An unbeaten 112 from Shivnarine Chanderpaul guided West Indies to a 21-run victory over England in the second one-day international at Providence Stadium Sunday.
The win ties the five match series at 1-1 after England won Friday's opener and sets the contest up nicely before next week's two games in Barbados.
Chanderpaul, batting on his home ground, put on a crucial 133-run partnership with fellow Guyanese Ramnaresh Sarwan (74) and then carried his bat to make his 10th one-day century as West Indies made 264 for eight in their 50 overs.
Chanderpaul's innings, which took him past 8,000 runs in one-day internationals, was typical of the left-handers approach to the one day game.
The left-hander was solid as he consolidated following the early loss of openers Chris Gayle and Lendl Simons and then he picked up the pace with intelligent strokeplay as he helped West Indies up their run-rate.
England struggled to set a field to Chanderpaul whose 10 fours came by constantly finding the gaps.
West Indies lost momentum towards the end of their innings though, with no batsmen below Chanderpaul in the order managing to reach 20.
England struggled from the outset losing the early wickets of Ravi Bopara and Kevin Pietersen with just 36 on the board and although skipper Andrew Strauss battled on, making 105 from 129 balls, he gained little support.
"We lost too many wickets early on and from then on we were always behind the eight ball," said Strauss.
The run-outs of Dimitri Mascarenhas and Gareth Batty dented England's hopes before they had chance to make the most of the five-over batting power play.
After a short rain break, Strauss was bowled round his legs by Kieron Pollard effectively ending England's hopes.
Steve Harmison, who had shown signs of a late rally when batting with Strauss, was left stranded when last man James Anderson was bowled by Pollard.
The medium pace of Trinidad pair Pollard and Dwayne Bravo proved to be crucial on a slow track with Bravo claiming the important wickets of Owais Shah (22) and Paul Collingwood (1).
West Indies had lost the opening game in absurd circumstances when their Australian coach John Dyson miscalculated the required target under the Duckworth-Lewis system and took his batsmen off a run short of the win.
"The guys were a bit down after Friday and this is a boost to the confidence," said skipper Gayle.
Scorecard
West Indies
C. Gayle b Anderson 20
L. Simmons c Prior b Anderson 0
R. Sarwan c Collingwood b Anderson 74
S. Chanderpaul not out 112
K. Pollard c Pietersen b Mascarenhas 8
D. Bravo c Collingwood b Mascarenhas 19
D Ramdin c Harmison b Collingwood 1
D. Sammy lbw b Collingwood 11
N. Miller b Collingwood 0
F. Edwards not out 3
Extras: (b-2, lb-6, w-7, nb-1) 16
Total: (eight wickets; 50 overs) 264
Fall of wickets: 1-15, 2-24, 3-157, 4-206, 5-237, 6-238, 7-256, 8-256.
Did not bat: L. Baker
Bowling: Broad 7-0-48-0 (6w), Anderson 9-1-37-3 (1nb, 1w), Harmison 7-0-29-0, Batty 6-0-38-0, Mascarenhas 10-0-53-2, Collingwood 10-0-49-3, Bopara 1-0-2-0.
England:
A. Strauss b Pollard 105
R. Bopara b Baker 14
K. Pietersen b Edwards 12
O. Shah lbw b Bravo 22
P. Collingwood b Bravo 1
M. Prior c Ramdin b Sammy 2
A. Mascarenhas run out 29
S. Broad c & b Miller 3
G. Batty run out 5
S. Harmison not out 18
J. Anderson b Pollard 8
Extras: (b-1, lb-11, w-12) 24
Total: (all out; 48.2 overs) 243
Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-36, 3-86, 4-88, 5-97, 6-156, 7-168, 8-185, 9-229 10-243
Bowling: Baker 6-0-31-1, Edwards 6-0-31-1, Bravo 9-0-40-2, Sammy 10-1-36-1, Miller 9-0-42-1, Pollard 7.2-0-46-2, Gayle 1-0-5-0.
Result: West Indies beat England by 21 runs.
Series: Five-match series level at 1-1.
