The West Indies were asked to bat and posted 261/6 in the seventh one-day international against England in Barbados.

Ramnaresh Sarwan

Chris Gayle and Shivnerine Chanderpaul opened the batting for the Windies. Gayle was very lucky to survive after he cut a ball hard off the back foot to the right of Rikki Clarke in the covers. Clarke made good ground to get to the ball, which was about ten inches off the ground, but he was unable to hold the catch.

It did not, however, take England long to strike. When Shivnarine Chanderpaul clipped a Steve Harmison delivery off his legs, James Anderson held an easy catch at square leg. The left-hander departed for just 2 off 16 balls.

Ricardo Powell was the next in - at 16/1 the hosts clearly wanted to get a move on. The two added 41 runs before Powell took the gamble of taking on Andrew Flintoff's arm. Standing at midwicket, the burly allrounder struck the stumps with a direct hit and ran out Powell by about two feet. The West Indies slumped to 57/2 after 14 overs.

Ramnaresh Sarwan was the next man in for the Windies. Chris Gayle started to open up a little and struck a scary, flat six over midwicket off Anderson. The latter had his revenge however, when he clean bowled Gayle with a perfect yorker for 41 off 52 deliveries.

Brian Lara arrived at the crease sooner than he would have liked, with his team going nowhere in a hurry. The captain struggled to find the middle of the bat, and was unable to work the ball for singles. The pair were able to add 33 more runs to the score, before Lara fell to Rikki Clarke for 8 off 24. He edged off to Chris Read, who took a superb diving catch to his left.

Dwayne Smith added some much-needed pace to the hosts' innings. After smashing the ball out of the ground - it was not recovered - the 21-year-old was eventually trapped for 39 off 35 balls by veteran Darren Gough.

By now the anchor of the innings, Sarwan went on to notch up his second fifty of the one-day series off only 60 deliveries.

Ridley Jacobs added some solidity to the final exchanges. With five overs to go he and Sarwan took to the England attack and did much to ruin the figures of Gough, Harmison and Flintoff.

Sarwan held his nerve as the deliveries counted down and scampered through for a single, in the 48th over, to reach the second ODI ton of his career.

The pair were able to add an undefeated 68 runs for the sixth wicket and carried the West Indies to 261/6 in their allotted 50 overs. Sarwan finished on 106 not out, and Jacobs on 32.

Anderson finished with 1/42 in 8 overs, while Flintoff returned 1/45 in 10.