had some previous success on.

Without him firing on all cylinders, and with Hoggard watching from the sidelines, it again puts the pressure on England's batsmen to make a big score in the first innings. Anderson has proved inconsistent in his Test career so far, and with Flintoff's ankle stopping him from bowling enough, Moores is suddenly playing into the West Indies batting strength again unless Sidebottom proves to be his unlikely saviour.

Only two of the tourists' top nine failed to pass 30 in their only meaningful innings and with keeper Denesh Ramdin performing just as well as Prior at eight in the order, batting should not be a problem for them over the rest of the tour - bear in mind, as with the bowlers, this was the first real innings of the tour for most of their side as none of them are currently tied to any county side.

The exciting Chris Gayle looked in very good nick in their brief second innings, which ended early at 89-0, and few people could say with any certainty that the game would have ended in a draw despite England setting the tourists over 400 to win, if the weather had not spoiled Monday's play.

Gayle is second best in the West Indies series top runscorer market at 4.7 after scoring 77 at Lord's - Shivnarine Chanderpaul (74 runs from one innings) is the narrow favourite at 3.7 to small stakes and leading scorer Daren Ganga is available at 6.2, after totalling 80 in the opening game of what is a four-Test series.

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