Hinds signals intentions

Wavell Hinds warmed up for this week's third Test against England with an eye-catching 150 for West Indies against Leicestershire in the drawn match at Grace Road yesterday.

Wavell Hinds warmed up for this week's third Test against England with an eye-catching 150 for West Indies against Leicestershire in the drawn match at Grace Road yesterday.

Hinds hit 24 fours in an innings which lasted nearly five and a half hours as he steered West Indies to 414 all out.

Ridley Jacobs struck a fluent 78 and Franklin Rose hit 41 off 31 balls, then took 2 for 8 in four overs as Leicestershire slipped to 26 for 3 in their second innings, after which the teams shook hands on a draw.

The West Indies coach, Roger Harper, was satisfied with the three-day workoutdespite the loss of 44 overs on the first day because of rain.

"It was good to see some of our batsmen spend time in the middle and it was an excellent knock from Wavell," Harper said. "We have managed to get in some useful practice ahead of the Test, although we would have liked more of our top-order batsmen to have made bigger scores."

Harper confirmed that Shivnarine Chanderpaul will probably miss the Test at Old Trafford starting on Thursday, while there remains a slight doubt about the fitness of Brian Lara.

Lara missed this match because of a hamstring problem, but Harper was optimistic that he will be fit for the Test.

The one selection problem West Indies have is who to play in Chanderpaul's place in the middle order. It could come down to a choice betweenChris Gayle and 20-year-oldRamna-resh Sarwan, but Sarwan missed out on his chance to secure the position when he was stumped by Stephen Adshead off Carl Crowe, for 22.

However, it was Hinds who took centre stage with his innings, offering just one chance. That was when he had 76 and drove fiercely into the covers, where Ben Smith was unable to hold a difficult catch.

After that Hinds cashed in on a benign pitch before chopping a delivery from Darren Maddy back into his stumps.