Bell rings before Flintoff's salvo

Ian Bell impressed in his first Test innings in the Fourth Test at the Brit Oval as he and Michael Vaughan shared in a 146-run stand for the fourth wicket, after England had lost three early wickets.

Bell, replacing Graham Thorpe - ruled out with a broken finger sustained from a Fidel Edwards bouncer on the fourth morning at Old Trafford - came in to the number five position in his batting order to make his Test debut, two and a half years after he was called up to the squad during the tour of New Zealand. The West Indies made two changes, with the recovered Jermaine Lawson replacing Pedro Collins - another man who was on the receiving end of a short ball in Manchester - and Dwayne Smith coming in for the unimpressive Dave Mohammed.

Following a short shower, play started twenty minutes after the scheduled time. England made a solid start to proceedings, with Marcus Trescothick collecting a boundary off the third ball of the first over, Fidel Edwards straying fatally onto the Somerset left-hander's pads. Trescothick collected further boundaries, through orthodox off-side strokes, deflections and thick edges down towards the short - and unprotected - third man boundary.

However, Andrew Strauss effected a near-carbon copy of his second innings dismissal in the previous Test, fetching Jermaine Lawson from outside off stump only to sky to Edwards running to his left at mid-on. This breakthrough seemingly revitalised the visitors' attack, and in the overs up to and after lunch, four-balls became much less commonplace. Frustration got the better of Trescothick, with an Edwards half-volley onto his pads only despatched into the hands of Ramnaresh Sarwan at square leg. Key followed almost immediately after, inside-edging a cut off Dwayne Bravo into the hands of keeper Carlton Baugh.

At 64-3, England were rocking and Bell joined skipper Michael Vaughan in the middle to receive a baptism of fire into Test match cricket. It took twenty minutes before he was able to score his first runs - an edge, high over the slips - and in that time he had taken several blows on the body. Nonetheless, where lesser men would have wilted, Bell survived and grew in confidence, deflecting, cutting, pulling and driving his way to 70 before edging behind off Lawson, the bowler finding some extra lift off the pitch.

Flintoff, arriving at number six, was soon into his stride as he took several firmly-struck boundaries from the West Indian attack before Vaughan fell for a well-made 66, driving at a ball from Bravo that was perhaps too short for the shot, and edging to the safe hands of Brian Lara at slip. This was the final breakthrough of the day for the tourists, as Flintoff bludgeoned his way to an unbeaten 72* at the close of play, with Geraint Jones on an uncharacteristically restrained 22*. The two have added an unbroken 77 for the sixth wicket, and are poised to resume tomorrow morning and deliver their familiar array of stroke play to take England to an insurmountable first innings lead.

England 313-5
A Flintoff 72*, IR Bell 70
DDJ Bravo 2-48, JJC Lawson 2-84

Posted by Neil