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Saturday, August 5, 2000West Indies play themselves back into testMANCHESTER, England (AP) -- Openers Sherwin Campbell and Adrian Griffith rallied around the veteran pace duo of Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh on Saturday to keep West Indies' hopes alive in the third cricket test at Old Trafford.After Ambrose and Walsh had taken four wickets apiece to restrict England's first innings lead to 146 runs, Campbell, 55 runs, and Griffith, an unbeaten 41 in 202 minutes, shared a 96-run opening stand in West Indies' second innings 131 for one at stumps on the third day. This was after England, having resumed on 196 for three was eventually dismissed for 303 in reply to West Indies' 157. The openers batted untroubled in the 155 minutes together and it took a viciously bounced delivery from swing bowler Craig White to end the stand. The West Indies was still 15 runs in arrears at the end of the day but a healthy second innings total could give the test a new twist with the pitch already producing unplayable bounce. The series is tied at one match apiece -- the West Indies winning the first at Edgbaston by an innings and England, the second at Lord's by two wickets. While Campbell batted entertainingly for his 101-ball knock and hit nine boundaries, the left-handed Griffith played the role of a anchor-man. He batted painstakingly and took 53 minutes and 38 balls to score his first runs after the tea break, moving from 12 to 13. No.3 Wavell Hinds hit the discending gloom out of the evening with a forceful 20 not out with five boundaries. Walsh, the leading wicket-taker in the series who will make a decision about retirement after the five-test series was over, took his series tally to 22 wickets with the figures of 4-50 in 27 overs. Ambrose accounted for four of the seven wickets that fell Saturday to claim 4-70. "Definitely when I get to The Oval, I know which way I am going," Walsh said in a television interview. "With the series delicately poised I don't want to make a decision now. "Curtly said he'll be leaving the scene soon so I won't be much longer behind him," Walsh said. It is very likely the West Indies will tour Australia in October without Ambrose and Walsh. Ambrose had already said he would retire at the end of the current series. England's hopes of taking a stranglehold of the test with a huge first innings lead suffered a major setback soon after play had started. Alec Stewart (105) and Marcus Trescothick (66) who had carried England's hopes during a 179-run fourth wicket were dismissed quickly as Ambrose and then Walsh struck in tandem. From 196 for three, England, had slumped to 251 for seven as the visitors bowled and fielded with a renewed enthusiasm. Michael Vaughan, with 29 runs in a little over two hours, held the lower order together. When one of Walsh's slower balls trapped him plumb in front when on 25 English umpire Peter Willey turned down an animated appeal by the visitors. 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. 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. 
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