England slump to 253 for seven at lunch

The West Indies pacemen fought back strongly on the third morning with four England wickets in the third cricket test at Old Trafford on Saturday.

The West Indies pacemen fought back strongly on the third morning with four England wickets in the third cricket test at Old Trafford on Saturday.

England, resuming the day on 196 for three, slumped to 253 for seven at lunch to enjoy a useful lead of 96 runs after they had bowled the West Indies out for 157.

The four-pronged pace attack showed great discipline Saturday and removed Alec Stewart (105) and Marcus Trescothick (66) soon after the play had started.

The veteran new ball pair of Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh struck in tandem to remove Stewart and Trescothick respectively after the fourth wicket pair had lifted England from 17 for three with a 179-run stand in four minutes over three hours.

Stewart, who became the second Englishman to score a century in his 100th test after Colin Cowdrey, was the first to fall.

His 16th test century ended off the second ball of the day when he hung his bat out at an Ambrose delivery and was caught by wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs before neither he nor England had added to the overnight scores.

Trescothick, who had been a solid partner to Stewart in resurrecting the England innings torn apart by Walsh on the second afternoon, fell 30 balls later. Walsh bowled the left-handed opener off his pads.

England 196 for three was soon 198 for five and eight overs later Craig White was bowled by Reon King for six.

Then Michael Vaughan, 23 not out, and Dominic Cork (16) continued to frustrate the West Indies for the next 50 minutes to add an invaluable 41 runs for the sixth wicket.

But Ambrose, armed with the second new ball, struck with the 17th delivery and had Cork caught behind.

Stewart's 180th innings included 13 boundaries while Trescothick's first innings in test cricket lasted 39 minutes over four hours and was crowned with a six and six boundaries off 163 balls.

Walsh, the leading wicket-taker in the series, took his series tally to 22 wickets with the figures of 4-31 in 22 overs while Ambrose had 2-49 with the morning figures of 8-3-9-2.