'Shiv' is not going to do it this time

Michael Vaughan will believe that he

is only one wicket away from victory

today. Get Shiv Chanderpaul early and the

rest of this West Indies batting line-up will follow, he will be telling his team.

There will be no panic in the

England ranks — unless West

Indies get their target down to

double figures without the loss of

any more wickets.

When you

have so many runs in the bank

you know all cricketing history

and logic are on your side — and

that remains the case for England,

with 154 runs still to get for

the West Indies on a very helpful

pitch.

It is only when it gets down

to 70 or 80 needed that players

start to get a bit twitchy in these

sort of situations.

It has been a great couple of

days for the West Indies and full

credit to them for that. At last

they have found their discipline

and contributed hugely yesterday

to a fascinating day of

traditional Test cricket, a classic

contest between bat and ball.

There is nothing better than a

younger player setting an example

and I think the West Indies

were inspired by the performance

of Darren Sammy on

Saturday.

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His seven wickets on

debut was the sort of display that

filters through to others and yesterday

Runako Morton actually

showed that he wanted to play

an innings rather than just

produce the shot of the day.

For me, England had a very

good day and I could barely find

fault with anything they did

other than to say Liam Plunkett

is still struggling.

Steve Harmison was excellent

and now he has to kick on from

here. Harmison has had good

days before and then followed

them with bad ones but this was

a very encouraging performance

from Steve and for England after

the way he struggled so badly on

Friday.

I keep on talking about Steve

Harmison because, if England

are to move up from No 2 in the

world to No 1, they need him to be at his formidable best and I

discussed on Saturday the possibility

of him having to solve his

problems at county level rather

than just expecting something to

click here.

Well, here he showed heart and

character to suggest he would

much rather stay here with England

than go back to Durham.

Whether he bowled better

because he was wider on the

crease or because he had been

given one thing to focus on by

Allan Donald and was concentrating

on that, I don’t know.

What I

do know is that his improvement

was very encouraging.

Monty Panesar was also very

good but I would have liked him

to vary his pace a little more.

I

would also have liked to see

either the captain, keeper or one

of the other players talk to him a

bit more about the need for variations

because he is still learning

his trade and at times yesterday

seemed to have been left to work

it all out for himself.

If I was being hypercritical I

would say that Vaughan could

have given Panesar a leg slip for

Chanderpaul more often but, by

and large, the England captain

did everything he could.

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He

rotated his bowlers expertly and

was right to allow Harmison, in

particular, a long bowl.

It was

just one of those days when his

side did not get too much luck

and where England came up

against a team who, for once,

were determined to make it hard

for them.

The closest situation I had to

this one as England captain was

in Christchurch in 2002, when

New Zealand — mainly in the

form of Nathan Astle — came

within 99 of chasing 550.

The

difference there was that we were

playing on a drop-in pitch that

got better and better and Astle

swung from the hip and mostly it

came off. I never thought we

would lose that game. Honest.

I don’t think England will lose

today. My money is firmly on

them because they are creating

plenty of chances and this pitch

will continue to give the bowlers

more and more help.

Chanderpaul has been here

before and will believe he can do

it for the West Indies again, but

the odds remain stacked against

him. England to win. Fingers

crossed.