The pitch beat us - Strauss

_{Andrew Strauss told the media that England were unable to overcome the flat wicket in Barbados}

England captain Andrew Strauss bemoaned the benign nature of the Kensington Oval surface after a high-scoring draw ended hopes of winning the Test series in the Caribbean.

Two successive draws on the back of their defeat in Jamaica means the best England can hope for now is a 1-1 draw - a result only possible if they win the final Test in Trinidad.

Alastair Cook struck an unbeaten 139, his highest Test score, and Kevin Pietersen weighed in with 72 not out as England declared on 279 for two, which took the extraordinary tally in the match to 1,628 runs and only 17 wickets.

The inequality between bat and ball made the result inevitable, and Strauss said: “My personal opinion is that is not good for Test cricket.

“That wicket remained incredibly flat throughout the game and if anything it was probably flatter today than any other day.

“As cricketers you want to see a wicket that deteriorates as the game goes on. We didn’t see that in this game and as a result it ended up being a fairly boring draw, which I don’t think anyone wants to see.

“Generally, even if you can’t force a result, you want a pretty tight tussle like Antigua last week where you can nearly force a result. Clearly here that would have been very difficult to do.

Kevin Pietersen enjoys himself on the way to 72 not out. He added 150 with Cook for the third wicket

“You had eight, nine, 10 bowlers bowling on it and no-one really looked particularly threatening. So I wouldn’t blame the quality of the bowling by any means.

“Certainly, from our own bowlers’ point of view, they toiled exceptionally well - the way they continued in the right areas session after session after session was great testament to the control they have.”

West Indies, who racked up 749 for nine declared in their only innings - in response to England’s 600 for six declared - are just a draw away from a first Test series triumph in five years.

“I am really happy with the result,” said captain Chris Gayle. “It’s a flat deck but, having said that, we had to really apply ourselves in the batting department after being in the field such a long time.

“No-one knew the pitch would be so good but we have to play what we get. It is really flat - a wicket for bowlers to toil on - but, being 1-0 up, we are not going to make too much complaint about it.

“We are used to working on these flat wickets - it is nothing new to us. The English bowling might be missing a bit of Freddie Flintoff. Although he didn’t get many wickets in the Tests, having him around can make things totally different.”

Strauss admitted England have had to realign their sights after arriving in the Caribbean hoping for a repeat of their success here in 2003-04.

Cook and Chris Gayle shake hands at the end of another day of toil for the bowlers

“It was obviously a big goal for us at the start of the series to come out here and win,” added Strauss. “We can’t do that now.

“We don’t have any real excuses for where we are at the moment - it would be nice to be on level terms certainly - but the way we played in Jamaica means we are where we are.

“We had a terrible session of cricket that cost us the game,” he said, referring to their being bowled out for 51. “Since then we’ve played some pretty good stuff and maybe haven’t quite got what we deserved.”

Cook’s hundred was his first since December 2007, a barren spell spanning 27 innings, and he spent a nervous period on 99 before halting his tendency to get out after passing 50.

“It has clearly been a bit of a monkey on his back and I found when, in going a year without a hundred, I did get one it was a huge relief,” said Strauss.

“There is no reason why he shouldn’t get two or three pretty quickly now.”

England’s batsmen were helped by the fact that Jerome Taylor, the architect behind the second-innings collapse at Sabina Park, was restricted to just four overs today due to an ankle injury.

However, West Indies insist he was not risked as a precautionary measure, and Taylor takes his place in an unchanged 13-man squad for the match at Queen’s Park, starting on Friday.