John Crawley Photo © John Dawson

If England A thought they were in for an easy ride against the callow youths of the West Indies third XI in the Busta International Shield today, they had a rude awakening.

The youngsters, gathered from around the islands of the Caribbean, showed they were a match for England's second team, with the ball at least.

By the close of the first day's play at the Grenada National Stadium at Queen's Park, they had six England wickets in the bag and had restricted them to 249, a first day total that looked modest compared with the lunchtime score of 93 without loss.

There may have been more wickets had a couple of chances been taken earlier – the drop that let opener Ian Ward off the hook when he was on 17, cost them 32 runs and Chris Read was also dropped at short leg on one before going onto make a useful 19 runs.

After Mark Alleyne started the proceedings with a touch of good fortune by winning the toss and jumping at the chance to bat first on a flat and dry pitch, John Crawley and Ward, who have not faced a ball in the middle since the 2000 season finished in September, started out cautiously against the virtually unknown pace bowling attack of Jermaine Lawson of Jamaica and Kenroy Peters, a seamer from St Vincent.

Both played and missed but once settled, produced some powerfully struck drives that were a pleasure to watch for the small crowd of English supporters, taking in a bit of cricket while holidaying on the spice island.

The pair built a sturdy platform of 101 before Ward became the first wicket of the day, beaten for pace by Lawson, who had swapped ends. He fell one short of his half century but Crawley, who looks in superb form, made no such mistake and sailed past his 50 by pulling off-spinner Rodney Sooklal thunderously through mid-wicket for four.

Crawley apparently made a bold prediction over lunch that batting in the afternoon session would be less straightforward than it had been in the morning because the ball, which turned out to be a Dukes ball rather than the favoured Kookaburra, had softened up markedly. The loss of Ward less than four overs after lunch proved him to be right.

Crawley was bowled for 65, 12 overs later, looking to hit Lawson away off the back foot. The ball nipped back and took an inside edge, much to his irritation, with the score on 143, and the batsmen realised they were in for a rough ride. A couple of careless shots by England A debutant Usman Afzaal and the more experienced Vikram Solanki added to the demise with England going into tea having lost four wickets.

The session between tea and sunset, in which West Indies had to complete their minimum quota of 90 overs but in fact bowled nine more, was to prove a vital passage of play. But in the sensible hands of Aftab Habib, who plugged away for three hours for 41, any alarms were avoided and the day ended with honours even. For Crawley, his 65 was a start in his bid to recover his full England place but disappointing since he had his eyes on a hundred.

"I should have made a hundred. I was hoping for one but I played a slightly loose attack and paid the price," he said after the close of play.

"But I think we finished with honours even and if we can add another hundred to the total, which we should be able to do, we should be in a good position."

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